Texas Bar Association claims online social presence with blog

Blogs for solo lawyers and law firms have become the norm, but blogs for bar associations are a bit rarer. The perpetually net-savvy Texas State Bar shows how much a blog makes sense for a bar association.

John Sirman, manager of TexasBar.com and technology editor of the Texas Bar Journal, was the driving force behind the bar's new blog, the Texas Bar Blog. The site features the lawyers and legal professionals of Texas as well as breaking State Bar news.

"We see the blog a perfect platform to promote the good things that lawyers and legal professionals do in their communities," Sirman says. "Our intention is to keep it people-focused, with interesting stories from around the state."

Sirman has been featured in this space before, when he discussed Texas Bar Circle, a social and professional network for Texas lawyers that now includes more than 9,100 attorneys. While that network is exclusive, the new blog is meant to be accessible to a wide range of readers.

"It's not just for or about lawyers, but all legal professionals," Sirman says. "Hopefully those outside of the legal industry will also find it interesting. Ideally the blog will remind people that lawyers and legal professionals are an important part of their communities."

The blog aims to achieve that through diverse content that includes multimedia from Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo feeds. It has an index of blogs by Texas lawyers, Texas Law Blogs, which follows more than 100 Texas lawyer-bloggers.

"Working with John and the Bar was a great experience," said LexBlog Project Manager Rob La Gatta. "Their goals with the blog were different than those of most LexBlog clients, and the end result is a community-based resource that can be highly beneficial to the Texas legal community. Their integration of new media tools - Twitter, video feeds, etc - brings this site into the 21st century, making it appear less like a blog and more like a fun & informative resource that appeals to all the senses."

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Texas State Bar PowerPoint

Here's a copy of my presentation at the Texas State Bar Annual Meeting this morning. Click here to download PowerPoint presentation.

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In Houston and L.A. this week : Look me up

I'm traveling to Houston and Los Angeles the end of this week. As always, I would welcome getting together with anyone.

Thursday, I'm in in Houston for the Texas State Bar's Annual Conference. It's at the George Brown Convention Center.

On Friday, I'm in L.A. for Legal Tech and the First Annual Small Firm & Solo Conference. Both are at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

I'll be speaking in Houston at 10:30 on Thursday with my presentation titled 'Creating an Effective Internet Presence for Today and Beyond: Blogs, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking, Podcasts, and Video.'

I don't fly to L.A. until that evening so I have plenty of time to meet up in Houston.

The L.A. County Bar Association and The Rainmaker Institute are co-sponsoring the Solo and Small Law Firm Conference in association with Legal Tech on Thursday and Friday. I'm presenting on Friday at 1:30. My talk is entitled 'Law blogs: The Fastest Way to Become the 'Go To' Lawyer in Your Practice Area.'

I have plenty of time to get together. I'm around in the morning and then after my presentation until I fly back to Seattle Friday evening.

Email me or call my cell, 206 321 3627, if you want to meet. Look forward to catching up with you or meeting for the first time.