Law Practice Management

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.

Blogging has already gotten somewhat of a bad reputation from all of those people who treat it like a personal on-line diary of ruminations which have little interest to anyone or relevance to anything, and by those who post mediocre content in fits and starts. As a result, there are already large segments of potential readers who are “turned off” to blogs.

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?

I’ve started getting a consistent trickle of queries through the Pennsylvania Bar Association hot line from attorneys who want to blog, or who have attempted to blog, but have hesitation about or actual problems producing the required constant stream of quality information. Since I publish so many articles each month, and a blog post almost daily, I’m a natural to ask. Where do the ideas come from?

Ok, first I have to admit that sometimes my pool of ideas is as dry as the bones of a dead camel in the Sahara. When that happens, I find that the harder I try to come up with something, the more I experience what I lovingly call writer’s brain freeze. You can’t fight your way through it. You have to step back, clear your mind, and focus on other things for a while. Believe me, your brain will thaw, and a creative thought or two will begin to trickle once again.

Mostly, though, coming up with good content is about recognizing opportunities. Actually, most effective marketing efforts are about recognizing opportunities when it comes right down to it. You just have to have your antenna up all the time.

I subscribe to a large number of web sites, blogs, electronic newsletters, listservs, and print publications. I absorb as voraciously as I can, given the time constraints we all suffer from nowadays. And of course I am contacted constantly by attorneys both privately, and in my role as Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. All of the foregoing is constantly funneled and sifted by my mind. And this is where my ideas come from. A simple question, a point in an article which bears expounding, something I read which I believe would be of interest to my readers; all become potential blog posts.

I have found that the information arrives in fits and starts. Some days there is a lot. Some days little or nothing. I am just beginning to learn to hold back on the fat days, so there is something for posting on the lean days. If you look over the dates of my early posts, you’ll see that some days I posted two or three times. Other days, nada. Now I’m more consistent.

I have created both a physical and electronic folder where I file ideas, links, etc for future posts. (I have file folders for seminar ideas and article ideas in which I toss tidbits for lean times, too. It works great!)

Obviously, the information sources you would turn to as an attorney would be different than those I turn to as a Law Practice Management Advisor and law firm consultant. But the concept is the same. You should subscribe to industry publications, newsletters, topical listservs in specific practice areas, and agency-specific new blasts. This is all information which will serve you well by keeping you abreast of developments relevant to your practice.

Using the information which comes to your inbox, and the questions and issues which present themselves through client contact, should provide you with a fairly constant flow of potential topics for your blog. Remember that your blog is not delivering legal advice. Each post is not a treatise. It is an “article-ette” which delivers some meaningful content in a short digestible version, usually providing links to additional information the reader can find elsewhere.

Don’t overwrite. Most attorneys do. They feel they must include every possible fact and every possible occurrence. You don’t. You are only looking to educate in a broad fashion on a narrow topic. You are offering valuable information in an easily digestible format and length.

With all due respect to Betty Davis, I repeat: Blogging ain’t for sissies! But with some organization and forethought, you can make it an achievable task. And by doing so, will ensure you are one of the information resources prospects and clients turn to consistently.

==========

To return to the main page of the blog, click here. To return to the blog Index, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 3:19 am and is filed under General Management, Marketing & Strategic Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.