Lawyers are not born bloggers: Educational program is key

There’s been a lot of discussion about how easy it is for lawyers to blog. All you need is a skeleton blog and a law degree and you’re ready to go.

One VC backed startup in an effort to generate revenue recently even started selling law blogs for ‘less than buck a day.’ Service is limited to giving you a wordpress blog and getting it on the net on your domain. Wow! That’s easy. I’m on my way to client development success.

Lawyers need a little more training and support when it comes to blogging as a means of networking through the net for client development purposes. And most importantly how to blog in a professional, and ethically permissible fashion so as to avoid embarrassment.

I’m basing this on 6 years of work with over 2,500 lawyers on LexBlog client blogs. And all we do is blogs – no directory, no lawyer ratings service, not building a free law portal – just blogs. My livelihood and the livelihood of our team of 20 depends on lawyers blogging well and in a way which generates a ROI for them.

Working with Pam Garfield, LexBlog’s head of client services and a former practicing lawyer, and talking with countless lawyers and legal marketing professionals, both clients and prospective clients, LexBlog is finding lawyers want and need a long term education program backed by support from blog experts.

Even LexBlog’s one-on-one training and strategy sessions over the first couple months were too much too fast. One client recently described the experience as trying to drink through a funnel filled to the brim.

So Pam Garfield and her team are experimenting with on a one year initial education program enabling lawyers to grow a step at a time. The many lawyers moving to LexBlog from other blog platforms will of course move along at a faster clip. We’ll individually tailor a lawyer’s blog education.

The bottom line goal is to have good lawyers growing and building relationships with their target audience of clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and the influencers of those three. Influencers being bloggers, reporters, editors, conference coordinators, publishers, and the community in which the lawyer practices – industry or locale wise.

Don’t get me wrong, LexBlog clients won’t have to wait a year for success. Whether it be calls from new clients, better relationships with existing clients and referral sources, speaking engagements, speaking with reporters, or high search engine rankings, lawyers will experience those things in the first year.

Here’s a taste of the initial one year education program Pam’s team is going to be begin testing with some LexBlog clients.

• First 90 days: Getting used to blog publishing.

• How does a blog post differ from an article or newsletter?
• What makes for a good blog post as defined by various criteria we follow?
• Posts will be reviewed and feedback provided.

Second 90 days: The introduction of RSS.

• Rather than search and browse, the busiest people in the country search, browse and subscribe through the use of RSS and a news reader..
• What is RSS? How to use it?
• What’s the difference between subscribing to sources and subjects?
• Clients will subscribe to content of both professional and personal interest.

Next 90 days: Use of RSS feeds to engage one’s target audience.

• How do you reference something you find in a feed?
• How do you engage your target audience and their influencers through the use of RSS feeds?

The last 90 days: Social media.

• As much as lawyers and some firms want to dive into social media on day one, they’re not ready for it without a context of what drives discussion on the Internet. A blog being one’s social media home base provides that to them.
• What is social media and how is it used in client development?
• How do I use LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media tools?

We’ll know more in the coming months how this test of a year long education program works. At LexBlog we test new things, see how they work, listen to clients, and make adjustments. It’ll be the case here.

As is the case in the practice of law, you’re never done learning. There’s much to learn after a year of blogging. There’s always something new coming down the road on the Internet. LexBlog will be there with it’s ongoing educational programs and the access to our blog experts we’ve become know for.

Client or not, let me know what you think about this idea of a one year initial education program.