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Social media dictates having your law blog outside your law firm website

Last January I shared 10 reasons why a law blog does not belong inside a law firm website. Number ten was social media success.

Your target audience is referred to news and information from ‘trusted friends’ via social media. And they’re less likely to be referred to content buried inside a website.

Now social media is becoming more important in generating traffic to your content. The New York Times’ David Carr in his Monday story on the current state of media explains:

…[N]ew generations of consumers are now guided to important news by the recommendations of trusted friends, and increasingly, they point to great reporting in sources that didn’t exist just a few years ago.

Those new sources being pointed to are blogs. ‘Trusted friends’ are consumers and business professionals who share news and information via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and their own blogs.

Content published as part of a law firm website, whether in a blog or otherwise, is less likely to be shared.

One, because people are not routinely following law firm websites for content. Two, people tend not to point others toward marketing and advertising material. You just don’t share advertising material with people who trust you to share valuable information via social media, including blogs. Your website, a good source of information on the firm and its lawyers, is an advertisement.

If you want your content shared by others so your target audience is more apt to see it, getting your content on a blog outside your law firm website is now more important than ever.

  • http://www.paperstreet.com Peter Boyd

    Good follow-up post from last year.
    Don’t law firm blogs under their own web site lack the following and that is why they are not referenced?
    - quality content
    - unique theme / organization
    - interesting ideas
    Aren’t they too often presented with an advertising tone? Basically from the outset the blog is viewed and written as advertising, rather than a source of information to be shared.
    If a blog had those issues fixed with quality ideas that are presented in a informational format, then wouldn’t trendsetters / friends would have no issue in spreading the word whether it would be under it’s own domain, subdomain or sub-directory.
    For instance here are examples of blogs under the own domain (whether subdirectory, root directory or subdomain).
    http://kevin.lexblog.com
    http://www.legaline.com/lawsites.html
    http://www.seomoz.org/blog
    The key to all of these seems to be the interesting content, organization of the theme, and informational tone.

  • http://lifeatthebar.com/ Julie A. Fleming

    Today’s consumer is extremely wary of marketing and are unlikely to trust anything that they perceive as a possible advertisement. But at the same time, I think that you need to keep a connection between the blog and the company site, even if it’s just through visible links. Otherwise people will follow your blog with interest and regularly read what you have to say, but you won’t be the one who comes to mind when they or someone they know needs your services because they’ll think of you as a writer, not as a professional in the field.