Law blogs more valuable PR than TV and radio appearances

Steve Matthews of the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog, points out that law blogs are more valuable PR than TV and radio appearances.

Arises out Michel-Adrien Sheppard’s reasoning on the lack of French Canadian law bloggers in article in the most recent issue of The National. Sheppard asks who needs a blog when the most popular forms of media are so accessible?

In Quebec, there is a tight little media world and any lawyer who attracts attention can easily and quickly get invited to all the major TV and radio studios, most of which are located within a 10-15 minute taxi ride of each other in Montreal (with perhaps a handful in Quebec City), and become known as an authority on an issue. They might even give you your own newspaper column or ask you to guest host a show segment (civil libertarian Julius Grey seems to be on Marie-France Bazzo’s morning show Indicatif Présent on Radio-Canada almost every other week). Who needs blawgs?

Steve picks up what Michel-Adrien may be missing.

Michel-Adrien’s points seem valid, but I hope this doesn’t stop potential francophone law bloggers from getting started. The value of blogging, from a marketing perspective, is the same regardless of language or media accessibility. And unlike a radio or TV interview, blog posts don’t give you a profile spike once and then go away. A quality professional blog can become a body of work that will continue to demonstrate your expertise over a career. Building one’s ‘online profile’ is fast becoming an essential marketing tool, and those without one are – simply put – invisible online.

No doubt blogs have more staying power than TV, radio and newspaper presence. The latter are fleeting. Sure, they feel good and are used as validity for paying another $10,000 monthly retainer to the PR agency. But I’ll take a long standing presence through effective blogging any day.