Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Social Media, Twitter

Yesterday, I had the honor of being included in the 100 best law blogs as judged by the ABA Journal. The top 100 blogs and their authors were the subject of a feature story on the ABA Journal online. Each of the blogs were linked to in the story.

Also yesterday, Eric Turkewitz linked to a year old blog post of mine in a blog post on Turkewitz' blog. The text in the link to my post read 'ratings system is toast.' In his blog post, Turkewitz also referenced and linked to 16 other sources other than my blog post.

Glancing at my webstats from today I noticed that in the last 24 hours 58 unique visitors visited my blog from Turkewitz' link to my blog. During the same time, 3 unique visitors visited my blog as a result of the link to my blog in the ABA Journal Top 100 Law Blogs feature story. 20 times the traffic from Turk as the ABA Journal.

I'm always preaching engagement over vanity when it comes to law blog success. Engagement meaning listening to relevant conversation online and when appropriate offering value to the conversation through a blog post of your own. Vanity meaning press releases announcing your blog, top blog contests, blog directory listings, and the like.

Vanity marketing is old school. 'Marketing is a conversation' is new school. Today being part of a conversation in which your target audience and their influencers is taking part in or following is more important in drawing attention to yourself, establishing a word of mouth reputation, and getting peer reviews and references than the attention we have bought in the past.

Don't get me wrong, I love what Ed Adams, the Editor of the ABA Journal, and his reporters and editors are doing to shine a light on lawyers who are giving of themselves through blogging. I further appreciate that the ABA Journal is differentiating good law blogs from the law blogs being published by lawyers who think they are blogging while merely scrapping news stories for SEO. The latter is crap and demeaning to the profession.

I'm honored to be included among the better blogs by the ABA Journal. I hope it reflects my effort to help lawyers improve their practice and station in life.

At the same time, it's a privilege to have gotten to know Eric Turkewitz, as a person and as a blogger. I met him through blogging years ago. Either he or I must have referenced what the other had written in a blog post, we started to follow each others' blogs, and have referenced each other in blog posts on multiple occasions over the years.

I asked Eric to join a New York City panel on blogging I was moderating a couple years ago and we had dinner afterwards. Found out his roots in the Internet, like mine, go back to AOL days, that he's also a distance runner.

Eric's a good lawyer and a widely respected blogger (also in the ABA Journal top 100). When he references something I've written on my blog, it's akin to a tacit endorsement of me, or at least my opinion, from a well respected lawyer and blogger. That carries a fair amount of influence with not only New York lawyers, but lawyers around the country as well as reporters and bloggers covering our legal industry.

This 'endorsement,' if you will, further enhances my reputation and generates a word of mouth reputation. And if you're worried about traffic to your blog, it does that too. All the result of joining the conversation. By engaging others.

So when chasing blog accolades (some good, some worthless), give some thought to whether you'd be the greater winner by getting out and engaging folks through your blogging.

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We had another great turnout for today's webinar on marketing your blog, with close to 140 attendees.

You can download the chart Kevin used by clicking on the image above. If you were not able to attend, or would like to view the webinar again, you can view the recording on our support site, which also houses several of our previous webinars on a variety of topics.

If you have any questions about anything discussed in the webinar, feel free to contact Kevin (kevin@lexblog.com) or Pam Garfield, our Director of Client Services (pam@lexblog.com).

Be sure to also mark your calendars for our next client webinar, topic TBD, on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT.

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You’ve got your blogging strategy set, your blog is designed and developed, and you’re ready to launch. Now you’re probably wondering the best way to let the world know your blog is up and live. Or maybe you've been blogging for a while, but want to make sure you're getting the type of visitors to your blog that you want.

In our next webinar, exclusively for LexBlog Clients, I'll cover Marketing Your Blog at Launch and Beyond, focusing on how to blog and use social media in a way that builds readership and drives quality traffic to your blog.

I’ll cover:

• Building out your blogroll and integration with your Web site
• Press releases and other public relations efforts
• The value of blog directories and announcement sites
• Using social media and networking such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon
• Engaging with thought leaders, the media and A-list bloggers

This webinar will be held on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 12 pm ET/9 am PT. You can register at our Event Center. If you need the password, direct message Support on Twitter or contact our Director of Client Services, Pam Garfield.

As always, this webinar will be recorded and archived on our Support Site. So, if you can't attend, feel free to watch at your convenience.

I’m looking forward to sharing my take on blog marketing strategies with you, and to hear your feedback on what you’d like to learn.

