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

Web marketing and communications consultant, Amy Campbell, has a nice post this morning on the benefits of blogging for lawyers.

Amy, who specializes in working with law firms and who I have learned a great deal from over the years, highlights four benefits.

• Reputation enhancement. Blogs are a very effective way for professionals to raise their visibility and position themselves as accessible, helpful experts on a specific topic or niche practice. By writing about and commenting on and linking to other useful information in an area of expertise, a lawyer can help to demonstrate his/her knowledge around that subject and maybe even become a 'thought leader.'
• Syndication of content. Blogs have an advantage over typical web sites in that blogs have a built-in syndication feed. Each time you publish a blog post, a news feed is sent out automatically that alerts the search engines, news aggregator sites, and newsreaders used by reporters, fellow bloggers, and innovative professionals. Blogs also often allow for readers to subscribe to updates by email. (A traditional web site waits for the search engines to come to it.)
• Search engine performance. With frequent posts your blog becomes attractive to search engines -- not necessarily for its frequency, but for the collection of relevant information you've amassed around related keywords.
• Viral marketing. Blogs become extremely effective when they provide 'information of value' in the form of original material and commentary. If you can write something extremely relevant and informative, you will gain the benefit of viral marketing -- where other web sites and bloggers will comment on and link to your blog post, as well as share it on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and the like.

Amy's a professional too. She knows that a lot of lawyers and legal marketing professionals use law blogs merely as a tool to gain favorable treatment on he search engines.

...[T]his is also what leads to a lot of the junk blogs out there. For instance, a lot of personal injury attorneys are notoriously bad bloggers that methodically regurgitate verdict and settlement reports from news sources in order to create a blog post that uses lots of keywords around, say, motorcycle accidents, or cerebral palsy. Then, as a last paragraph, they add on a statement about if you need a motorcycle accident attorney, contact us. That type of blogging is not flattering for the profession and some of it borders on plagiarism.

Good stuff Amy. if you've not done so already, add Amy's blog to your RSS feeds. And check out her Legal Marketing Reader, which tracks 27 top law firm marketing blogs. My blog must be 28. ;)

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Good read in this morning's New York Times by Alex Williams explaining that a law degree from a top law school is no longer a ticket to riches in large law.

Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, an associate in 2006 at Pillsbury in San Francisco was willing to work mammoth hours "for the prospect of Caribbean vacations, a convertible and a big loft apartment."

Those days are over. As the profession lurches through its worst slump in decades, with jobs and bonuses cut and internal pressures to perform rising, associates do not just feel as if they are diving into the deep end, but rather, drowning.

Lawyers who entered the field as recently as a few years ago could reasonably expect a life of comfort, security and social esteem. Many are now faced with a different landscape. Firms shed more than 4,600 lawyers last year..., and an increasing number of firms now compensate associates based on grades for performance -- shades of law school -- rather than automatically advancing them on the salary scale.

Knowing she'd have to work a million times harder just not to be laid off, Musiitwa left Pillsbury after a year to start her own firm.

It gets wilder.

One 2008 graduate of a top-10 law school, who worked at a large Chicago firm for a year, said she spent days trying to look busy as business dried up while not billing a single hour, before being laid off last fall along with a quarter of the other first-year hires.

"We used to gather in someone's office, close the door, and say, 'I hate my life, why are we doing this?' " she said.

Williams says the main reason for the associate 'squeeze out' is the recession with fewer deals in financial services, real estate, and high tech. In reality it's highly unlikely that law grads and associates are headed backs to the days of Camelot, even with an economic recovery.

Corporations are learning to operate with less. They're demanding reduced and flat fee billing. And with lawyers leaving large law and opening shops with far fewer trappings than at large law firms, those corporations are going to find lawyers ready and willing.

Rather than fine tuning your resume and knocking on doors, only to be rejected, it's time for graduating lawyers and young associates to develop their own brand. Developing a brand that makes you more valuable to a law firm than other associates or developing a brand that allows you to be successful outside large law.

Law firm marketing and business development people in law firms, as good as they may be, are not thinking about developing your career as a young lawyer and making you more valuable to the firm. They are thinking about developing the firm's brand and expertise - and maybe promoting the skill and expertise of one of the firm's heavy rainmakers.

