Skip to main content

Having a Law Blog Is Different Than Blogging

Legal blogging versus law blog

One can own a race car, but that doesn’t mean you know how to drive it.

The same is true of a blog in the case of lawyers. Law firm websites everywhere have a page titled “blog.” Large law firms have multiple blogs.

But are the lawyers blogging? Do they know how to blog?

It’s a question being kicked around a lot at LexBlog of late. If we’re going to sell a law firm a professional turnkey blog solution, we have the obligation to make sure the lawyer(s) know how to blog.

My COO, Gary Vander Voort, put it well in his post about customer success this afternoon, in reflecting  on the state of blogging and LexBlog’s place in it.

“We need to make sure that we are not just giving people a spaceship, but are showing them how to use it. Because anyone can give someone a blog, the internet is full of solutions, but not everyone can make someone a blogger. So if someone has the right stuff, we need to be able to help them slip the surly bonds of earth, and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”

Blogging, versus having a blog, includes an appreciation of some of the following:

  • Clear goals
  • Role of passion
  • Blogs are the unedited voice of a person
  • Tight niche
  • Listening to leaders and influencers in your niche
  • Engaging those influencers in your blogging
  • Using social media personally so as to build trust and an audience
  • Understanding that blog posts are merely currency to be used in networking through the Internet, not the end goal
  • Success is measured in reputation, relationships and revenue, not web statistics and distribution

There is so much to be gained by lawyers connecting to people – consumers, small businesses, and general counsel – in blogging. The key is going beyond having a blog.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LexBlog Con Can Provide Legal Companies and Law Firms an Opportunity to Connect With Influencers

Imagine a “LexBlog Con” where leading legal brands from startups to traditional larger players to law firms are offered the opportunity to connect with legal bloggers. After all, legal bloggers are quickly supplanting reporters and traditional media as the influencers of our legal community. From a blogger attendee, today, at BlogHer19 in Brooklyn. Day 1 of @BlogHer was wonderful. So many amazing brands to connect with #blogher19 #blogherpro #blogherlife #blogherstyle #blogherhealth19 #womenslifestyle #lifestyleblogger #lifestyleblog pic.twitter.com/IIcVrg9apz — Mademoiselle Skinner (@guestlistblog) September 18, 2019 There may not be a better way for legal industry companies to connect with the biggest influencers in legal than a conference of legal bloggers, ala LexBlog Con. LexBlog Con could start as simple as BlogHer did years ago and, as we had discussed for this last year, as a larger meetup of legal bloggers for a day of blogger education and networking. But ...

Institute for the Future of Law Practice Steps in Where Law Schools Struggle

Leave it to legal tech innovator and law professor, Bill Henderson to be part of a new nonprofit, the  Institute for the Future of Law Practice,  that will coordinate the entry level law school market around an updated and modernized curriculum. Traditional legal service models are breaking down. Law students are graduating from law school unprepared for the demands of the consumers of legal services, assuming even law firms are. Law schools, like many law firms, are debating the need for change without the necessary action. They’re often paralyzed by traditional bureaucracy. A core group of lawyers, legal educators, allied professionals and corporate legal leaders (Shell, Cisco, Archer Daniels Midland)  — many of whom I know well via common beliefs on innovation and tech —  believe that the best way forward is to create an independent organization that can coordinate the interests of law students, law schools, law firms, corporate legal departments, N...

Paralegals: What To Do When Your Law Firm Dissolves

On Friday, you left the office pretty confident that on Monday the normal routine would ebb and flow.  Nothing "out of the ordinary" was expected.  In fact, you'd relegated yourself to the fact that your career as a paralegal/legal assistant/legal secretary was somoetimes boring but, hey, it paid okay, you had health benefits, and even enjoyed work free weekends - most of the time. But what if