Law firm digital publishing needs to be a conversation
Lost on most blogging lawyers and law firms is that blogging represents something much different than writing an article for dissemination.
Blogging represents an opportunity to develop relationships with your readers. Relationships developed through conversations with your readers.
New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan (@sulliview), writing this week on the Times’ plans to expand comments, said that comments are a key part of the newspaper’s relationship with its readers. She explained, “reader commenting is one of the best ways for The Times to stay close to its readers and what they care most about.”
Gigaom’s Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) reporting on the Times comments plans, says the Times is not the only major publication that believes in the power of comments. From Aron Pilhofer (@pilhofer), the head of digital for The Guardian in London — and the former head of the digital team at the New York Times:
I feel very strongly that digital journalism needs to be a conversation with readers. This is one, if not the most important area of emphasis that traditional newsrooms are actually ignoring. You see site after site killing comments and moving away from community – that’s a monumental mistake… readers need and deserve a voice. They should be a core part of your journalism.
Most law blogs are not going to generate many comments. The only people more concerned about comments on a law blog than the blogging law firm are the people who may leave a comment. People generally do not feel comfortable discussing legal matters openly and have concerns regarding confidentiality.
That does not mean you can not build a relationship through conversation with some of your readers. It may be one out of a hundred, but that’s okay.
First, you need to enable comments on your blogs. Nothing says you don’t care what you think more than no comments. There is no valid reason to disable comments. The things I hear for turning off comments are excuses. Moderation is easy. Technology eliminates spam. Ethics and liability concerns do not preclude comments.
Second, you need to write in a conversational and engaging tone. Writing as a boring stiff does not invite conversation. Sharing your take as if you were sitting down at a coffee shop with one person in a fashion that demonstrates your passion, experience and personality invites engagement.
Third, conversation need not, and most often does not, take place in comments on your blog. There are plenty of exceptions, but most of the conversation about a particular blog post takes place on social networks.
Look around my blog, you’ll see some comments, but not that many. But most all of my posts draw engagement on social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Comments, likes, and re-sharing.
This engagement of my posts on social networks enables me to have a conversation with my readers — whether they are coming to my blog to read or are reading my posts on social networks.
I find this engagement a wonderful way to build relationships. People who agree and people who disagree.
Sure, it may only be one percent of my readers that join the conversation, but these folks are engaged. I learn from them and they are apt to carry my message to a broad base by citing and sharing what I have to say.
Blogging, like digital publishing, is a conversation. Over are the days of a one way broadcast. Writing articles and looking at the Internet as a dissemination vehicle is leaving a lot on the table.
Take it from the Times and the Guardian, digital publishing is about developing relationships with your readers. Relationships earned through conversations — when you can get them.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Kathleen Tyler Conklin