Header graphic for print
Real Lawyers Have Blogs On the topic of the law, firm marketing, social media, & baseball

Lawyer blogs are a conversation : Not shouting through a bullhorn

Mark Beese, the self described marketing guy at Holland & Hart and publisher of Leadership for Lawyers, understands the power of law blogs. The vast majority of lawyers, including those publishing blogs, do not.

As Mark posts, blogs are a conversation about ideas. Like most people, Mark did not understand blogs as a conversation at first. He says he was surprised, and very pleased, to discover the concept first explained to him by Rick Klau.

Most law firms, and for that matter those folks developing their blogs, see a blogs as a website that's easy to update, that performs well on search engines, and a cost effective content distribution tool. That's not a bad start.

But using blogs as such is like walking into a room of people conversing and reading your blog content through a bullhorn. It's just not a good way to be well received and have your insight spread by others in the conversation.

Blogs are like conversations in the real world. You first have to listen to what is being said on other blogs on topics relevant to your own. You do this by subscribing via RSS to other blogs and key words/phrases from mass aggregators such as Technorati and NewsGator.

When you have some idea of what is being said, then enter the conversation with a post on your own blog or a comment on another's. When entering the conversation, be responsive to what is being said. Don't just shout out some content you think the world needs to hear.

Do this and you'll find others in the conversation sharing what you had to say with others in the room. In this case that room happens to be the Internet. And better yet, the room only includes your target audience and those who influence your target audience.

Those lawyers understanding blogs are a conversation market very effectively through the blogosphere. It's networking at it's finest.

As to Holland Hart's Health Care Law Blog, it's an incredible resource chockfull of information. But, the blog could go to the next level by having some posts commenting or referring to other's writing on health care issues. By doing so, Holland and Hart would find more people writing about their blog content, an increase in blog traffic and greater recognition of their leadership on health care issues in the Rocky Mountain Region.

  • http://www.deathandtaxesblog.com Joel S.

    “Lawyer blogs are a conversation” sounds great, but I can't begin to imagine what it really means. That I should read or comment on other legal blogs before I can express my own opinions? That I shouldn't post original content, but instead should just regurgitate and reiterate what other legal bloggers are saying?
    I can get behind the first two sentences of Mr. Beese's post: “I've tried not to blog about bloggers. I would rather stick to information and opinions that might benefit folks.” I read and enjoy a number of blogs in my area of practice, but I suffer no delusion that I am the main intended audience. My primary purpose in blogging certainly isn't to provide information to other attorneys or to be a part of some type of community — it's to get clients. I imagine that most other legal bloggers feel the same way, regardless of whether they will admit it in print. And frankly, I'm suspicious of legal bloggers who DON'T feel that way (just as I'm suspicious of most lawyers who try to market their practice by giving speeches to other lawyers — are they afraid of the general public?).
    The process is (or should be) three easy steps:
    1. Potential Client has a legal problem and looks on the internet for information.
    2. Potential Client sees my blog and is (hopefully) impressed by what it says about me and my legal acumen.
    3. Potential Client hires me to represent him, thereby becoming Actual Client.
    It's fairly simple, isn't it? Yet there's a tendency to get bogged down in legal marketing hype. That leads to statements like this one:
    “Don't just shout out some content you think the world needs to hear.”
    Why not? If I choose to shout about statutory custodial claims in Illinois probate — a topic that probably isn't of interest to any other blogger, legal or otherwise — I will not be creating a nuisance. My post is only going to be reached by people interested in that specific topic. And some of those people are going to become my clients.
    The legal world doesn't need another cookie-cutter legal blog featuring rehashes of what other people are writing about — it needs talented attorneys to take the lead in providing legal information, ESPECIALLY legal information that hasn't been discussed elsewhere. That's a win-win — the attorney gets clients, and the general public gets good legal information.
    If blogging is revolutionary, it's because it allows people to communicate directly with each other, rather than through intermediaries. Why overthrow one set of intermediaries (Dan Rather and other mainstream media dinosaurs) only to install another set (insert your favorite Famous Legal Blogger here)?
    Being a successful legal blogger doesn't depend on whether other legal bloggers like or read or write about your blog — it depends on whether your blog is bringing you real live clients who pay you real live money. And, while I admit that almost any publicity is good publicity, it is interesting that Mr. Beese's post makes no mention of his buzz translating into clients. And isn't that the goal?

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin

    Thanks for feedback Joel.
    I was blogging for almost 18 months hearing all this junk about a conversation and not having a clue what it meant. I thought it was a lot of BS.
    But by reading blogs by the leading PR, communications, marketing, and corporate bloggers I started to learn what they meant by this conversation. I started to do some of things they suggested. The result was an enhanced reputation and more business.
    I can now tell you from personal experience and that of clients that getting to be known around the Internet via this 'conversation' results in greater name awareness and more work.
    I agree that sharing helpful content for your target audience is a great way of marketing. Lawyers should be lauded for doing so. And it works to draw clients. But that alone could be done on a website.
    Results are not going to happen overnight when marketing via the blogosphere. Just like networking in the real world it takes some time. You need to practice what you can not first see and know. This conversation through blogs is not an easy concept to understand, ie, you concede you do not know what it means.
    But don't dismiss something that is foreign to you. Pick up RSS feeds from blogs like Dave Winer's, Robert Scoble's and Steve Rubel's to learn more and see the conversation at work. Pick up Scoble's and Israel's Naked Conversations. It's a must read book for those looking to truly understand marketing through the blogosphere.

  • http://www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com Mark Beese

    Kevin -
    Thanks for picking up the post. When I get together with other legal bloggers, it is the conversation quality that we have enjoyed the most. For example, just over the past few weeks, I've met (virtually) a Ph.D. candidate in Australia who is writing her thesis on leadership in law firms, a consultant in the UK who has written a brilliant white paper on the topic, a J.D. student in NYC who is considering legal marketing as a career, a reporter from the Denver Post who was curious about blawgs, and a managing partner of an accounting firm who wants to learn more about leadership training. And, via the blog, you and I met months ago.
    Business development is not the only goal, as Joel S. suggests. In fact, creating and furthering the conversation about leadership in law firms is my primary (only?) goal.
    Rock on.
    Mark Beese
    http://www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com

  • http://www.deathandtaxesblog.com Joel S.

    Kevin-
    I understand what you're saying, but your personal experience is going to be radically different from mine (as well as from most legal bloggers). I am an Illinois attorney, looking for Illinois probate and estate planning clients. My competition is well-established — other Illinois estate planning and probate attorneys. On the other hand, you help lawyers all over the US set up blogs, and face much less well-established competition, so it really pays for you to “start a conversation,” develop relationships on the internet, and be seen as a national expert at what you do.
    My difficulty with your post was this: it seemed to imply that the right way to blog is by participating in a “conversation” with other bloggers, and that not doing so is wrong (i.e. the equivalent of shouting through a bullhorn). I've found the opposite to be true — most of the business I get from my blog and website is due to the fact that I have provided a potential client with high-quality information that they couldn't find anywhere else. And, while my blog has been mentioned in the print media and on other legal blogs a fair amount, these mentions haven't yet translated into any clients.