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Legal Marketing Technology - October 7th, 2005 |
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 By Larry Bodine, a strategic marketing consultant who advises law firms across North America on marketing strategy, offers marketing coaching and gives business development presentations at lawyer retreats. He can be reached at 630.942.0977 and www.LarryBodine.com An earlier version of this article was originally published in the January 2004 issue of Law Technology News.
They’re called Weblogs, blogs and “blawgs,” and a recent issue of Fortune;magazine proclaimed them the No. 1 technology trend in the business world. They are the hottest thing to come along in marketing since the telephone. In a nutshell, they are online diaries or chronologically-ordered journals on the Web. The beauty of blogs is that they allow any lawyer, including professionals in big and small firms alike, to market themselves directly to clients and prospects.
A new blog is created every 3 seconds -- that's 23,000 new blogs per day. As of October 2005 there were 20 million blogs online, according to Technorati.com. While blogs have been around for several years, they came to widespread public attention during the Iraq war, when news correspondents would file on-the-scene reports in their “war blogs.” News junkies worldwide read their blogs to get up-to-the-minute reports, and the notion of blogs took off.
Ripe opportunity
There are just under 2,000 lawyer blogs among 20 million blogs! Attorneys are starting to see the opportunity and climbing on board the Biggest Thing In Marketing in Years. This is a ripe marketing opportunity for law firms to start blogs while they are still a new tactic in the profession -- remember that in marketing all the attention goes to the early adopters, not the firms that were late to join a trend.
Existing law-related blogs focus on appellate, criminal, Delaware, ethics, health, immigration, products liability, securities, and tax law, just to name a few topics. A good list of law blogs or “blawgs” is maintained at www.Blawg.org. These blawgs were created by lawyers who write about their area of expertise, and update readers with new opinions and developments in the law.  That’s why blogs are excellent marketing vehicles: they let professionals demonstrate expertise in a particular topic. A well-done blog is very impressive to clients and is a great business-getter. Examples include:
- Electronic Discovery Law blog – http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/, maintained by Preston Gates & Ellis. In the first month alone the Electronic Discovery blog had more than 70,000 hits and saw 3,000 unique visitors.
- The Environment – www.the-environment.ws, maintained by Lowenstein Sandler, a 200-lawyer firm in New Jersey.
- Antitrust Law Blog– www.antitrustlawblog.com, maintained by Sheppard Mullin, 430 attorneys throughout our nine offices located throughout California and in Washington, D.C.
I operate The Professional Marketing Blog at http://blog.larrybodine.com that discusses news, information and insights into professional firm marketing. I also maintain the LegalMarketing Blog at http://legalmarketing.typepad.com/, offering a common-sense, nuts-and-bolts, practical approach to legal marketing, concentrating on techniques that actually bring in new business. The blogs have attracted thousands of visitors since they went online. It took 10 minutes to set it each one up. Best relationship generator
One reason blogs are so popular is that they are astonishingly easy to find. Just type my name and the word "blog" Google -- and my blog will be the top several listings. This super-high ranking in the top search engine was accomplished with very little effort -- all I did was start publishing my blog. To get a professional firm Web site ranked that high would cost a fortune in site optimization, the purchase of online keywords and countless hours to get registered with search engines. “The blog is the best relationship generator you’ve ever seen,” said Robert Scoble, Software Evangelist for Microsoft. It gives professionals a chance to talk with new and old clients, and to send out new information. Blogs also put an approachable human face on professional firm, which can otherwise be scary places to clients.
Patrick Lamb, a litigator with a 30-lawyer firm in Chicago, has the most popular blawg on the Web, according to Blawg.org. Called "In Search of Perfect Client Service" at http://patricklamb.typepad.com/perfectservice/, he uses it mainly to communicate with clients. In his 20 years of law practice, he says it's the most effective marketing tool he's ever used.
 Blogs are incredibly powerful. In 2004 when 60 Minutes broadcast a story about President Bush's service record, it was a blogger who determined that the records in question were faked. The story spread throughout the blogosphere, made national news, caused 60 Minutes to apologize and withdraw the story and made Dan Rather retire. It was not a major news organization that discovered the story -- it was a lone blogger. The point is that people read blogs and pay attention to them.
Here are the compelling reasons for professionals to start their own blogs:
- They are easy to set up and use.Simply go to Blogspot at www.blogspot.com (for a free blog, mainly designed for kids) or Typepad at www.typepad.com (for a $15/month blog, designed for professionals) and open an account. These are two most popular programs in the “blogosphere.” Install one and follow the self-evident instructions. You don’t need to know HTML code. If you know how to send an email, you have all the skills to post to a blog. The software will select a Web address for you.
- They are cheap.You get a month’s free trial of the software, and pay about $15 a month for Typepad when you use it. This is much cheaper than hiring a developer to create a Web site for you.
- They are highly visible and quickly draw visitors.Search engines rank blogs highly because they predominately contain text and they are updated frequently – two things that attract search engines like Spanish Fly. Lawyer Ernest Svenson’s blog, "Ernie The Attorney" at www.ernietheattorney.net gets more traffic than the Web sites of many major law firms.
- They can be about anything. A blog can simply recount a professional’s analysis, viewpoints and news. They can also be used for firm announcements, client newsletters, legal updates, and answers to common client questions.
- They give the author instant credibility and expert status on the topic
- If you fail to set up a blog on your special topic, someone else will claim it before you do.The attention and traffic goes to the early adopters, not the professionals who wait to decide to join the trend a year later. You’ll be missing out on the hottest new trend on the Internet.
Don't let this trend pass you by Obviously, only trusted employees should be allowed to post to a practice group or industry group blog. It should also carry a legal disclaimer that the blog is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Bloggers should be aware that libel laws of the print world apply equally to online messages.
New law blogs spring up daily. They provide an excellent way to distribute firm news and gain a nationally-recognized voice. Don't let this trend pass you by.
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