Many placement people in law schools have never had to get out and get a law job like you. They've certainly never faced an economic decline and law firm re-structuring like we have today. I wouldn't be placing my future in their hands.

It's up to you to develop your brand. A brand in the professional service business is not a logo, a font on letterhead, a fancy website, or a tag line. A lawyer's brand is their expertise, usually in a niche area of the law.

Fortunately, there's never been a better time to develop your brand. One, Social media, including blogging, has been the great equalizer for lawyers. You don't need the budget of large law firm PR and marketing to develop a brand. Two, your competition is lazy and a child of the 'expecting generation.'

Sound and strategic blogging allows you to develop a name and network with leading authorities in a niche. A focused and professional use of Twitter allows you to become an intelligence agent in an area of the law or for a particular industry. Your tweets culled from highlights in your newsreader will get you followers from your target audience and be re-tweeted to even more. LinkedIn allows you to connect with the people you meet, that you'd like to meet, and network among groups of companies and professionals you would like to be hired by.

Second, and more importantly, your competition sucks. Sure they graduated from top law schools and had high LSAT's. But they are not Phd's - poor, hungry, and driven.

The vast majority of your competition has come to expect things to be handed to them. They are not used to hustling. They are not used to doing what they need to do to build a personal barnd. In my mind they are lazy.

I got my first full time job out of law school by cold calling on law firms. I knocked on the door and asked to see the top partner in the firm, whose name I looked up in Martindale-Hubbell. I did not have an appointment. The receptionist told me the firm was not hiring and that the lawyer was not available. I told them I'd wait. Heck, I didn't have a job, what else could I do that would be a better use of my time.

Maybe, you're too scared to knock on doors. But that doesn't prevent you from networking with the leaders in the area of law you want to get into. Getting to know them through blogging, Twitter, and LinkedIn would circumvent the 'cold knocking.' You could ask them to get to together for a cup of coffee. And they'd gladly accept an invite from a go getter like you who's developing niche expertise.

You're scared because you've got large student loans, you need to get that large law job for the big bucks. You're afraid to use social media because your large law firm or your placement director frowns on it.

Get over it. Don't let that fear paralyze you. The future is always going to belong to those who think differently and hustle more than the next guy.

Related Posts

• How to build your personal brand with your blog?

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (6)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

I'll be conducting a webinar for members of LinkedIn Legal Blogging Group this Tuesday, January 12 at 12 ET, 9 AM PT. The Legal Blogging Group is free to join and membership is not a prerequisite for registering for the webinar.

The subject is the 'Art of Effective Blogging for Business Development.' I'll be covering, among other things:

• What blogging for business development truly means
• The importance of developing a strategy to accomplish your business development goals
• Developing the right niche and focus for your blog?
• How to define and engage your target audience
• How to build relationships with your target audience
• Developing a conversational style
• Marketing your blog to extend its reac.
• Measuring the ROI for your blog

Please go to our Webex Events Center to register.

LinkedIn's Legal Blogging Group has over 3,500 members from our legal profession who exchange information and insight on the use of blogs and other social media. If you're not a member, you may join at the Legal Blogging Group LinkedIn Page.

I'm working on making the Legal Blogging Group more valuable to its members in 2010. One way of doing so is through Webinars like this. I hope to see you there. If you cannot attend I'll make a recording and accompanying screencast available here on my blog and on the Legal Blogging Group's Discussion Board.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

How about more cowbell and less courthouse and Lady Justice on lawyer's blogs and websites? I can't take any more of the tune being sung by law firms across the Internet.

Do you know who it was who thought pictures of buildings and scales of justice were a good idea for lawyer ads? Yellow page sales representatives holed up in cheap hotel rooms.

Yellow page sales reps were taught a two call concept. The first meeting you listen and learn. You then go back to your hotel at night to cut, paste, draw and write the ads. Unless you found phrases or artwork in the directories you cart around in your trunk, you just cut and paste an ad together. You then head back to the business for the second meeting to try to sell the ad.

