In a new article published on Slaw, a Canadian, co-operative blog about all things legal which is syndicated through Newstex Authoritative Content, Doug Jasinski shares his insight and tips for law blogs and some lessons to learn from lawyers, law firms, blogs, and social media.
First, Jasinski notes that social media doesn’t “automatically reward firm size or lawyer seniority.” Instead of the size of the firm and the tenure of the lawyer being most important, smaller firms and younger, less experienced lawyers are playing larger, more prominent roles in legal social media, including blogs. Furthermore, individual lawyers see more success in social media than firms do. It’s not surprising. Social media and blogging require personality, something that is often missing in law firm communications.
Second, Jasinski shares that law firms (particularly larger firms with varied clients) “push out a series of almost exclusively self-laudatory items across a scattershot array of industries and topics.” He is absolutely correct when he explains that most of these updates are useless and irrelevant to the audience making it very obvious why people prefer the interesting and personable Twitter updates and social media content from smaller firms.
How do law firms solve the problems they face in publishing content on blogs and social media channels? Jasinski offers some suggestions.
- Specific content beats generalized content. [I’d like to add that this is also a fundamental rule of branding.]
- Readers don’t care about law firms. They care about themselves. [By the way, this is also a fundamental rule of copywriting.]
- One Twitter feed isn’t enough. Firms need niche feeds of content to speak directly to specific audiences. [That’s a fundamental rule of marketing — audience segmentation and messaging.]
To get started, Jasinski recommends that firms start with the practices within the firm that are already “self-sufficient in putting out newsletters, e-alerts, or a blog and add social media tools to their arsenal.” Find existing social media knowledge and talent within the firm and use it.
Furthermore, Jasinski suggests that firms divvy up the work between multiple people. For example, each lawyer should sign their Twitter updates to the firm Twitter feed he or she publishes on with his or her initial, and a key should be included so readers know who those initials refer to with a link to full bios. Finally, encourage contributors to provide useful content, be personable, and link to news and information from external, credible sources.
You can learn more by reading Jasinski’s complete article on the Slaw blog. It’s filled with information to help take your law blog to the next level of success.
Image: Morrhigan