Holiday Cards: To Sign or Not To Sign - That is the Question

Every year there is a debate among marketers and PR practitioners as to personalization of holiday cards. Some actually question if they're worth sending at all - my answer is, NO, not if you don't plan to sign them by hand. Case and point: this year our firm sent out nearly 500 cards to colleagues, clients, prospects and media (yes, media). Each card was handwritten (we did not handwrite the labels). We also ordered the cards back in June and began the personalization process in September. Does it take a long time? YES! Is it worth it? YES! To date we have received accolades from card recpients in person, by letter and via e-mail. All have said thank you for the card and for taking the time to handwrite them. One former client called and asked for a meeting to begin working together again. A long-time prospect called and asked to meet over lunch.

Now I also mentioned that we sent holiday cards to members of the media but I need to clarify: we only sent cards to members of the media who we deal with regularly and who know one of us very very well. We did not send cards to people we just want to get to know. Remember, as with anything, would you pick a person's name out of a hat and send a card? NO! So be smart when sending cards to the media. Make sure you actually know the person (and they know you)!

So - all that said, Happy Holidays from eachof us at Furia Rubel Communications and from me, Gina Rubel, The PR Lawyer!

Yet another great article on blogging appears in the Law.com Law Technology News section at http://www.law.com/jsp/ltn/pubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1102340119344 written by an affiliate blogger.

A Great Article on Blogging
Blogging And the Bottom Line - Lawyers Weekly USA Practice Management 2004

For a great article on lawyers and blogging, go to www.lawyersweeklyusa.com Practice Management 2004 Supplement. For starters, the author, Robert J. Ambrogi defines blogging as "a web page with frequently updated content arranged in reverse chronological order, much like a print log or diary. Each entry is stamped with the author's name and the date and time it was made." Ambrogi goes on to talk about the benefits of blogs and provides a ton of great blogging resources.

As a lawyer, it's always been my dream to be a journalist or newspaper columnist and I've often hear other lawyers say the same thing. Writing your own Blog allows you to do this and you don't have to learn about syndication, corporate publishing politics, or who's "in the know." Simply type in your thoughts about a particular topic - be careful of course not to give legal advice that any reader might rely on - and then publish your thoughts instantly on the Web. The beauty of most free blogsites is that you don't need to know any computer programming language - just type,click and go. Blogs then help to establish you as a legal authority in your area of practice - be careful never to say "expertise" - and to generate a buzz about your biz.
If you're looking for great tips about blogging - the Legal Blogging guru - or so I say, is Kevin O'Keefe of http://kevin.lexblog.com/ and he includes some great stuff on his site about adding Blogs to your public relations mix (http://kevin.lexblog.com/cat-lawyer-blogs-for-public-relations.html).