Comments on Hyperlocal law blogs offer lawyers big advantages | Real Lawyers Have Blogs

westseattleblog@yahoo.com (Tracy at WSB) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:26:04 -0800

Hi - we're honored you mentioned us. It's an interesting topic.

For anyone who hadn't heard of us, I do want to clarify, we are a news site, NOT a "blog." The one thing that people don't bring up often enough is that "blog" is really only a publishing format. The word unfortunately has been devalued and trashed and tends to signify "amateur" in the mind of people who are not familiar with the site in question.

We only have "blog" in our name because we started this as a sideline site two years ago, with NO idea it would become the first local 24/7 community news service, and have become so well-known locally by the name that changing it is not particularly feasible at the moment. But it is a professional, commercial, journalist-run, community-collaborative news service.

We call it a service, not a website, because web is just one of our content channels - we spend a lot of time also interacting on Facebook and Twitter and via e-mail (as well as by phone! with a 24/7 line), not just to send out our links, which would be pretty rude if we didn't do anything else, but also to converse about the community, answer questions, get story tips, etc.

Would love to see a West Seattle law "blog" - we have a Blogs page that takes RSS feeds from 100 blog-format sites around West Seattle and would certainly feature it there, so if someone starts one, let us know -- once you've been doing it for a few weeks and have some content built up! Good luck to all -- Tracy at WSB

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin OKeefe) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:43:27 -0800

Thanks for the comment Tracy and keep up the great work at WSB.

I'd love to see a West Seattle Law Blog too. One big advantage for the lawyer doing such a blog would be commenting on the news you are sharing and probably serving as a source of legal news you'd share on your blog.

kscoptur@axley.com (Kate Scoptur) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:47:12 -0800

Great topic, Kevin! I run into this issue all the time with both online and offline marketing. The lawyers at my law firm seem fixated on getting the broadest appeal or most views with our advertising and communications. They view that as the biggest bang for our money. I think that without an interactive element to our marketing though, that broadest appeal does nothing.

info@clarkstonlegal.com (Timothy P. Flynn) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:48:48 -0800

Kevin:
As usual, your thoughtful posts accurately describe what's going on out there in towns, villages, cities, even states, across the country. Marketing and delivery of legal services is currently in an absolute revolution. I believe that's true both in BigLaw, and for the smaller general practitioners.

My firm's site is attempting to "brand" our name and services, as well as capitalize on the "hyper-local" business model you describe. I'd be very interested in what you think of our on-line presence.

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin OKeefe) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:38:32 -0800

Thanks for the comment Kate. Lawyers are funny that way, wanting to get the broadest audience possible without giving any thought to where their bread is buttered. Law is generally local or regional, you reprsent clients in your neck of the woods. Focus on those people and demonstrate you care and are uniquely qualified help in a way that lawyers outside your area cannot can be a key to real success.

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin OKeefe) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:46:04 -0800

Clarkston Legal is a good idea Tim. But the first that strikes me when looking at your website and blogs is that the sites have not been optimized to be found by the locals. You need to use title tags that properly index your content at Google. Unfortunately that's something most law firms don't understand. If you'd like to find out what I mean and how to correct the title tags, give me a call.

liaise.nmg@gmail.com (Family Law Lawyers) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:23:56 -0800

Interesting blog,search engines and blogs are giving good profit to the lawyers.