The news that 77 percent of AmLaw 200 law firms now have
blogs is heartening, since just yesterday I looked at a smaller law firm’s
Legal Updates page only to see a “Coming Soon” message that was posted back in
June. As I well know, maintaining a blog takes a fair amount of effort, even
for short posts. Nevertheless, blogging can help cement a lawyer’s reputation
as an expert on any given subject.
For me, though, an even better way
of connecting with the universe—of prospective clients!—is via the shorter,
140-character bursts of Twitter and the relatively short messages I post on
Facebook and on LinkedIn. A blog posting could take an hour or two to come up
with an idea, research it more fully, and then bang out a pertinent story. I
can interact far more quickly with my tweeps.
I’m surprised by how many lawyers
in my personal realm don’t have much of an Internet presence at all. Their web
pages are bland, they’re not social networking, and they’re paranoid about how
anything they might even think about uploading to the Internets could possibly
be used against them. Meanwhile, those more active on the Internet are strengthening
their reputation and getting clients. They know better than to post photos of
themselves drunk on the beach. They know that they’re going to have to do more
than rely on their reputation and some business good will to maintain their practices.
They blog, they tweet, they let the world know what they’re up to and what
their thoughts are on current developments.
Social networking doesn’t have to
be a huge time suck. Blogging can be outsourced to ghost writers, or just
delegated to those more junior. Tweeting can be done in a few minutes on a
smart phone, after reading a pertinent trade journal, while sitting at a child’s
soccer practice.
Those 77 percent of big law firms
that have blogs seem to be doing better financially than those without. Now
that’s something to be paranoid about if you’re blogless, tweetless, and not at
all present in the cloud.
—Lori Tripoli
No comments:
Post a Comment