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

'Good advice never ages,' says Steve Rubel, commenting in his link to a blog post at Hoover's Insight Blog titled 'Dale Carnegie and the Social Media.'

Dale Carnegie's seminal business book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' came out in 1936. But you'd be hard pressed to find better methods for getting people to follow your blog and Twitter feeds than Carnegies' 'Six Ways to Make People Like You.'

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a [person]'s Name is to [them] the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other [person]'s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

How do those same guidelines apply to increasing your blog readership and Twitter followers?

1. The Internet is about helping others, not yourself. As Zig Ziglar says as to life, 'You can have everything you want on the Internet so long as you help enough other people get everything they want.' You've got to constantly remind yourself to remain genuinely interested in the people you're trying to help.
2. Write in kindness. Agree to disagree without being disagreeable. (I've broken this rule on occasion)
3. Liberally refer to people by their name, company, blog, and Twitter name, linking to each religiously.
4. Listen first and always. That demonstrates you're truly interested in what your target audience has to say. No one would welcome a lawyer shouting out legal alerts or marketing info at a Rotary meeting without listening first and then engaging in the conversation.
5. Blogging and Twittering is all about the other guy, not you. Talk about other's problems, not yourself. Provide helpful answers, insight, and resources to help others solve their problems.
6. Tell the world about other's successes and tell your followers to follow others you've found to offer valuable insight. Not only are you offering value to others, something they'll keep coming back for more of, but you're making others feel good about themselves. They'll remember you and, when appropriate, tell their followers to follow you.

73 years old, but still rock solid advice for how to win friends and influence people.

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