Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Why Should Lawyers Take the Time to Blog? Here’s One Example

By Sarah Larson

“Content marketing” is an important ingredient in the communications plans that we create to help our clients get noticed, but oftentimes, getting them to actually create the content is tough.

Lawyers are busy, usually with work for which they can bill a client. Taking the time to write a blog post on a new development in their practice area or an article to submit to a journal often falls way down on their list of priorities.

We tell them how important blogging and other writing is, but, as with most things, it’s much more effective when you are able to show people a truth instead of just telling them. One recent experience with a client did just that, demonstrating the value of high-quality, original content to any communications plan.

Willig, Williams & Davidson, a labor and employment law firm based in Philadelphia, rotates different lawyers throughout the firm to write articles about developments in their practice area every couple months. Those articles are then posted on the firm’s website and shared with the firm’s audience through an electronic newsletter.

The attorneys at this firm have spent decades practicing labor, employment and workers’ compensation law. They know their stuff, and are a great resource for anyone looking for information or commentary when labor and employment issues affect public policy or make news headlines.

One of the partners, Wendy Pongracz, wrote an article for the website exploring the effects of a Pennsylvania court decision upholding same-sex marriage on employees benefits. The article, “Same-Sex Marriage in Pennsylvania: An Employee Benefits Perspective,” was published on the firm’s website in June 2014.

In September 2015, Evan Jones, a business reporter at the Reading Eagle newspaper (subscription required) wrote a news series looking at the impacts of the Whitewood v. Wolf court decision on Pennsylvania workplaces in the ensuing year. While doing his research, he came across Pongracz’s article and then cited her and the firm in the resulting news piece, “Gay marriage brings new rules at work.”

That news series then was picked up and published by Bloomberg Business.

And just like that, an article that an attorney had written more than a year previously garnered the firm the attention it deserved in both a regional and a national publication as a knowledgeable source of insight into employment law.

Content like this is what we call “evergreen,” meaning it will remain relevant for a long period of time. From a public relations and marketing perspective, publishing this kind of valuable information on a law firm’s website or blog is key to demonstrating the firm’s leadership in its area of practice.

So what are you going to blog about today that will demonstrate your leadership in your own area of focus?

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