Blogging

Blogging Is The Most Exciting Opportunity Each Of Us Has

Harness the magic of blogging as a lawyer. You have the opportunity to change the world around you.

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My friend, author and business strategist Euan Semple (@euan) recently celebrated his 14th anniversary as a blogger.

When people ask me what I do I sometimes say public speaker, sometimes consultant, sometimes writer, but inside I am always thinking “I am a blogger.” No I don’t get paid directly for blogging but it has led to all of the work that I do. It is the core of my online life and has allowed me to travel the world and meet the most interesting and wonderful people.

Semple’s right about blogging opening doors. Over on Facebook a commenter to Semple’s post added that his blog was the foundation and continues to be a main driver of his consulting, training, and speaking. I know plenty of lawyers for whom their blog is the main driver of their professional and business development.

I was in Kansas City last week meeting lawyers, marketing/communications professionals, law firm executives, and entrepreneurs. It was my pleasure and honor to be in a position, personally and via my company, to help these folks and their law firms.

But for blogging, there’s no way in the world I would have made this trip — I wouldn’t have known anyone in Kansas City.

One of the legal marketing professionals I met I had never spoken with before my visit to her law firm. I emailed her saying that though she may not know me from Adam, but I’d be happy to answer any questions or concerns she may have on the blogging and social media front.

She responded she would welcome feedback on what her law firm was doing. It turned out that she regularly read my blog and had heard me speak at an ABA conference in St. Louis. A speaking engagement I would not have had but for blogging.

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With social media and all the various publishing platforms around, some people see the decline of blogging. Not Semple:

The demise of blogging has been predicted each year that I have done it but it is still for me the most exciting opportunity that each of us has, in however modest a way, to change their world around us. That simple combination of noticing more, thinking more, saying more and collectively achieving more.

There is still magic in it.

Lawyers who blog have felt the magic. Following and engaging thought leaders, whether they be bloggers, reporters, or publishers, puts the average lawyer smack in the middle of a conversation they could only have dreamed of before blogging.

Establishing trust, building a strong reputation, and growing a network of relationships in a niche area of the law, locally, nationally, or internationally — all by blogging from one’s family room or kitchen table. Magic.

This magic is driving blog growth like never before. Over 80% of the Am Law 200 law firms are now blogging, averaging six blogs per firm. The number of new law blogs among these firms has jumped by over 50% in the last couple years.

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Imagine generating 100% of your work on complex business dissolution matters from relationships built from blogging. Imagine speaking to the national breeders association at the Kentucky Derby as a young lawyer just one year after starting an equine law blog. Imagine as a solo having twice the business as the year before as the result of publishing a local consumer bankruptcy blog.

Harness the magic as a lawyer. You have the opportunity to change the world around you — at a minimum for the clients and public you serve, for your co-employees, your family, and yourself.

Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder of LexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. Visit LexBlog.com.

LexBlog also hosts LXBN, the world’s largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe. Visit lxbn.com now.

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