Five lessons law bloggers can take from Jon Stewart

There are five lessons blogging lawyers can take from John Stewart’s success on The Daily Show. Summed up: authenticity and authority are what people want today.

As Sonio Simone (@soniasimone)  writes at Copyblogger, when Stewart started in 1999 the news was reported by the likes of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. Stewart’s satire and irreverant take on the news and politics was never meant to be taken as the “real news.”

Funny thing happened, Americans came to view Stewart’s reporting of the news to be more trustworthy than traditional broadcast news.  By 2007 Stewart placed fourth in a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press as to the most admired journalist.

Americans began to look to Stewart for the news.

Why? Because he was real. He was genuine. He was authentic. In the face of producers, writers, 16 corespondents and talking head news readers, Stewart was his own guy.

Simone breaks down lessons we ought to take from Stewart in sharing our insight online. Law bloggers would be well served to follow all of them.

• Keep yourself informed on your topic — do your homework. Blogging is not just about volumes of content. Blogging is about constant and never ending learning. You need to know your stuff.
• Develop your own distinctive voice. Blogging is a conversation in your own voice. As Dave Winer says, blogging is the unedited voice of a person.
• Remember you are in the entertainment business — make your content compelling and shareable. No one is expecting near stand up comedy ala Stewart, but you pick up a following and get your content shared as a blogger when you do more than “report” the law. Show who you are, you need to gain trust that comes through by displaying a sense of hunor and your take.
• Don’t censor yourself when genuine emotion appears. This can be tough for lawyers surrounded by a large law firm and lots of corporate clients, but exhibit some passion. People want to know lawyers stand for something.
• Lead with your beliefs, to attract the tribe that shares them. There may be some people who do not agree with you. That’s okay, the world, including those in the legal arena, are looking for people to follow who believe in something.

If you walked into our LexBlog offices in Seattle, you’d see our beliefs in raised letters on the wall. One reads “We believe authentic online engagement accelerates relationships and word of mouth.”

Authentic engagement. No one writes for you. You demonstrate your expertise. You demonstrate your passion. You demonstrate your care.

Authenticity and authority is required for success today. Take it from Stewart.