I’ve posted about blogs twice before. The first time was September 30, 2005 in a post entitled Blogs and Podcasts, in which I detailed what they are all about, and concluded the post with these words:
Thus far this post is all about what these items are and what they do for you as an end user. Now let me turn for a brief moment to why your law firm should want to know and create these tools. It’s very simple. People are increasingly going to turn to these tools and delivery methods to obtain meaningful information. Don’t you want to be the firm that creates and delivers that information? Add to that the fact that search engine rankings vastly improve with blog and podcast content on a web site, and this becomes a no brainer.
My second post about blogs was made on November 21, 2005, entitled Blogging: Not for Sissies. In that blog I directed my attention to the time-consuming nature of blogs with these words and more:
I have to admit that blogging is more difficult than I imagined. It’s not about the software or technical aspects. That’s simple. Even a luddite can master the ability to post to a blog rather quickly. It’s about the content. The blog is an insatiable content monster which needs to be constantly fed and tended. . . . Nonetheless, I am convinced that blogs will be a critical component part of the new paradigm in information delivery. People will increasingly turn to –subscribe to– quality blogs covering a wide variety of subjects in order to have meaningful content delivered to their inbox. Someone is going to deliver that content. Shouldn’t it be your firm?
As with any new technology or marketing concept, law firms have been slow to embrace blogging. Legal Management Magazine is, in my opinion, the #1 law firm business management publication. It’s published by the Association of Legal Administrators, of which I have been a proud member since 1985. It has an international circulation of over 25,000 lawyers and administrators. There is an article in the most recent March/April 2006 issue entitled “Getting Noticed†which is about law firm blogs. The article , which appears on page 72, is written by New York freelance writer Wendy Davis.
Wendy’s article includes comments from several law firms she interviewed. New Jersey-based 100-lawyer Stark & Stark started their first blog in July 2004. They followed up with another blog a few months later. The firm’s marketing director is quoted as saying that the firm invests at least five to ten hours a week to creating blog posts. But the return on that investment of time has been significant. They are able to tie new clients to specific blog posts which deal with the same issues the new clients are facing.
Another interviewed firm, Illinois-based Simmons Cooper, started a blog about six months ago, according to the article. Their primary purpose in setting up the blog was to enhance and manage client relations by enabling clients to communicate more easily with the firm by using the comment link on blog posts. Their feeling is that clients are more comfortable communicating in this informal setting.
A third firm, Oklahoma-based Dunlap Codding & Rogers, started an IP-law blog in January, 2004. It enabled the firm to establish “cyber-relationships” with lawyers throughout the United States, with an ultimate result of six figures worth of legal work referrals to the firm.
The Legal Management article concludes with a sidebar which states, “. . . many popular blogs exist with excellent content specifically for legal administrators and law firm managers. Check out the following resources to learn more.” Following this is a listing of six blogs. To my total surprise and amazement, my Law Practice Management blog is the first listed. Although they spelled my name wrong, they managed to get the URL address of my blog correct, and that’s all that matters. I must say that four of the other five blogs listed are, in my opinion, highly prestigious and well-known, so I am twice blessed to be included with them. They include legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy’s blog; The TechnoLawyer Blog; Kohn Communications Management & Marketing’s blog; and legal management consultant Ed Poll’s blog. The last blog listed is blog vendor LexBlog, which has an excellent reputation.
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