Create a local favorites blog at your law firm

If you are a community focused law firm—and which law firm isn’t?—and you are not blogging about your local favorites in businesses, events and people, you’re missing a big opportunity.

This from Dave Delaney (@davedelaney), a Nashville-based social media and digital marketing consultant. I am in total agreement.

Delaney was speaking at a conference of regional law firms. When the topic of blogs came up, he found that the firms’ blogs focused on areas of the law. Nothing wrong with practice area blogs for networking and search engine optimization but, per Delaney, it can leave prospective clients and the community out.

The answer, per Delaney, is a community “favorites” blog:

You should allow your staff to contribute to your blog, give them a voice. You retain editorial control, while you encourage them to participate. Ask your staff what their favorite businesses are in their own neighborhoods. Have each contribute a blog post outlining their favorite restaurants, cafes, things to do for the family, live music venues, movie theaters, etc. Take it a step further and give the employee a gift certificate for one of their picks. Word will spread and other staff will want to contribute something.

For example, if you were in Nashville:

Create a blog series of “Nashville neighborhood favorites.” Be sure each blog post links to the corresponding business, so readers can click to learn more. Include photos of the businesses and brief descriptions of each. The posts shouldn’t be grocery lists, they should be succinct articles describing the best local shops. What makes them your favorite?

Immeditately follow up to let the favorite and others know you highlighted the business.

• Drop the business an email letting them know  “as a courtesy” that they’ve been favorited.
• Share your post on Twitter, referencing the favorite’s Twitter handle.
• Tag the business in Facebook posts on your company page.
• Share your post on LinkedIn — on your company page and via relevant employee pages — again tagging the business and/or its people.

Delaney’s spot on that “favorite blogging” works.

• You empower your employees in an open and transparent way while other law firms, perhaps unintentionally, appear to give their employees the back seat when it comes to the net. Community members take notice of these things.
• You further support your community. As a law firm, you support the community in all sorts of ways, this is an extension of your effort to be relevant to and supportive.
• You produce content on your blog consistently. You are always searching for content, now you have an endless source of topics and more people in the firm blogging. Heck, you probably already have employees blogging and using social media on non-law topics.
• Organic traffic to your blog will increase as people search for local businesses and favorites.
• The featured businesses will share your blog post with their friends, fans and followers, which will drive traffic back to your blog and increase awareness of your law firm brand.
• You’ll get the business community talking about you and your blog and contacting you to make them a favorite.

I have been preaching favorite blogs for a long time, for these reasons and more. Maybe it’s time LexBlog should make a real push for community focused blogs.

Law firm and interested? Give a call or drop me an email. I’ll give you sweetheart deal so we can get an example up to inspire other law firms around the country.

Image courtesy of Flickr from Richie Diesterheft