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Circulation declines are accelerating at America's major newspapers, with all but two of the 25 largest U.S. showing declines for the last six months. This per the Wall Street Journal's Russel Adams this morning.

Weekday circulation at 507 newspapers fell 4.6%..., compared with a 2.6% decline in the same period a year earlier, according to figures released on Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday circulation fell 4.9% for the latest period, compared with a 3.5% decline in Sunday circulation reported a year earlier......Sunday circulation, often seen as the best indicator of a newspaper's health, fell faster than it did during the week. The Houston Chronicle's Sunday circulation declined 15.7%, followed by the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., and the Philadelphia Inquirer, where Sunday circulation declined 14.7% and 13.8%, respectively.

This represents a golden opportunity for lawyers and law firms publishing blogs. Newspapers are no longer going to have the resources to cover the stories they have. This includes not only regular legal news, but also the general legal information columns. In addition newspaper reporters have not a clue how to become relevant to bloggers, something that brings increased online newspaper readership when bloggers link to newspaper stories.

Help them out guys. You're producing good legal content. Let your newspaper know you'd be happy to share a weekly or monthly column from your blog. A well done blog covering a niche for your metro or state gives you instant credibility with newspaper editors. That's a huge edge over your competitors stuck in the printed newsletter world who are pitching through expensive PR people.

Talk to Rush Nigut. Blog posts from his blog, Rush on Business, are being syndicated to the Des Moines paper. It can be done.

You can also lead the newspaper to relevance among the local blogosphere. Newspapers look at blogs as just another publishing platform. Their editors and reporters do not understand that blogs are a conversation where you link to what you see sharing a bit of a news story or blog post and then providing your take. As a result newspapers run in a parallel universe to blogs. Newspapers don't link to blogs, so we don't often link to them.

Start reporting on and linking to newspaper stories in blog posts providing your take just as if you were interviewed. Let the reporter and editor know you shared their story with your blog readers. Let them know you would be happy to get them resources on that subject, even be available for a quote on a moment's notice. You'll become their friend.

Ask the reporters and editors you've got to know this way to lunch or coffee. Explain how blogs work. Review with them how bloggers will share their stories and draw traffic to their stories if the bloggers are cited in the newspaper.

Let them know the newspaper should have blogs that just don't re-hash news. The newspaper's blogs must highlight what local blogs are writing, with the newspaper reporter or columnist then providing their take. That way bloggers start to cite the newspaper columnists and reporters. And that's attention newspapers are starved for, but don't know how to get.

It's a down cycle for newspapers. Take advantage of it.

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Web Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, offers some helpful tips this morning on what a company or an individual can do to get noticed.

Owyang aptly describes the problem lawyers perceive when they launch a blog. I hear it every day.

There are so many brands now, in fact with the introduction of websites, and blogs in particular, many are developing personal brands, something not as easy to accomplish in past years. With this proliferation of brands, it becomes so much more difficult for brand to stand out from the millions of others.

Fortunately for you guys looking to strike out in a sub-niche or to stand out from the crowd, there are still followers and leaders in everything. It's up to you whether you want to be a leader.

Here's Owyang's tips for standing out, with a little commentary from me, of course.

