Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing

Picked up from The New Yorker, via Pat Thornton, that per a recent study, 39% of those under 35 said that they expected to use the Internet in the future for news purposes; just eight per cent said that they would rely on a newspaper ('Abandoning the News,' published by the Carnegie Corporation). More shocking is that only 19% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 claim even to look at a daily newspaper.

That ought to send shock waves through large law firms with expensive PR and communication programs designed to get their lawyers quoted in print. Unfortunately it's not.

I continue to run across law firm heads who know little about online publishing - unless you count archiving old articles and newsletters on websites. Chief Marketing Officers and PR heads in large law act like blogs, by far and away the largest producer of online niche news & information, are for kids. Mention RSS and newsreaders, the way innovative business people and reporters syndicate and receive news, and I'm told that's too techie, we're not into that stuff around here.

Even worse is that there's little being done in large law to adapt. Marketing and communication heads hire outside agencies they're comfortable with, often whom have no experience or taste for online publishing through blogs and RSS. Heck, some PR agencies representing law firms have a conflict of interest in seeing such new ways of PR work, they'd be out of a job.

Although there's some education in the legal marketing profession on new methods of PR, there's not enough. I'm amazed when I get out and speak that legal marketing professionals know little about the subject and ask me why thete's not more people presenting on the topic.

As The New Yorker's Eric Alterman wrote about the web, '[Content] distribution is frictionless, swift, and cheap.' That's why individual lawyers in large law firms who are publishing blogs are garnering significant press. Being quoted in two to three stories a month is not unusual.

Law firms need to wake up. Those who do will hold a significant competitive edge.

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Atlanta journalist, Steve Burns, asked at LinkedIn 'How many blogs do PR/Marketing types read/subscribe to regularly?'

Answers ranged into the hundreds for some with the vast majority of professionals subscribed to feeds from at least 20 or 25 blogs.

Tells me that PR people are using blogs for a few purposes. One, as a means of following what's going on in areas they're working on for clients. Two, learning new skills and methods from thought leaders in the PR and communications field. And three, for networking with fellow professionals and mentors.

I question whether PR and communications employed in large law firms are monitoring that many blog RSS feeds in newsreaders. I talk to a lot of law firm marketing professionals who are not using RSS feeds from blogs and keyword searches at all. Some PR and communication professionals have even told me it sounds like a waste of time getting information from unreliable sources.

What are you guys seeing? If you're a law firm marketing professional, how many blogs do you subscribe to via RSS feeds?

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Getting bloggers to cover you, your law firm, or company is an art. It's not done by sending press releases and cold emails to bloggers.

I probably get 30 press releases or announcements a day from organizations looking for me to blog about them. Can't remember the last time such an an email from someone I didn't know caused me to blog about what they sent me.

Uber blogger Robert Scoble, recently of Fast Company, offers some sound advice on how to get good PR for yourself in the blogosphere.

Read Robert's whole post but here's the highlights.

• Go where the bloggers are. Create a list of few dozen bloggers and get to know them. If possible, go to events such bloggers are attending. Looking at Upcoming.org's event calendars frequently, you can figure out which events a preponderance of bloggers say they're attending and keep track of them.
• Read the blogs of the people you want to cover you. Send them a note within minutes of their posting, blog about their posts, link to their blogs from your own blog, and add public comments to posts. Not only does each blogger get to know you, but their readers do too.
• Send bloggers interesting stories -- especially about other people -- that you think they would be interested in. When you have something about your own business to announce, those bloggers will be more receptive to you than to some PR firm that only flacks for its clients.
• Start blogging. When a blogger hears an interesting story, they go to Google and start searching other blogs so they can read more about it. Tell your story on your own blog.
• Don't send press releases. The blog world is built on relationships.

Bloggers matter when it comes to PR. LexBlog's grown from the garage to a company with 14 people serving law firms across the country and internationally largely by my networking with other bloggers. Not once did I send out a press release.

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Defies logic that law firms spend tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars on Public Relations and ignore Blogs.

Sure, there's a place for law firms use of PR agencies, but lawyers who are blogging effectively are regularly being interviewed and quoted by reporters. And they're getting these interviews without any PR support.

I agree with Rich Brooks at Business Blog Consulting who business blogs can bring you killer PR.

Let's face it, journalists are having to do more with less, so they're more and more likely to turn to Google and other search engines to track down 'experts' in a given field.

As you continue to build your blog over time, creating great content in a specific niche, Google's more likely to return your blog as a result when a journalist starts researching a column or article. I've never hired a PR firm, and I work out of the top right corner of the US us locals call 'Maine', but I've gotten quotes in Inc., BusinessWeek Small Biz, and other periodicals and the local evening news because of our Web marketing blog.

Rich is not alone. LexBlog's lawyer clients are regularly quoted in mass and trade media publications. Some are getting interviewed a few times a month. And LexBlog clients aren't alone. At the ABA TechShow last week I spoke with any number of lawyers publishing blogs who are amazed at the media attention they are getting via their niche focused blogs.

Only makes sense. 75& of reporters are using blogs and RSS as a means to locate experts and get insight on stories they are working on. One Wall Street Journal reporter has called the ability to subscribe to keywords via RSS feeds from Google Blog Search and Technorati the lazy man's way of investigative reporting.

If you're a lawyer who would like to be quoted by reporters or you're a law firm business development/communications looking to get your lawyers quoted as experts, you could do a lot worse than a blog.

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Picked up from Jerry Johnson, head of strategic planning at Brodeur, news of a survey finding that blogs are having a significant impact on journalist's story ideas, angles and insights.

• Over 75% of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.
• 70% of reporters check a blog list on a regular basis.
• 21% of reporters spend over an hour per day reading blogs.
• 57% of reporters read blogs at least two to three times a week.

