Tuesday, December 09, 2008

What Every Lawyer Should Know about Legal Blogging

Posted by Katie Noonan

Law.com’s Law Technology News offers good advice for lawyers considering starting their own legal blog. While blogging can be an excellent form of marketing and enable you to carve a niche for yourself as an expert in a specific legal area, C.C. Holland, author of How to Build a Better Law Blog encourages lawyers to consider a few things before starting a legal blog:

  1. Only blog if you are passionate. If you’re not passionate, readers can tell. In my opinion, the best blogs are written in a way that conveys the writer’s passion for the topic and allows his or her true voice to show through. The most successful bloggers find a way to make their blogs an open dialogue that fellow experts and their readers want to engage in. 
  2. Know your audience. Holland makes an excellent point.  If you know who’s reading your blog it will help you determine the issues on which you should focus, and the way you write. If your readership includes non-lawyers, avoid using a ton of legal jargon that the average person wouldn’t know. 
  3. If you’re going to blog, really commit. Holland urges lawyers to start slow, but commit to maintaining an active blog with frequent updates. Not only will updating frequently help you to appear higher in Google search results, people will also start visiting daily to read what you have to say. If your ultimate goal is to make yourself an expert in the legal field, or garner a little organic public relations, it’s essential to keep your blog current and relevant to the field and your readers.
Check out C.C. Holland's blog post for more on building a successful legal blog.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can I add, only blog if you want to share more than caselaw. If your only audience is other lawyers maybe that works, but if you are hoping to also appeal to potential clients aim for at least a semi-conversation tone. My favorite law blogs all speak in an authentic voice, they are not just spewing facts or law.