4 reasons you ought to be blogging as a lawyer

Chris Marentis, CEO and founder of Surefire Social, former CEO of Clearspring Technologies and former SVP of AOL has a nice post this morning on 4 Reasons Why You Should Be Blogging About Your Business.

I agree with Marentis that blogging is still new. You’re not behind if you haven’t started blogging.

Blogging is still a fairly recent development for marketing, and small and medium sized businesses are the ones who will benefit greatly by incorporating blogs into their online marketing strategy.

Blogging does the obvious for your business per Marentis.

• Bump you to the top of the search engines.
• Mold your reputation as an expert or “helper” in your field.
• Refine your ability to deliver a quality product based on different perspectives you will gain through writing posts.

But look at the four things blogging will do for you a as person, in your case a lawyer, per Marentis. I’ve paraphrased a few of these points based on my own experience.

1. Stimulate that brain! The brain is a muscle. If you don’t use it, it will slowly die, and then when you need it, the kickstart will be slow and sputtering. In my case, blogging causes me to read, analyze, problem solve, and convey thoughts. It improves the thoughts and ideas I share with lawyers and other legal marketing professionals, both in my blog and in my work.
2. The more you blog, the more you’ll get invited to speak. You become a better public speaker the more you write about your industry. You’ll be much more comfortable answering questions while speaking based on the knowledge you’ve gleaned through blogging.
3. Marentis points out something I have not done a good job at. Go deep. Blogs have this beautiful evolution where you can revisit old posts and topics and expand upon them. Without just repeating the post, it’s a great way to cover a relevant topic from many different angles, or focus specifically on some key points from a more general post. It’s also a good way to garner enthusiasm about a topic that previously has not gained much interest or notoriety.
4. Become a better networker, not by being a self-promoter but by establishing yourself as a relevant source of information in your industry by sharing content from other users, you will build trust around your own name, which will lead to more followers. There are countless niches for lawyers to cover and become a source of information.

Blogging is still in its infancy for lawyers. Opportunities abound to grow as a person and as a lawyer.

At the same time you’ll be giving of yourself to the public in a very positive way.

Give some thought as to why you ought to be blogging. The number of reasons why you should blog will likely outweigh the reasons against blogging.