Journalists are also increasingly active participants in the blogosphere.

• 28% of reporters have their own blogs.
• 16% have their own social networking page.
• 48% say they are "lurkers" - reading blogs but rarely commenting.

The survey is part of an ongoing research project by Brodeur in conjunction with Marketwire to understand the impact that social media and blogs are having on traditional news delivery. The survey was conducted among a random sample of North American reporters and editors. You may obtain a copy of the survey here.

Blogging lawyers are regularly contacted by reporters for stories relating to the lawyer's niche area of the law. Results in an interview from which the lawyer is quoted in a main stream or trade publication reaching prospective clients or their influencers. I get called about once a week.

Talking with lawyers, I've been referencing a 2 year old study finding 40% of journalists using blogs as a source once a week. So it was nice to pick up this recent research.

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Naked Conversations celebrated it's second birthday this past Saturday.

For the unknowing, NC is a one of the seminal books on blogging. From wikipedia:

[Robert Scoble and Shel Israel] argue that almost every business can benefit from smart "naked" blogging, whether the company's a small-town plumbing operation or a multinational fashion house. "If you ignore the blogosphere... you won't know what people are saying about you," they write. "You can't learn from them, and they won't come to see you as a sincere human who cares about your business and its reputation." To bolster their argument, Scoble and Israel have assembled an enormous amount of information about blogging: from history and theory to comparisons among countries and industries. They also lay out the dos and don'ts of the medium and include extensive statistics, dozens of case studies and several interviews with famous bloggers.

If you're in a PR or business development position (aren't we all) trying to follow blogs and learn what blogs are all about, read it. If the concepts don't make sense, read it again. If you're already blogging effectively, read it. It gets the juices really going.

Shel's comments on the the two year anniversary are enlightening.

It's hard to believe it has only been two years since the book was introduced.  Sometimes it seems the writing of Naked Conversations happened a very long time ago.  Sometimes I think the stories we told are ancient. Yet the book is still selling moderately well, which please me almost as much as it surprises me.

Then I realize that the stories are old only if you have already heard them.  Blogging has, of course, become only a single tool in an enormous social media tool shed. It has also become fruitful and multiplied.  We wrote when there were about 14 million bloggers.  Now there are more than 100 million. There may be as many as a half-billion people involved in social media worldwide.

What has remained intact, I think, is our key point.  There is a revolution going on that is transforming the way businesses talk with customers. That revolution has a key attribute. It's about the conversation, not any one tool.

Thanks Robert and Shel.

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Law firm PR has traditionally been about getting the firm and its lawyers in main stream media, whether as the source of a quote or the subject of a story. Often done through press releases and press kit folders with accompanying brochure, lawyer bio's and suggested story ideas. Unfortunately for many law firms, that's where the heads of their PR people are still at.

Small problem. Micromedia, whether it be news websites or blogs are more likely to publish your stories. Plus those websites and blogs reach just as many people as do the traditional media.

Search Engine Watch's Greg Jarboe researched media coverage of two very large high profile search technology conferences. He conducted several searches on Google News and Yahoo News and found more than 150 stories from the past month.

Only 1 percent of the more than 150 stories were written by the traditional trade press. 88% of the coverage came from online publications and group blogs. The other 11% came from press releases themselves which were put out by PR professionals.

Jarboe also found out that the number of visitors to those online publications and blogs was the equivalent of the circulation of print publications that could be expected to cover the story.

His advice? At least one of your PR and communications people should be focused on blogs and online media.

Bet you my house, there aren't five law firms with a PR person dedicated to blogs and online media. The part that's really a shame is that they could get a talented person to do the job for less than $50,000 per year.

That's right - $50,000 for a young person who gets social media and online publishing to monitor blogs and online media for stories relevant to the law firm, its lawyers, and its clients; to id blogs and online media to network with; and with the guidance of senior folks, to create and execute an effective blog marketing program for a few of the firm's practice groups.

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Social media, with blogs topping the list, is gaining significant traction among PR and communications professionals per a study presented at the Society for New Communications Research Symposium in Boston, MA this week. The study was funded by the Institute for Public Relations and Wieck Media.

Among their findings:

• Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more customers and influencers use them.
• Twenty-seven percent reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy.
• Only three percent stated that social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives.

And the most effective tools for their social media initiatives:

• Blogs
• Online video
• Social networks

The top three criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster:

• Quality of content on the blog or podcast
• Relevance of content to the company or brand
• Search engine rankings

Online engagement was not viewed as important. However, it's possible that we're dealing with PR/Communications folks, who in the absence of blogging themselves, cannot appreciate the value of networking via blogging.

For online communities and social networks, the top three criteria for evaluating influence do reflect the importance of online engagement:

• Participation level
• Frequency of posting by the community member
• Name recognition of the individual

Detailed results of the study will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Communications Research and a full report will be made available via the Society and the Institute for Public Relations in early 2008.

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Whenever you think blogs and new media are making inroads into the world of corporate PR and communications, think of the fossils. That per B.L. Ochamn this past week.

B.L. shared a few comments made by corporate PR professionals at a marketing session she recently attended.

• 'People who read blogs aren't very educated.'
• '98% of what's on blogs is BS. It's all BS.'

B.L. says she wouldn't even share the comments about whether or not bloggers are journalists, or idiots. And about whether corporations should blah blah blog.

I'll need to remember this the next time the Chief Marketing Officer or PR/Communications head for a large law firm is on a conference call trying to reign in the firm's lawyers and front line marketing mangers who are ready to blog. Gosh knows you wouldn't want to use a medium you don't understand to cost effectively keep clients and the firm's lawyers informed of the latest legal developments and further enhance the reputation of the firm's lawyers among your target audience.

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