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

December 20, 2009

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.