Law firms generally look at blogs as a way to market lawyers and the firm. The focus ultimately becomes the lawyers and the firm. How do we draw attention? How do we build a brand? How do we strategically engage influencers?
There is nothing wrong with this. It works, if done well, and is a heck of lot more tasteful and effective than other forms of advertising and marketing.
At the same time there is a whole other type of blogging lawyer — the citizen journalist. These lawyers, by providing news coverage on a niche, become a leading source of news, commentary, and insight. They provide coverage where it generally did not exist.
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This morning I went to Twitter looking for news on the ferry fire off the coast of Italy trapping hundreds fearing for their lives. I searched “ferry.” The first result under “Top Tweets” was a post shared by Miami Attorney Jim Walker (@cruiselaw), publisher of Cruise Law News.
Walker is the world’s leading reporter on deaths, injuries, and safety matters relating to the cruise industry. Via his blog, he not only reports the news, but is the de facto cruise industry watchdog.
Twitter knows Walker’s level of influence in the area and pushes his tweets to the top of search at a time of breaking news.
Seattle attorney Bill Marler (@bmarler) is another lawyer-reporter, having become one by building a food safety publishing powerhouse with his blog, Marler Blog, a second blog, the Food Poison Journal, and his news site, Food Safety News.
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This last week there was outbreak of listeria associated with caramel apples. Five people have died.
Curious how Marler’s influence would be viewed by Twitter and Google I did a couple searches.
Here’s Twitter with Marler at the top.
Here’s Google News with Marler having two of the top three results.
These results are not SEO induced search results that most lawyers are after. The results come because Twitter and Google view Marler and Walker as the leading reporters, commentators, and watchdogs in their respective fields.
Walker and Marler, by virtue of their citizen-journalist status, regularly receive information from laypeople, industry employees, experts, and government employees who want to get the story out or add information to stories being covered. These lawyers are the leaders of a “community” advocating safety in an industry.
By virtue of reporting and holding companies accountable as lawyers, Walker and Marler are agents of change. Do they get clients as a result of their efforts? Absolutely. But they’re achieving more than that — through passionate writing and intrepid new-age reporting, they seek to influence the industries in which they operate.
In addition to reporting niche news for the masses, the blogging-reporters have become some of the journalists the traditional newsmakers depend on themselves for news.
Take for example the CommLawBlog from Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth. In an interview with LXBN earlier this year, attorney Kevin Goldberg said he introduced himself to an FCC commissioner at a conference, and the individual knew who he was, despite never having met, because of the blog.
“We’re reaching a pretty high level in terms of readership at the agency that we’re trying to serve,” he told LXBN.
His colleague, Harry Cole, added, “We’re reasonably confident that particular commissioner knows us because he referenced one of our posts in a speech he gave a year or two ago. We know that another FCC commissioner reads us because he linked to one of our pieces in a blog that he posted on the FCC website.”
John Hochfelder, publisher of New York Injury Cases, does in-depth analysis of personal injury cases and their corresponding awards. He told LXBN back in 2009 that the most rewarding thing about the blog, for him, was the “unsolicited, surprising emails I get from lawyers and judges telling me they use my blog as a resource and that it’s awfully well written.”
Looking at blogging as marketing first is always an option. It works very very well.
For those lawyers looking to take blogging to a new level, there is the role of the citizen journalist that remains wide open in hundreds, if not thousands, of areas. You will create a source of news coverage in an area where it did not exist. You’ll create a community of people sourcing news for you.
And as lawyers can attest, you will become the “go-to” lawyer for people in need of one.
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.