Want to produce better thought leadership?
Be a social media lurker
Creating effective thought leadership content starts with observing what’s on the minds
of your clients and referral sources so you can create content that resonates with them.
Few things in life are as frustrating as talking to people who have no interest in what you have to say.
Whether it’s a colleague or opposing counsel—or, let’s be honest, your spouse or your child—when your audience doesn’t care what you have to say, you’re better off not saying anything.
With your marketing and business development efforts, if your audience doesn’t care about what you’re saying when you publish articles, social media posts, videos, and other forms of thought leadership, you’ve wasted precious time (and likely money) producing content that falls on deaf ears.
To avoid such an unpleasant outcome, consider doing the one thing that can prevent your audience from tuning you out by elevating the quality of your thought leadership: Become a social media lurker.
That is, become someone who studies what your past, current, and prospective clients and referral sources are talking about on social media.
Lurking on social media could be the key to creating thought leadership content today and tomorrow that your clients and referral sources actually want to consume.
Why you should lurk on social media
Your clients and referral sources are on social media posting, sharing, and commenting on items of interest to them.
But if you look deeper at the substance of those posts, shares, and comments, you’ll see they concern topics that fall into categories, such as:
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Challenges they and their organizations are facing.
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Opportunities they and their organizations could take advantage of.
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Trends they see in their industry.
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Trends they see in the world.
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News articles that cover issues of importance to them.
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Other people’s posts they agree or disagree with.
And so on.
Your clients’ and referral sources’ social media posts are windows into what’s on their minds. If you know the topics and issues they care about and respond to, you can create thought leadership content that speaks directly to those topics and issues.
In addition, the media outlets your clients and referral sources read/watch/listen to and the professional associations and trade groups they’re involved in are also likely publishing content on social media regarding topics and issues of interest to them.
How to (strategically) lurk on social media
Lurking in this context means following your clients and referral sources on social media, along with:
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Their companies/organizations;
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Media outlets they read/watch/listen to, or are likely to read/watch/listen to, such as those that cover their industries;
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Individual “influencers” in their industries; and
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The professional associations and trade groups they’re involved in, as well as those that serve their industry but which they’re not involved in.
Given the state of social media platforms as of the time I’m writing this, you should primarily lean on LinkedIn for your social media lurking. Most of your clients, referral sources, their companies/organizations, their preferred media outlets, and any relevant professional associations and trade groups will primarily post on LinkedIn. But, if any have a notable presence on other social media platforms you’d be wise to follow them on those platforms too.
In addition, you can join particular groups on LinkedIn and other social media platforms you would expect would help you glean what’s important to your clients and referral sources. You can also set up alerts for hashtags or keywords that are relevant to your clients’ industries or your legal practice, or are the kinds of hashtags and keywords you’d want to be alerted to if your clients or referral sources mentioned them in their posts.
Once you’ve begun following particular people and organizations as part of your lurking efforts, the point isn’t to scroll mindlessly through your social media feed. After all, you’re strategically lurking. Your goal is to get a feel for what’s on the minds of the people and organizations you’re following.
Are you seeing trends your clients, referral sources, and others are spotting?
Concerns they’re raising?
Unexpected challenges they’re facing?
Buzz about certain topics that’s coming from multiple sources?
Opinions about world events?
In short, are you finding inspiration for future thought leadership content?
The path from lurking to content creation
As you lurk and see what your clients and referral sources are talking about, and what the media outlets, influencers, and organizations they follow are discussing, you can take what you’ve learned about what’s on their (and others’) minds and create relevant, valuable, and compelling content about it.
The topics and issues they’re posting, sharing, and commenting on become the inspiration for your thought leadership content. More specifically, the trends they’ve observed, their concerns, their unexpected challenges, the buzz you’ve seen, and opinions about world events become the jumping-off point for that content.
A trend that several prospective clients have discussed frequently might inspire you to write a blog post.
A concern you’ve seen multiple people raise could lead you to write a client alert.
A referral source’s unexpected challenge may inspire you to write a deep-dive LinkedIn post.
A popular opinion about the legal or business ramifications of a world event could prompt you to record a YouTube video challenging that opinion in a way that resonates well with your ideal clients.
The goal is for you to offer knowledge, wisdom, insights, and analysis regarding topics that are relevant to your clients and referral sources that position you as the go-to attorney regarding the work you do.
The more relevant your thought leadership content is to your clients and referral sources, the more likely they’ll be to consume it. If they consume it, the more likely they’ll be to see you as someone they or their client should turn to for help with the kinds of legal or business issues you help clients with.
Embrace social media lurking as part of your marketing and business development efforts
If you want to stay in shape, you’ll need to make physical activity part of your daily or weekly routine.
So it goes with social media lurking. If you want to increase the chances of consistently publishing thought leadership content that resonates with clients, referral sources, and other target audiences, you’ll need to integrate your social media lurking into your daily or weekly routine.
By regularly lurking, you can ensure you’re producing thought leadership content that’s relevant, valuable, and compelling. As your clients’ and referral sources’ interests and focus change, what you discuss in your thought leadership content should change too. Social media lurking will help you keep tabs on those interests and that focus so you can adjust your thought leadership accordingly.
With your thought leadership efforts—and your marketing and business development efforts generally—if your audiences aren’t consuming what you’re publishing, you’re not positioning yourself to them as a credible authority and someone they should turn to when they need the help you provide clients.
When this happens, you’ve wasted time and resources spitting in the wind. By regularly lurking on social media, you’ll know which way the wind is blowing, so you can help prevent your thought leadership from going unnoticed.
Wayne Pollock, a former Am Law 50 senior litigation associate, is the founder of Copo Strategies, a legal services and communications firm, and the Law Firm Editorial Service, a thought leadership ghostwriting service for Big Law and boutique law firm partners, and executives at organizations that serve the legal industry. He can be reached at waynepollock@copostrategies.com.
Reprinted with permission from the March 10, 2025 edition of The Legal Intelligencer/Pennsylvania Law Weekly © 2025 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-257-3382 or reprints@alm.com.