Outline for a Winning Strategy
- Identify the type of work and clients you want. The top blogs focus on specific practice areas and vertical industries, not firm brands.
- Identify your target audience. While clients and prospective clients are important, influencers and amplifiers are more important. Engaging reporters, association leaders, publishers, conference coordinators and leading bloggers gets you seen and referenced as a thought leader.
- Listen. Listening to what is being written and shared on the Internet is more important than content. The quickest way to earn someone’s attention is by listening to and sharing what they have to say.
- Network. Blogging is all about networking, not marketing. Be it interviews, quoting the work of others or even comments, use the blog as a way to introduce yourself to new people.
- Invest the time. Like any business development effort, blogging takes time. Unlike advertising, for which people expect immediate results, networking through the Internet to build relationships and a strong reputation can take a year or two — though, that’s faster than doing so offline.
- Complement blogging with short-form social media.Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even a website are all roads leading to a lawyer’s true identity: his or her blog.
For more great business and blogging tips: http://mashable.com/business/
Teri Steel 