Effective law firm blogging requires more than publishing legal information

John Cass turned me onto a good piece on effective corporate blogging by Jeff Nolan. The same principals apply equally to law firm blogging.

Jeff explains that the thought leaders are the best bloggers for a company. ‘…[T]hey are ambitious and engaged in day-to-day activities, which means that they have a lot to say that is interesting.’

In the case of law firms, thought leaders are the lawyers, as opposed to marketing or PR personnel.

Jeff goes on to explain the real key to corporate, or for you, law firm blogging.

The other half of the coin for blogging is what companies should do to promote third party blogs that center on a specific company or industry segment. Blogger outreach is not easy because it requires that a company let go of the notion of message control and focus on relationship building. Responding to comments in a non-marketing speak manner is key.

Generally, law firms have no problem focusing on an industry segment, as opposed to the firm. The focus is your niche area of law.

However, it’s a rare law firm that understands that effective blogging requires outreach to other bloggers, via commenting on other blogs and referencing the content of other blogs on your own law firm blog. Most law firm blogs just summarize legal information that as one reporter I talked to last week labeled newsletters or alerts delivered on blog software.

Letting go of the message control, not by allowing unmoderated comments, but by taking part in the Internet discussion on your niche is an art to be acquired for effective law firm blogging.