Welcome to what I hope is the first is a series of WTFs! In other words, I’m explaining what the f*ck these tools are and why you’d use them. And trying to do so concisely.
I’m starting with JD Supra, one of my favorite content tools; and no, they’re not paying me for this ?. I’m just a girl who’s gotten a lot of value from the tool over the years. Though it might mean I miss some of JD Supra’s services – I’m only writing things I know to be true in my experience. Imagine you asked me what it was; here’s how I’d answer that.
Enough disclaimers, let’s get to it!
JD Supra in One(ish) Sentence
For a minimal subscription fee, your topical content is distributed to a curated audience of potential referral sources, clients, and journalists; in return, you get access to data that can help your attorneys develop business.
What Does JD Supra Do?
JD Supra monitors your content feeds – from articles and blogs to podcasts and videos – and distributes each piece to its ideal audience. This happens without you having to do ANYTHING. Your JD Supra team reviews the content and tags it with relevant categories, and based on those categories, it’s distributed to where it’ll be most impactful. (This is really what sets JD Supra apart – there’s an extension of your firm optimizing content for you!) This increases you/your firm’s awareness – essentially garnering more views; publications will sometimes pick up your content and republish it, extending your reach.
From your account dashboard, you can access content statistics, from number of views to name, job title, and company name of a potential client (and a whole lot more, but we’re keeping it simple today). Information you or your attorneys can use to narrow targets and pitch relevant work.
There’s also a *FREE* feature: topical newsletters! No paywalls here: you have access to their content catalog. There are two types of emails: you let JD Supra pick the topics/articles in a Daily Digest or you DIY it and subscribe to your favorite topics, authors, and firms.
Who’s JD Supra For?
Law firms, law firm service providers, legal marketers, and lawyers (aka Legal Core 4 ?). You can get away with the free version if you don’t write any content. For those who write, you’ll definitely want a paid subscription.
(It’s also for in-house counsel, journalists, other professional services folks…really, anyone who writes about complicated/regulated industries, but they are not my target audience, the LCore 4 ?)
Why Use JD Supra?
Some of these are mentioned in the What section above, but here’s why you should use JD Supra:
- It’s low risk, low cost, and valuable for small to large firms.
- It basically runs without you having to do anything, and you’ll still get value from it.
- Experts are optimizing your content even though it seems automated. ? This means you’re getting a completely custom content path that’s effective.
- Your content reaches a significantly extended audience filled with potential readers who could become clients.
- Rich statistics can tell you your content’s popularity, what industries read it most, and even who reads it.
- There are access levels and tools available to attorneys, specifically, from auto-publishing content to their social accounts to their content analytics.
- Your account rep will email you if your content is published on another site or in an external publication, which means you don’t have to monitor that information in the backend.
- The JD Supra team sends out a lot of handy content that levels up your content game.
- Their customer service is ?. They’re truly masters of their craft, providing excellent advice and personalized service.
Involvement
Let’s be practical: a tool is good when used, but there can be learning curves and time constraints. What is really involved?
Bare Minimum
Like the subheader says, at the very least, you should:
- Remove a lawyer when they change jobs (via email or backend).
- Edit your JD Supra firm profile as your logo or contact information changes.
- Check the rest of your profile every once in a while to make sure the information is still accurate, specifically the practice areas.
Leveling Up
You’ve got articles in the system, and you’re wondering what else you can do with it.
- Subscribe to topics in which your firm is publishing to see what other firms are writing about, and pass along ideas to attorneys.
- Keep track of media mentions that were a direct result of JD Supra, as well as direct messages from readers. This can help you tie value to JD Supra.
- Take note of post popularity – some stick around for a while. Try to discover why they’re sticking around.
- Check keywords and take note of how readers are finding your content. Use them more regularly if they make sense.
- Share JD Supra links on your social sites to capture the reader’s information (vs having to decipher Google Analytics).
- Get comfortable “reading” your stats – the more you look, the more you’ll find patterns.
You’re an Expert Now
Once you’re comfortable with the tool and its use, it’s time to put all that knowledge to work.
- Create internal presentations for what JD Supra is and how it’s useful to your attorneys/people.
- Create a schedule for regularly checking JD Supra statistics (actually, here’s an automated hack on how to do that).
- For ongoing content campaigns, memorialize statistical benchmarks that can help refine future campaigns. Said in a simpler way: track the number of reads per article and compare at intervals.
- Compare JD Supra statistics against Google Analytics, social platforms, and other data.
- If you’re working with others and know their targeted industries and companies, check reader statistics and pass along actual readers to your business developers.
- Assess the potential of your journalist readers, maybe it’s worth connecting outside the platform.
- Use JD Supra links in paid advertising campaigns (again, hoping to get more intelligence).
