Building your personal brand through your blog

Consistently good, Darren Rowse has another with his post on building your personal brand through your blog.

A lawyer’s brand is their expertise. It’s not logo’s, glib ads, websites, and fancy offices. No better way to build their brand than a well done blog.

Read his full post to get Darren’s wisdom. Here’s his 6 bullets with my comments following.

• Build trust. That’s what blogging is all about. The public trusts lawyers less than everyone but journalists. However, sharing where you’re coming from, where you’re heading – your aspirations, and your insight on niche legal issues develops trust like you wouldn’t believe.
• Be personal. Let your hair down a bit. Don’t get flakey or unprofessional. Don’t share your personal life infinitum. But be yourself. You like people who are real, not phony. Plus clients who like your style are the best to represent. Such clients will be attracted to you from your blog.
• Use story. LexBlog’s Creative Director, Greg Storey, tells me this all the time. Stories sell and are an interesting read. In the case of law blogs, there’s nothing better than lawyers telling readers about how you helped people similarly situated to them. It shows you know something about the area of law in which the reader needs help. It shows you take calls, emails, and meet with people like them.
• Establish expertise. That’s why lawyers blog. We want others to refer to us as an expert in their writings, whether they be a blogger a news reporter. Share your insight, passion, and expertise on the niche area of law you are looking to grow. Report on what you see going on this area, sharing your take. You’ll be regularly sited as an expert within a year’s time.
• Establish relationships in your niche. You’re going to meet lots of people (virtually) when you start blogging. Build that network even further by blogging about what the leading bloggers in your niche are blogging. Share news stories, letting the reporter know you did. Keep track of your growing network via a tool like LinkedIn. You’ll be happy you dug your well before you got thirsty.
• Be consistent. You need not blog every day. Once a week is enough. But when you blog try to weave a common theme through your blog. We don’t like surprises. We subscribed to your blog, and in some cases hundreds others, based on what we read. Don’t get flakey and go off on tangents we did not see before.

Get building your brand. Your law firm is not and cannot do it for you.