Thursday, September 27, 2012

Lawyers Discover the Internet

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
 

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