• Have a goal. Before you do anything, think about what your objectives are.
• If your goal is high brand recognition (for me it's law blogs), identify the keywords that you’d most want to be associated with. Try to think of keywords that people would search for, are long-term, and aren’t some made up name that no one would seek.
• If your goal is to network with others and to grow your reach, focus on how many quality relationships (perhaps defined by people that would help you and you’d help back) that you can grow. Happens everyday in law firms. Rather than being to go to 'brand' in a niche, your firm may want to serve the entire spectrum of legal needs of small businesses (100 or less employees) in your metro or area of the state. Relationships with existing business clients, business associations, and local business media will be key.
• If your goal is to learn about a new topic and eventually master the subject material, focus on how you’ll learn by reading, then eventually writing on that topic. For lawyers sharing what you learn by following blogs, news websites, and keywords via feeds to your newsreader is a killer way to learn, showcase your intellectual capital and become an intelligence agent on a niche. That's what I've done over the last 5 years.
• Develop a unique brand. I really don’t think URLs are as important as they used to be, often folks will Google your name to find you, and the fact that we disperse to so many websites (Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed/What’s next) is an indicator of the distributed web ruling the destination website. There are millions of blogs/companies out there, and if you’re trying to get noticed, you’re going to have to compete to stand out. Having a default blog template to your website isn’t going to be enough, you’re automatically segmenting yourself with others. Develop a unique look and feel by designing it yourself or finding someone who can help. If that’s too difficult, at least create a custom masthead image that will brand your site. Could not have said it better Jeremiah.
• Get personal. Use your picture somewhere on your blog. Register your name at social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter et al. Use those social media sites as well as blog in a personal, yet professional tone. Develop a voice that you and your followers will gain comfort in.
• Attend events. They may be local, state, or national. Meet folks who are passionate about the space you're blogging in. Meet the speakers at those events - they tend to be the leaders. Like you do with people you meet online, develop a network (easily done with LinkedIn) to network with in an ongoing fashion.
• Lead events. Blog and attend events a while and you’ll soon start to notice a gap in the events you’re going to: a particular topic isn’t being covered, or a particular style of a topic isn’t being approached (unconference, roundtable, lecture, networking). Let conference coordinators know you'd be happy to speak on a niche you've developed via your law blog. It can be just one topic you cover in your blog. Conference coordinators will look at your blog and know in a New York minute you've got the street creds to speak. They'll also know you can draw attendees by announcing their conference in your blog. If not at someone else's conference, do your own. 15 to 20 people attending can be a huge success when the topic is focused and tailored for your target audience.
• Be interesting. Just quoting what others say, adding very little value, won't cut it. Owyang suggests: conduct analysis, respectively disagree with the mainstream, break news, compare and contrast services, develop lists or indexes of companies or topics. Robert Scoble taught both Owyang and I how to be a more noticed blogger (getting referenced by A-list bloggers) Scoble's advice: ‘Be interesting.'
• Archive your achievements. As you develop your repertoire of speaking at events, leading events, or being quoted in articles or top blogs, start to create an archive that links to all these achievements. You don't need to shout those achievements at people via the home page of your blog. The speaking engagements page on this blog (needs updating) is one of the more trafficked pages on my blog.

There you have it. 7 things you can go to work on over the next 90 days. I'm sure you can think of 10 other ways to stand out.

But if you work at these things over the next year, you're going to notice some dramatic changes in your professional and personal life. I guaranty it.

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We'll continue our monthly Best of Blogging Series for LexBlog clients this morning with 'Marketing Your Blog : Getting And Growing Traffic To Your Niche Law Blog.' Looks like we'll have close to 100 clients attending.

We'll go live at 9 AM PT with Rob La Gatta, Stacey Merrick, and I taking the mic's so to speak with live audio and screencast.

We added live call in questions for attendees for a LinkedIn Blogging Group webinar we did last week. It worked out great making for a more collaborative and interactive program. We'll continue with that format this morning.

If you are unable to attend, like always, we'll have a recording available at LexBlog Client Support.

If you misplaced your invite and password or need one, please email Stacey Merrick, our Client Services Director.

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We've been getting inundated with requests throughout the day - both from attendees and those who couldn't make it - for a recording of this morning's "Introduction to Law Blogs: What Works and What Doesn't" webinar, which focused on the dos and dont's of legal blogging. That recording is now available online, and can be streamed or downloaded by clicking here.

The attendee response has been strong so far: we covered a lot of ground in our hourlong discussion and got some great questions towards the end of the event. If you have any feedback on the presentation - what worked, what didn't, what we could improve - leave a comment or drop us a line. We do webinars on a variety of topics, and the best way to gauge our audience's response is through their direct feedback.

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Jon Morrow, an Associate Editor of Copyblogger and co-author of Keyword Research for Bloggers, offers some advice on how to build the popularity of your blog through friends.

Why does it work per Jon?

Because bloggers link more often to their friends than anyone else. If you write a reasonably good piece of content that interests their audience, they’ll link to you, mainly because they like you.

The secret to building a popular blog isn’t just writing tons of brilliant content. It’s also having tons of well-connected friends.

By 'friends,' we're not talking the friends you know from your kids soccer games or with whom a enjoy a beer now and again, we're talking trusted and well known authorities in your niche that have widely read blogs. We're not diminishing the value of 'friends' as we've understood the concept for years. 'Friends' on the Internet just means something else.

I follow 'friends' via Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, del.icio.us, and the like because those 'friends' are sharing information and commentary that I value. Sure there's some true friends included in the group, but by and large, the 'friends' I follow are trusted and reliable authorities in their field.

How to make friends with popular bloggers and get them to link to your posts? I've always done it by following poplar blogs and sharing an interesting post of theirs with my readers, offering my take on the subject.

