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Social media not the equal of blogging for lawyers

December 10, 2013

Author and blogger, Norm Schriever (@normschriever) shared his 20 golden rules of business blogging in the Huffington Post this past weekend.

One of his rules is that social media and blogging are not the same.

A slick, social media campaign, by itself, will do nothing but push around other people’s ideas, links and messages — not your own. A company should produce quality content and disseminate it correctly — the intersection of social media and content marketing. Content is king and platform is queen.

This is especially true for lawyers.

Absolutely use social media to share things you are reading and to connect with others.

If you’ve used other social media such as Twitter to share other people’s content, Twitter will become a good place to share your content — other people will want to share it as well. LinkedIn and Google+ are also effective for sharing.

But a blog is the only way you can demonstrate your knowledge, experience, and care. A blog establishes trust based on your empathy for your audience (knowing what’s of value of to them).

A blog builds your influence in niche areas. First in the way we’ve always looked at influence, in a subjective way, ie, she’s an influence lawyer in the patent litigation arena. Second, and perhaps more importantly, influence for high rankings on Google, with its Hummingbird update.

There are any number of other advantages of blogging over other social media. Where do I go to find a record of your insight over the last three years without a blog? How do you share your ‘social media’ with a client via an email? I can strategically share a blog post by email. How do others cite you without a blog? How do people share your content without a blog?

In may last two trips to New York City I am seeing a growing trend in large law to focus on blogging at the expense of other social media/networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.

Firms are seeing value in blogging. Blogging makes total sense to them. Leading lawyers have always written and spoken. Blogging feels like a natural extension of this form of business development.

Other forms of social media, though very effective as an adjunct to blogging, feel a little beneath a ‘lawyer’ to many firms. Right or wrong, they don’t want to jump into other social media right now.

One law firm marketing professional told me today that when he suggestsTwitter with lawyers in his firm he gets a look like he is suggesting MySpace. In a presentation yesterday I asked an audience of about fifty lawyers how many use Twitter. One sheepishly raised his hand to shoulder height.

Take a look at Schriever’s post, his rules on business blogging are pretty good.
Though Schriever and I did have an exchange on having someone blog for you.

As you know, I view blogging as a way for a lawyer to establish themselves as a trusted, reliable, and caring authority. That requires authentic blogging by the lawyer themselves, perhaps not necessary in non-professional services businesses.

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