Your Blog May Be Dead
That's right, your blog may dead online and have no real readership. It could have fallen vicitim to one of the five most common snafus that can dead end your blog.
Wake up, fellow bloggers, it's almost 2007. The halcyon days of blogging are over. There are 55 million blogs, according to Technorati.com (97 percent abandoned), and 1,430 law-related blogs, according to Blawg.org. The novelty has worn off. To truly succeed at blogging, you must avoid making the five most common snafus.
As I point out in an article in the November Law Technology News, the blog killers include:
- Being boring.
- Blabbiness.
- Under-posting or abandoning your blog.
- Tardiness.
- The blog is not bringing in any new business.
For the full story, see http://www.larrybodine.com/articles.asp?Action=GetOneArticle&ArticleID=8.
Let's face it...CEOs and managing partners don't have the time to sit around reading blogs (ditto for listening to podcasts.)
I think the whole blog/podcasting issue was overblown and everyone is just now coming to realize that.
Patrick McEvoy
President
Rainmaker Gateway
http://www.rainmakergateway.com
Some of what you say is true Larry but some of it is misguided when it comes blogs being used by lawyers & law firms to enhance their reputations and grow their business.
Sure, if your goal is to have huge traffic, to be a gossip hound, and act as a reporter follow some of this advice applying to non lawyer blogs. But lawyers and law marketing professionals have other work to do.
I would never advise most of our clients to be provocative. There is more risk to that than upside. And it's not necessary to be a success.
A legal marketing blog is not like a newspaper. Trying to break stories before others is not something I've ever advised a client to do. Sure if they want to quit lawyering and be a reporter, go for it. But if you're looking to enhance your reputation as a leader in a practice area, you're not going to play junior reporter.
Discussing some of the same issues as others is not something to avoid. It's often the best form of networking and increasing your exposure in your niche. This discussion and networking through the effective use of RSS is the secret sauce of an effective lawyer blog.
As to frequency, lawyers should post when they have the time and when they are going to enjoy doing so. Harvard Business school says for a corporate blog, it's once a week. We have some clients doing it more often, some much less.
In the case of one client, a sophisticated litigator in a niche area, there's probably 10 posts this year on his blog. However, he gets 90% of his work from the blog and he's getting more good work this way than he did in 20 years of traditional marketing.
Missing the boat Patrick. That's not a statement I'd want to throw around for much longer.
As of last June, 21% of senior executives report they are reading business-related blogs at least once a week. This per a 2006 State of Corporate Blogging Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Makovsky + Company, one of the largest global independent public relations firms in the U.S.
Fact is it's just the opposite, CEO's and managing partners don't have the time not to read blogs. Find niche blogs keeping their ear to the ground in an area, subcribe to RSS feeds and read those posts in an aggregator view (not by browsing) and you get the info you need from more places in less time.
May be cool to say I don't read blogs and these other folks don't either and it'll all be a fad. But But it Sounds like lawyers talking when email and the web broke.
Blogs and RSS will be the third leg of Internet use - websites and email the other two.
I just wanted to second Kevin's comments. As for Patrick's idea that CEO's and managing partners don't have time to read blogs, I think that many do and if they don't, someone else in the corporation or firm is doing it for them. Furthermore, CEO's and managing partners aren't always the decision makers on the purchase of legal services.
Also, are they reading websites but not blogs? I'm not sure I understand why these folks would somehow have a disconnect from a blog but not a website?
I had a lawyer tell me the other day that "blogs are just a fad". I laughed.
I once worked for a guy in 1990 who said the same thing about cell phones. That guy now has a cell phone.
I agree with Larry that not posting more than once a week can make your blog stale, in most cases. But Kevin is right that there are exceptions.
Larry,
I enjoyed reading the article, "Avoid These Five Typical Blogging Mistakes". However, I must disagree with you on point number 2, Blabbiness.
I believe that one of the great strengths of a professional blog is that it allows you to show clients and prospective clients your personality. When you are a professional selling a service you are selling yourself and your expertise. A professional blog gives you the opportunity to establish your authority on a subject as well as your personality.
In the professional blog for my CPA firm, The Virtual CFO (http://virtualcfo.typepad.com/virtual_cfo/), I generally post Monday through Friday about accounting and financial management related topics that would be of interest to small business owners. I typically write a series of posts on a particular topic, like financial analysis or accounting personnel during the week.
On the weekends, or after I have completed a series of post (like now), I will post items that are business related but more personal in nature. I do this to help show my personality to clients and prospective clients.
The feedback I've received from the readers of my blog has been positive with regards to the approach I use.
Scot
I don't agree with Patrick's comments, a blog is a bridge for blogger to understand the requests of the readers, it is quite useful, I believe it would never be overblown.
Jerry
Larry, I generally agree with your five points, but the larger article contains some internal contradictions, and I think this is because the focus switches back and forth between blogging as a marketing strategy and the technique of writing a blog. These are not the same thing. Nothing is easier to see through than a phony or apathetic voice in blogging: folks have to find the style and voice that works for them. If what they write doesn't make them happy, it won't please anyone else either. This is going to, and should, vary widely with each individual.
As for Patrick's comment, it reminds me of my uncle who said he didn't read the paper because he was too busy, but found time to watch four hours of TV a night. People serve their self-interest and will go to where the information they want is being produced in the way that is easiest for them to understand and use. Patrick's mistake is looking at blogging only as some kind of distribution system, when it should be analyzed as a source of information.