Jon says that's not enough any longer. Here's a few of his ideas with my take.

• Write a guest post that gets lots of traffic and adoring comments. It works. LexBlog has any number of lawyer clients who have guest posted on popular blogs. The result has brought greater notoriety and more blog followers.
• Attend conferences that all of the ‘Who’s Who’ of your niche go to and network your tail off. While I am not a social butterfly, I do make a point of introducing myself to thought leaders who I have been following and whom I respect. Make sure it's genuine, but go up and shake their hand and let them know you really appreciate their work and have been a follower for some time. The opportunity may arise to tell them what you do. Follow up with an email and offer to connect via LinkedIn.
• Email them an irresistible question, hoping to spark a discussion. This works wether you're asking the question through a LinkedIn connection or just a standard email. Blog the answer providing your commentary.
• Leave lots of truly memorable comments. Absolutely works, so long as the comments are of value. Do not comment for the sake of dropping your name, you'll look like a fool.
• Interview them in either a post or a podcast, making sure to ask lots of intelligent questions. I've found email interviews are best for the most popular people, whose time is limited. Keep it to 4 or 5 questions. But if you've got a good podcast going, give it a shot. I'm happy to be a guest when the interviewer has their act together and we're only talking 20 minutes.
• Give the above a few months, and then start pointing them to your best and most relevant content. It works. I often one line an email to a popular blogger letting them know of a post of interest.

To be a success on the Internet, remember one rule. You can have everything you want if you'll just help enough other people to get what they want. As Jon puts it, 'we're just talking reciprocity.'

Contrary to what many people think, A-list bloggers aren’t islands, separate and self-sufficient. They deal with problems and annoyances, just as much as anyone else. If you can help alleviate them, they’ll thank and remember you for it.

The key is finding ways that you can be genuinely useful to them. Make yourself relevant and then use that opportunity to start building a relationship.

Great post Jon - and another reason to call Brian Clark, publisher of Copyblogger, a 'friend.'

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'My law firm's prospective clients don't blog. I'm not sure they even read blogs. Many are not even regular Internet users. How do I reach these prospective clients by blogging?' All legitimate concerns I hear from law firms on a regular basis.

Liz Strauss, a blogger with 20 years experience in print, software, and online publishing business, offers some excellence advice for how to connect your blogging business with customers in the offline world.

• Contact local organizations in your niche. Ask local groups and organizations associated with your niche for a blurb in their online or hard copy newsletter. Offer to be a guest speaker for one of their meetings. You'll find such organizations by seeing their scheduled meetings in the newspaper, looking at national websites for such organizations, talking to your local librarians, and calling local buildings and facilities that host such meetings.
• Look to the customers standing right beside you. Family, friends, bowling buddies, classmates, colleagues at work, and members of organizations you belong to, including your local church, could be a rich source of customers or people who can network you to customers. You can be be an ambassador for the blogging world and how it's a value for business people in general.
• Find non-blogging experts to interview. Write or email top non-blogging experts (authors, professors, business leaders) in your niche area and politely ask to interview them. They will tell everyone where to find the interview. They may be able to steer other interviews your way. We regularly do 4 and 5 question email interviews with experts for this blog.
• Utilize press coverage. Write a press release to get coverage in your local paper. Focus your press release on either your blog or blogging. If you write about blogging in general, just make sure to use your site as a highly profiled example. Liz says to tell the paper that blogging is a lifestyle to perk their ears. For a lawyer, tell them how blogging is a win/win for businesses and the public. People get access to legal information and good lawyers further enhance their reputations.
• Create an Internet presence off your blog. Find online Web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, bulletin board, etc., in your niche subject outside the blog world and jump in. Be nice, be real, and give as much as you can when promoting yourself. You can find forums often attached to magazines, to newspapers, to activities, to organizations, and to web sites of companies that complement your niche and product.
• Become a YouTuber. Make a YouTube video about yourself, your blog, or your product. Just one video that ‘goes viral’ can rocket anyone into stardom for a day or month. Be ready to utilize any generated traffic in ways that maintain these new readers to your blog.
• Team up with complementary non-blogging businesses. Let’s say your blog is about environmental law. Environmental engineers, local schools, smart growth, and environmental groups may find environmental law and your take on local issues of interest. As Liz advises, until you ask, you'll never know.

When you blog on a niche subject, you're publishing the local or, in the case of certain niches, national law magazine on the subject. Being recognized as such a publisher and the expert status that comes with it opens a heck of a lot of doors in the offline world.

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