Does It Have To Be About Marketing?

“Every minute you spend thinking about marketing is a minute that could be spent being a good lawyer.”

This from Florida Attorney Rick Georges (@rickgeorges) on Saturday.

Rick was commenting on Danial Jameel’s post on why millennials don’t want to be talked at as part of marketing.

Rick carried Jameel’s thinking over to our profession.

There are many companies that want to tell lawyers how to market themselves on the Internet. This article about how a particular demographic (millennials) looks at marketers says a lot about why lawyers should just concentrate on being great lawyers, and staying authentic and connected, and let the marketing take care of itself. Every minute you spend thinking about marketing is a minute that could be spent being a good lawyer. My best teacher once gave me the best advice about public speaking: “Just be yourself. “That advice applies to Internet public speaking as well. Be who you are. If you are good, they will come. If you aren’t, work on getting better, not on increasing the number of people who will find out you aren’t.

When I shared word of Rick’s post over on Facebook, a total donnybrook broke out.

Some folks thought I was nuts — a good lawyer would go broke if they didn’t market themselves. Others, including Rick, believed that if a lawyer would work at their craft and share their knowledge, passion and experience publicly, they’d be fine.

“I started blogging in law school as a way to express my interest in the law. That grew into blogging about the court cases, and it was never about marketing,” said Justin Walsh, author of The Amateur Law Professor blog. “Do I provide bits of marketing at the end of posts? Sure. But for me, it’s mainly a way to stay engaged and read the cases, and putting them forward in a way that the average person can understand. Making the law accessible for others.”

My point, like Justin’s here, was that I didn’t think it all had to be about marketing.

Couldn’t you, as a lawyer, blog for purposes of professional development? Share what you read? Offer your take? Openly network with leaders in your field and those who cover the field by such blogging?

Wouldn’t you become a better lawyer? Wouldn’t you have a greater network to call upon as part of your practice?

Brian Tannebaum — one-time columnist here on Above the Law, author of <a href="“>The Practice: Brutal Truths About Lawyers and Lawyering (affiliate link) and his My Law License blog — thinks there’s room for that.

“Writing a blog for marketing purposes is like going to a charity event because you want clients,” said Tannebaum. “Lawyers need to understand the subtle consequences of writing like humans, and acting like humans.”

He continued, commenting on the idea of blogging purely for marketing, “I hear that often: ‘If it didn’t make money, why would a lawyer do it?’ I like to write, my Dad wanted me to be a journalist. Trust me, the worst call I get is ‘I saw you on the internet.’ The problem remains though that every medium on the internet is viewed by lawyers as ‘how can that make me money.'”

It’s something you see less of in everyday life, and saw less in different times.

Every city and town across this country has preeminent lawyers in niche areas of the law. The public may not know who these lawyers are because they don’t market themselves per se. Ask the good lawyers in the community who these preeminent lawyers are and you’ll get the names.

These lawyers have no shortage of work, they turn work away. These lawyers did not market themselves to success. They read, they networked with leading lawyers at conferences and the like, they authored articles, they joined associations, and they presented at conferences.

Getting referrals was a byproduct of their professional development efforts. Word of mouth came from the quality of the work they delivered.

Imagine clients, prospective clients, and referral sources witnessing this professional development in real time. It surely didn’t happen with a snippet in the local business section saying you went to D.C. to attend a National Association of Trial Lawyers event.

Well today, clients, prospective clients, and referral sources can witness this professional development. While researching a lawyer (most get a name from someone they trust), people can observe and take in a lawyer’s professional development through a lawyer’s blogging.

When Rich Vetstein, another lawyer who weighed in on Facebook, said that when he struck out on his own, he only had a handful of clients and the beginning of a blog to work with — but that grew into much more.

“I quickly realized that blogging was fun even if I had to stay up many nights configuring plugins and bugs myself. Blogging forced me to stay on top of the latest issues and became a conversation starter with other lawyers, existing clients and referral sources,” said Vetstein, author on The Massachusetts Real Estate Blog, who found those early introductions usually started with, “Hey you’re that blog guy!”

“Fast forward five years and I could not imagine practicing without the outlet and rewards my blog provides. It has given me countless interviews, press mentions, referrals, clients, accolades, bar committee invites, speaking invites, etc., [and] it has most definitely made me a better lawyer.”

Is this blogging marketing? I don’t know. Historically we called it professional development. Professional development that resulted in a growing book of business.

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Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder ofLexBlog, 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. VisitLexBlog.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.