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Internetnews.com: blogs better than traditional PR and marketing communications

August 15, 2004

Michael Singer, in an article in Internetnews.com calls blogs “the marketing killer.” He believes “tried and true marketing and PR departments may one day make the endangered species list thanks to a rush of corporate interest in blogs and RSS feeds.”

Singer points out multi-million dollar corporations looking for cheap and effective ways of getting their message out are using the blog technology and RSS to their advantage. There is no reason large law firms should not be using blogs to get their word out.

The question by some is, “Do companies need a full-blown marketing or PR department when the employees themselves and the conversations they have on these blogs are getting the corporate info out more effectively?”

Matthew Bailey, Web marketing director with the Karcher Group, told Internetnews.com:

Companies can take advantage of this technology to build that direct line of communication to multiple groups, such as consumers, suppliers, investors, etc. Taking advantage of this direct line of communication can help a company appear to be ‘in touch’ and directly concerned with the readers.

Sun Microsystem’s employees are maintaining multiple blogs. Singer explains the company would have had to spend extra manpower and resources, not to mention blocking out time for reporters to talk with executives, to publicize any of the announcements. Instead, Sun was able to hype its product and practices without too much effort. And they didn’t have to issue a press release, which reporters are reading less and less of these days.

Large law firms spend a ton of money in PR & marketing communications to help shape public and clients’ opinion of the law firm and their capabilities. In many cases the message never reaches its recipients. Why not do regular communications and PR through blog(s)? Blogs can be dedicated to individual practice groups or the law firm as a whole.

Blogs can also be a time and cost saver for law firms. In my talking to large law firms, legal marketing professionals see the potential of lawyers communicating with clients on a regular basis through blogs without the law firm’s marketing department being a middleman as is the case with other PR and marketing. Legal marketing professionals are swamped – a tool getting a few lawyers to do their own Internet marketing could be a God send.

Innovative law firms ought to follow the lead of companies such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and many others who are running blogs to stay in touch with their customers. Blogs can be more effective in reaching your clients than other PR and marketing and can get the firm’s lawyers more involved in marketing themselves.