New version of Blogger not enough for law firms
The new version of Google's Blogger came out of beta today.
There's only upside for Blogger as Google integrates Blogger into your Google account and begins working more on the product. But a quick walk through this evening tells me it would be a little scary for law firms to use as a professional marketing and networking tool.
It may sound cool, but I do not think a lawyer or legal marketing professional will find comfort in Google's explanation of the difference between the old Blogger and the new Blogger.
Battlestar Galactica with Lorne Greene : Battlestar Galactica with Edward James Olmos :: Old Blogger : New Blogger
Don't get me wrong. I am all for free web based tools. And an advertising based business model for web based tools makes a lot of sense. I think one can make excellent use of Google's services such as Gmail, docs and spreadsheets, and calendar. I use them.
It's just that law firms new to blogs need to assume a level of professionalism that Blogger can not provide them. First on the design side. And second, on the strategy, training, and support needed to provide a law firm with the comfort level they need when embarking on something new.
Blogger is free so you can't beat the price. But like other things, law firms will need to pay for the professionalism they require.
Why scary? I've been using Blogger for my "firm news" blog on my main page for some time. Just the same, I do use WordPress.org for my main blog, primarily for the tagging features.
How can you say from the design standpoint it's not malleable enough for a law firm to utilize as a tool? It's "design" allows for compelte customization from the layout and appeal point of view and there are thousands of user-generates scripts and improvements being developed each day.
Support: When compared to Microsoft Spaces or Microsoft Office Live, the amount of user support is astronolically different. Blogger's support groups are thousands of members strong and they dont' even have to pay the people who are helping to improve their product. Hundreds and thousands of us work in the forums daily to make the experience better for others by offering design assistance, fixing code issues, etc.
This also bears relevance to the "training and support" issue you mentioned, which is non-existent in the other major server based platforms, such as Spaces, and Office Live.
Blogger's sheer market-share will assure that companies and individuals constantly work to make new and exciting products and "widgets" to work with their interface.
I agree that they have work to do still, and personally I don't think they're ready to be out of beta, but their ability to be used as a tool for law firms is there, just as it is for any other business.
Just my two cents.
The strategy, training and support absolutely cannot be overlooked. There is a lot of trial and error starting the blogging process on your own. In my opinion, having a strategic advisor is critically important. For most law firms or other business blogs the support groups on Blogger are just not enough.
Rush
I just started a blog, and have found that, as an instrument for disseminating information, it is the greatest. In just 2 short months I already have many pieces of my stuff picked up and put onto the bookmarking sites. And, I'm standing high on the search engine pages. (Still waiting for comments to start, though.)
Trouble with too many legal blogs is they are technicality-thick, and substance-short. Too much worry about insignificant detals. If they would all just lower their guns and fire away, I think they would find a good level of satisfaction with the Google concept.