Seven reasons why small firms should blog

I‘ve always thought the Internet was the great equalizer when it came to small law firms keeping up with the large firms on marketing. Blogs have taken that concept to a new level.

Steve Clayton of Social Computing Magazine offers seven reasons why small firms should blog. His list and my comments:

• It’s a differentiator. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry law firm has a website. And though the graphics, colors, and text of those websites may differ, they’re about as different as one yellow page ad is to another. Plus, current and prospective clients see blogging lawyers as innovators.
• Your customers will soon expect it. Clients, including in excess of 21% of senior business exec’s, read blogs. Why? For the information disseminated and to keep up to speed with vendors and service providers with whom they’re spending huge dollars.
• It’s not as hard as you think. Some law firm website developers a/k/a blog nay-sayers are still preaching that a good law blog needs to be updated at least once a day, that a post takes an hour plus to write nicely, and that most law blogs will not be continued making the firm look bad when they stop their blog. Can tell those folks have not tried blogging. Using tools like Google Blog Search and a newsreader to follow your niche’s discussion can result in a blog post taking 15 minutes to a half hour. Though posting once a week for a law firm is a good rule of thumb, no one is going to be sitting on pins and needles if the firm doesn’t post for a couple weeks.
• You control the message. Why pay a PR or marketing company to frame your message? You know what you stand for. People relate to that.
• People will find you. Believe me, put up a blog focused on a niche area of the law and you will not be able to keep regular visitors away with a stick. The search engines love blog content. Substantive info, as opposed to marketing info about the firm, regular updates, and incoming links – that’s the holy grail of search engine performance.
• The Google effect. Law firms are buying sponsored links with mixed returns. The ROI from blogging, including the cost of your time, beats buying those links. Links that the majority of net users do not trust.
• You will find your voice. Blogging may seem daunting at first. But no matter your style of talking with folks, you’ll find it reduced to writing on your blog. As to not writing well, you ‘ll improve quickly. You can write poorly, but for so only so long.

Small firm lawyer looking to lap some of the big boys? You could do a lot worse than a blog.