I'm not sure who's most to blame for all the legal 'artwork' being carried over from the yellow pages to lawyer websites and blogs. High school kids with cheap software, Martindale-Hubbell selling 25,000 'Lawyer HomePages,' or lawyers, with the design taste of someone who shops for their suits at K-Mart.

Back in 1996 when I did a website for my law firm, I wanted the website to look the people I represented, not lawyers. No one had to tell me people didn't like lawyers. No one had to tell me claimants were not looking to find themselves in a courtroom.

Rather than pictures of the law (whatever that even means), I wanted to create an atmosphere of professionalism, trust, and comfort. It remains true today.

LexBlog graphic design professionals and our creative director will do their darndest to avoid scales and courthouses. We'll have occasion where a local historic building is desired by a client. But it's music to our hears when we hear 'no legal stuff' in the design.

C'mon guys. There are no ethic's rules that require cheesy ads. You can leave the yellow pages behind. You can let your prospective clients know you're more like them and less like other lawyers. Imagine.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (2)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Business author and speaker, Thom Singer, asks Does Everything You Blog About Need To Be An Original Idea?

I'm in agreement with Thom. Absolutely not.

I have always believed that what makes blogs successful is not solely the brilliance of the blogger to have totally original and unique ideas in each post.... but instead their ability to take nuggets of information, concepts and theories to extend the discussion. Adding perspective, spin or highlighting minor points that might have otherwise been over looked in the piece that was the inspiration. They key here is to give credit to who or what was the catalyst for the writer.

The best blogging, by its very nature is a discussion. And a discussion does not mean everyone joining in a circle and throwing out an original thought.

Imagine how stupid a conversation would sound where every time someone opened their mouth, they were required to offer a new idea. One person after another trying to one up the other with the better original thought. It would sound like a group of clowns. No one could learn a thing - whether a participant to the discussion or a listener not taking part in the conversation.

As a lawyer blogging for client development you want to join conversations. It's by entering into conversations with thought leaders in your niche and, when relevant, your locale you establish yourself as a thought leader.

By offering value to the an existing conversation among thought leaders, you get known by the leaders. In turn, you'll get cited by the leaders referencing what you have to say in your blog. You're also observed, or at least listened to, by people not participating in the discussion. These non participants are often your clients and prospective clients.

It's also by entering into existing discussions that you and your blog get found. Imagine blogging the most original and profound content in the world, but not referencing what others are saying. You'll never get found. It's like blogging out in a corn field. You'll be miles from the busy intersection of thought leaders conversing and others listening.

Though you don't need an original idea, don't just repeat what someone else has reported or written in their blog. Offer your take. Offer your insight from years of experience practicing law.

If you saw an interesting article in a business publication that would be of value to the prospective clients you were joining for lunch that day, you'd make a copy of it for them. You'd highlight the relevant portion. You wouldn't just stick it in their pocket. You'd say here's what I found, where I found it, and why I am sharing it with you.

It's the value you bring to the discussion people are looking for. You can bring this value without having an original idea.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (2)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (2)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Following online publishing, it's becoming more and more clear that hyperlocal is the way things are going. Rather than trying to reach a broad geographic region, success is achieved by publishing relevant information to consumers and businesses in a smaller clearly defined locale.

Wikipedia defines Hyperlocal content, often referred to as hyperlocal news, as being characterized by three major elements.

• Refers to entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area.
• Intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area.
• Created by a resident of the location.

Hyperlocal means more than just publishing content for the locale. It means being part of the local community. It means engaging in other forms of social media being used by members of the locale. It means commenting on other blogs and news sites focused on the locale as well as engaging community members through Twitter and Facebook.

What a perfect scenario for a local law blog. Imagine a West Seattle Law Blog published by a general practice lawyer living in West Seattle. Better yet a West Seattle Family Law Blog.

West Seattle has a population of over 58,000. It has the widely read West Seattle Blog. Lots of people in West Seattle, like everywhere these days, are active on social media solutions such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

Of course West Seattle doesn't have its own laws on divorce and family law matters. But do you honestly think publishing a blog on Washington Family Law is going to generate the warm and fuzzies with people in West and Seattle, the exact thing you need to demonstrate you're one of the local community?

