Ed Poll Celebrity Guru

Ed Poll, the principal of LawBiz Management, is a nationally recognized coach, law firm management consultant, and author. Since 1990, Ed Poll has been coaching and consulting lawyers and law firms in strategic planning, profitability analysis, and practice development. He has practiced law on all sides of the table for 25 years - as a corporate general counsel, government prosecutor, sole practitioner, partner, and law firm chief operating officer. He uses his knowledge in blogging technology to enhance his law business and believes that it is an invaluable tool that can help anyone, whether in the law or any other field. Check out his blog at www.lawbizblog.com. And feel free to contact him at edpoll@lawbiz.com

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What is a blawg and when should I use it?

The dramatic rise in popularity of weblogs - blogs, as most of us now know them, or blawgs when they're by or about lawyers and the law - represents a new intersection of marketing and technology. According to studies cited by TechnoLawyer, approximately 80,000 new blogs launch every day, including dozens of blawgs. I am a dedicated blogger myself, and have found the experience to be a powerful form of communication that continually connects me to actual and potential clients in ways I never anticipated.

When done right, by combining personalized observation with facts and insights, blogs are a living, detailed calling card that represents you to the world. When done wrong, blogs can be a chore, an unwelcome expense that produces little return on your effort. I believe the difference between the two depends on having a realistic understanding of what you'll face before you start a blog.

First and foremost, write a blog, not a legal brief. Ultimately, blogs are a means of face-to-face conversation with a client or a prospect when you can't meet them face-to-face. Blogs should be informal, conversational, and show that you have something meaningful to say. They seek to persuade others of the merits of your beliefs. The traditional elements of legal writing - Latin phraseology, case citations, lots of words - have no place in a blog.

Make blogging a commitment.

It takes real dedication for your blog to become an effective marketing tool - "if you write it, they will come" is not how the process works. You must target your market, be specific in your blog postings, and be frequent in your posts. And you must follow up on your blogging, both by responding to inquiries and incorporating your posted material into articles, speeches, client updates, and so on. Your market needs to learn over time what your value to them can be and why they need you, your services, and your products.

Approach your blog as a marketing tool.

I think almost everything we do has a marketing element - the way we speak to people, the way we dress, even the way we eat. All of our activities impact others in one way or another. Some of our actions may "turn people off" while other of our actions persuade them to come closer to us and actually interact with us. Consequently, because everything you do can have both a positive and negative effect on marketing, you need to be conscious of how your blog is going to be received. Your blog represents you and your company so make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward.

Understand that your blog is you.

The best marketing is personal. Customers and clients like to buy from someone with whom they enjoy doing business. The real key to marketing is the creation of one-on-one personal relationships in order to increase business. Blogs are best used in a marketing sense when they support the creation of these relationships, by showing potential clients what your value to them can be and why they need you and your services. An effective blog demonstrates what you can do by revealing who you really are.

Target your blog audience.

For blogging to be a worthwhile marketing exercise, it should relate to your target market. If your target clients are more the consumer type, and typically not so sophisticated that they are searching the web on a regular basis, then blogging will probably not be meaningful to them and may not be a worthwhile marketing strategy for you. As Harvey Mackay said, "if you want to catch bass, you've got to fish where they are." Depending on your target audience, speaking to a local civic group may bring you more potential clients than blogging on the worldwide web.

Realize that blogging has a cost.

It's important to remember that you shouldn't work for your blog. Making frequent posts and answering dozens, or hundreds, of email comments, can take time. Let's say it's just 2 hours per workweek. If we assume 50 workweeks per year for ease of calculation, and 2 hours per week and $200 per hour billable value for an attorney (most are charging more today), the calculation is $20,000 of billable time used to maintain a blog. That is hugely expensive, no matter how you look at it.

Delegate the technical aspects of your blog.

The logical way to control the expense of blogging, and to improve your return on the blogging investment, is hire someone to manage the technical aspects of your blog: posting your content, tracking replies to posts, working on search engine optimization, etc. The expense is far less than the time spent updating and managing (no matter how easy with TypePad or other tools), which will take you away from other marketing activities or even from your practice.

But remember your professional responsibility.

Delegating the maintenance of a blog doesn't mean abdicating the responsibility. Lawyers are traditionally governed by the rules of the states in which they were admitted to practice, but the rules of professional conduct governing client development vary greatly from state to state. Blogs (and web sites) that openly give advice and solicit clients are subject to disciplinary regulation, and more states are extending their rules to lawyers and law firms that have no presence in the state other than on the Internet. Suddenly, lawyers seem to be governed by more than one jurisdiction and must be careful in the design and content of their blogs.

Incorporate blogging into your routine.

The cumulative effect is what's important in blogging. A once in a while post is not effective. Blogging may be worthwhile once you know how, but it is certainly not "easy" in the sense that it takes commitment to be consistent and meaningful in the posting. If you think of working on blog content as the equivalent to working in the garden - not so much a chore as relaxing time away from the daily grind - it can be a big help in establishing the regular routine that keeps content fresh.

Keep blogging in perspective.

There are many who passionately believe in the business power of blogging, but don't confuse blogs with the second coming of the printing press. Ultimately, blogs should be regarded and managed just as any other communication modality. Virtually all of the technology innovations that have meant so much in the past ten years are just another turn of the wheel in the law's evolution from profession to business. Five years from now technology will have brought even more change to our practices. Recognize blogs for what they are: another tool that can help lawyers secure clients and be of service to them.