Remember the good old days when we just did a bunch of things and didn’t have specialized terms for them? Yep, these aren’t them.

“Social media marketing” came about when social media platforms were introduced and we learned how to use online technology to build relationships that we’d previously been building offline (that’s tremendously simplified, but you get the idea). Then “content marketing” came along to describe what many law firms had been doing for years – writing about the law and its impact on their clients, and then sharing it with them. As a term, content marketing is broader than that, but in terms of the legal industry, that’s pretty much the short version.

As we worked through the introduction of the terms, we separated people into two camps: the “broadcasters” and the “engagers.” The “broadcasters” treated social media and content marketing as a means to spread their message around, but without the end goal of developing community with anyone. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different valuation – some of the goals that firms/lawyers who embrace this philosophy might be pursuing are reputation enhancement, being considered a thought leader on a particular subject, etc. Many firms/lawyers have been successful, and even built a large following this way, and spend little or no time engaging with their audience.

“Engagers” are those who are more interested in developing relationships with their audience, and as such, use social media to hold conversations with peers, colleagues, potential clients, influencers and amplifiers, and even use their content in a similar fashion. Their end goals are to build community, develop business, and engage in other relationships that will ultimately strengthen their knowledge and practice.

This latter type of marketing is now being referred to as “relationship marketing” – aren’t you happy you now know what to call it?

Regardless of the further segmentation of marketing types and more terms for us to remember to use, there are two ways you can use content specifically to build relationships. Earlier today, I was reading an article, “It’s not all about content, try relationship marketing,” and the author, Karen Repoli, makes some excellent points. Although she primarily references entrepreneurs in her post, the lessons are applicable for all of us, particularly lawyers, for whom relationship marketing is the best use of your marketing time (essentially, it’s what you’ve always done, building your practice by word of mouth, just using social media and content to amplify your in-person efforts).

Read more: http://www.zenlegalnetworking.com/2016/03/two-ways-to-translate-content-marketing-into-relationship-marketing/