Top 10 blog mistakes by law firms and law firm marketing professionals
By Rob La Gatta
October 2, 2008
A chief marketing officer for a large law firm back East asked me today for a quick top 10 mistakes law firms make when it comes to law blogs.
As with writing a letter, I didn’t have time to write a short one so I wrote a long list.
- Launch blog without longstanding first hand experience blogging or support from someone who does
- Unlike websites, your audience will find your blog right away
- Mark Twain: ‘Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.’
- Can easily embarrass firm without knowing it
- Largest law firms in country have done so on repeated basis
- Multiple ways to do so
- Blogs allow one to enter into a conversation with thought leaders
- Blogs are a networking tool
- Blogs are not just an easy to use web publishing platform
- Blog software is supported by eclectic fragmented development community
- Software regularly needs enhancements/plug-ins developed by people familiar with blog software
- Sophisticated audience consumes content:
- 75% of reporters use blogs and RSS to locate experts and get insight on stories
- Executives and in-house counsel
- Categories
- Promotional copy
- Much different than traditional PR and marketing
- Traditional marketing & PR may negatively impact blog’s perception
- Entering into conversation is key
- Use of social media, including LinkedIn, and online news sites is key
- How content is being consumed by your target audience
- How you use RSS feeds to identify existing thought leaders and leading discussion topics
- Law firms traditionally do poor job on SEO
- No reason to publish if cannot be found
So when going it alone on a law blog where your butt and the reputation of your law firm is on the line ask yourself one question. ‘Do you feel lucky?’