• Publish matters of general family law. But give it a West Seattle conversational tone, telling stories, and giving answers based on questions you're getting from folks in West Seattle. Questions from clients and prospective clients.
• Comment on local blogs, using your own name, and when permitted by text fields, leave your business email and blog url. People are curious about who's commenting. They'll be pleasantly surprised to see a local West Seattle lawyer commenting on a blog post. Don't limit yourself to legal subjects. Be part of the local civic discussion, just as lawyers have done for a hundred years.
• Identify some of the mover and shakers from West Seattle using Twitter. Use advanced local search to see people Tweeting in West Seattle or to follow topics of local discussion. Get to know them by following them and sharing Tweets demonstrating not only knowledge of the law, but also demonstrating you're part of the local community.
• Look for local Facebook groups. Don't go in shouting I'm a lawyer. Look for groups in which you have a true interest in the subject. If you have kids, you're involved in soccer and there's likely a Facebook group for local soccer.
• As you get to know folks, host a small seminar or become part of a local support group. If a divorce lawyer, maybe it's a spousal abuse group. For a general practice lawyer, maybe it's on the issues to address in buying or selling a home or condo.
• Meet with local influencers for coffee. Use a blog and social media effectively for a year, and most people are going to know you.

Blogging is so much more than publishing content under a banner heading that covers an area of 4 million people (Seattle Divorce Law Blog). It's about engaging people you want to represent, your sources of referrals, and the people who influence them. It's about joining a local conversation. It's being a part of the community.

50 years ago a West Seattle lawyer could have a rewarding law practice, financially and personally fulfilling, by becoming a part of the West Seattle community. It's the same today. Just easier and faster.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (6)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Where do you start as law firm when looking for help on social media and blogging? A PR firm, a web design firm, a marketing company, a consultant, or a combination of all four?

Widely respected Internet marketing strategist, B.L. Ochman, says you need only ask two questions when considering a company or agency which says they can help you.

1. Do they walk the walk? If they aren't not participating in social media and blogging as thought leaders, then you don't want them advising you.
2. Do they have case studies to share with you to demonstrate their success incorporating social media into clients' overall marketing strategy? If they don't, they'll be learning on your dime.

It's possible there are a few other questions you'd want to ask, but Ochman's point is well taken.

You need to find a company with street cred. Per Ochamn:

• Does the prospective agency, have a credible social media presence of its own?
• How long have they been using social media? If they have only recently established a presence in social media, ask why it took them so long.
• Do they have a following? Many agencies have no more social media presence than what they pass off as blogs. Many of those are thinly disguised press releases, or are updated every month or so, if at all.
• ...[T]hey need to be there themselves to demonstrate that they understand how new media actually works, and how community is built in real life, not in theory.

Second, you need to find a company with a track record of achieving success for their clients. Ask for stories or case studies of client successes. Make sure the clients are similar to your law firm.

Social media and blogging is not new. Ochman's correct that "Social media has been part of the online landscape for a more than a decade, beginning with chat rooms and forums, and evolving into its current form." If your agency or consultant hasn't been helping clients achieve success in social media for years, keep looking.

Great questions for law firms. As Ochman warns, "Ignore them at your peril."

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (3)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Lawyers are well aware we generally don't get paid after the first date.

Lawyers take phone calls from potential clients answering any number of questions. We'll have people into our offices to review their legal situations, we'll present likely outcomes, outline what we can do to help, and to estimate the cost of our legal services. All without any expectation that we'll get paid for such calls or meetings. We're just looking for the chance to go to work and get paid.

Much of what you're doing as a lawyer is earning the trust of the prospective client. Until people see you care, that you understand their legal issues, and that you can help, you can't expect people to hire you.

How do increase the chances you'll be trusted and be hired? Blog.

Seth Godin, in a recent blog post, says basically that. To establish yourself digitally.

Digital transactions are essentially free for you to provide. I can give you permission to teach me something. I can watch a video. I can engage in a conversation. We can connect, transfer knowledge, engage in a way that builds trust... all of these things make it more likely that I'll trust you enough to send you some money one day. I can contribute to a project you're building, ask you a difficult question, discover what others have already learned.

Seth points out that expecting someone to give you money the first time you transact may work if you're a pretzel vendor on the street. But as lawyer?

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link