Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Advice On Law Blogs and Social Media

The New York Times' Christian Hansen has a story in Sunday's edition on the publishing industries use of blog tours for the promotion of books.

...[A] blog book tour usually requires an author or publicist to take the initiative, reaching out to bloggers as if they were booksellers and asking them to be the host for a writer's online visit. Sometimes bloggers invite authors on their own. In an age of budget-conscious publishers and readers who are as likely to discover books from a Google search as from browsing at a bookstore, the blog book tour makes sense.

Hansen tells the story of Amy Cohen, author of 'The Late Bloomer's Revolution,' who imagined a tour of bookstores in Sydney, Paris and New York. However, the former 'television writer for 'Spin City' and 'Caroline in the City,' was surprised to learn that most of her 'appearances' would be on blogs.'

Cohen made virtual stops at blogs related to the experiences she chronicles in her book -- looking for love, learning to cook. At Books and Beliefs, she answered questions about how Jewish groups can create more opportunities for Jewish singles (throw parties); on Baking and Books, she was asked about her favorite comfort food (fried chicken).

Cohen credits her book's move on to a best seller list with a write-up in People Magazine and the blog tour.

And Cohen's publisher is not alone. Felicia Sullivan, the senior online marketing manager of Collins, told Hansen, 'If I had to choose, I'd rather have an author promote themselves online. You can reach at least a few hundred people on a blog, and save time, money and the fear of being a loser when no one shows up to your reading.'

Lawyers can do the same. Make a list of blogs reaching your target audience. Get to know the bloggers by susbcribing to their feeds and commenting on a few of their posts. If relevant, work one of their posts into a post of yours. Then approach the bloggers about being a guest on their blog.

It makes all the sense in the world if what you offer is of value to their audience. If you do family law work and there's a blog focusing on victims of sposual abuse, they may love to have someone post a few guest posts and take questions/comments from readers. The blog publisher could do a five question and answer email exchange with you and post it the blog. Again readers can comment and question.

If there's a financial consultants blog and you do estate planning work, why not the same? Could work with one of the blogs at your local newspaper or regional business journal. These newspapers and journals have had regular columns from lawyers. Why not guests on blogs now that more people are reading their blogs than other online sections of their publications?

Be creattive. You have nothing to lose by asking. And the world to gain. Gerry Spence told me that judges were so bored listening to trials that would allow me to do the things Spence suggested, which I thought were crazy, just because they were entertaining. Same applies here.

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