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There are blogs… and there are blogs

law blogs
February 24, 2015

One of my goals this year is to meet with as many of LexBlog’s clients – on their turf – as possible. Relationships are the key to our success.

When traveling I also look for opportunities to meet with lawyers and law firms who are not LexBlog Network members. Not to sell them on anything, but so that they can put a face on the guy they may have met through the LinkedIn Legal Blogging Group, the Legal Marketing Association or another online exchange.

I want them to know they have a friend in the business when it comes to blogging and social media for professional and business development. Network member or not I want them to know they can reach out to a lawyer of three decades who has built a company on the back of blogging, when and if the need arises.

As part of reaching out to a lawyer or law firm for a meeting, I look at what their firm is doing to engage their audience online. What content are they producing? How they are sharing this content? Do they have blogs? How good are the blogs?

What I am struck by is how awful some of the blogs are.

  • Blogs buried inside of websites resulting in no sharing of the blog content on social media, no positive feedback for the lawyers to keep them blogging and no establishing a mantle of expertise.
  • Blogs on broad and general topics which are going to draw little interest and few subscribers. No way to become the “go-to” lawyer in a niche and locale.
  • Blog posts blended from more than one blog into one central place from where you click out to read a post and then click again to read the full post. Did they pay more more for this?
  • Blog posts merely providing a summary of a legal ruling or case, much like a first year law student would write to “brief” a case. No value to anyone.
  • No imagery included in the posts. How’s that look on social media networks or Flipboard?
  • Titles that are boring and droll 18 words long that could never be displayed on a Google search nor displayed in news aggregators.
  • No engagement, via linking, of other bloggers, reporters or other influencers.
  • No personality or conversational writing.
  • Blogs on other than on a WordPress core making upgrades and a later move from the platform difficult and expensive.

It would be funny if it were not so sad. Lawyers making poor and uninformed buying decisions. Lawyers wasting their time while believing they are accomplishing something. In some cases I looked at it’s like lawyers throwing money down a rat hole.

Law firms with excellent reputations are putting their reputations at risk by calling what they have a blog.

Reporters, business leaders, association directors, and bloggers within the law firm’s community know what blogging is. Rather than enhancing the firm’s reputation, these “blogs” are tarnishing the reputation of the firm and its lawyers. Especially so when the blogs are naively promoted.

Who is giving these lawyers their blogging advice? Who is selling lawyers these things labeled blogs? And why?

Some website developers who have never blogged to build relationships and word mouth appear to be just throwing blogs into a website package. No thought. No strategy. No willingness to measure success by tangible business. Wow.

We have blogs where many of America’s lawyers are growing professionally, building relationships and developing strong reputations — and then we have these blogs. The lawyers on “these blogs” deserve better.

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