Welcome to the 4th installment of our series on social media for lawyers.  Last week we focused on using blogs as a source of information.  Hopefully many of you have started subscribing to those blogs that interest you, and find reading them both helpful and enjoyable.  This is a good place to start your journey into the social web.  But now it’s time to participate in the conversation.

The most logical place to go from here is to start blogging yourself.  Blogging is important for many reasons.  First, it helps you start to establish your personal brand in the online world.  It puts your name out there associated with whatever topic you start to blog about.  Second, tying your blog to your website helps your search engine optimization, meaning Google and other search engines will start to rank your website higher.  This will help you draw more people to the website that might have otherwise missed it.  And more people on the site means more attention, and more clients.

The truth is, blogging leads to many other things.  For example, we started The Legal Beat as a way to deliver news and information about Continuing Legal Education.  But it became an outlet to feature our prestigious faculty, deliver current legal news, and get in touch with some up and coming lawyers and legal services.  We have forged more potential partnerships from the blog than we ever anticipated.

So what do you blog about?  Well, that all depends.  Take a look at the other blogs that are out there.  Is there a certain need or area that is not being addressed?  Is there a topic that you know more about than anyone else?  It really does not matter what you decide to blog about, you can always refine it as you go.  But staying consistent and on point is important.  Know who your readers are, or who you want them to be, and give them the information that they need.

If you blog is to draw potential clients, write about important news and decisions in your practice.  If it is just a general blog about your area of practice, deliver some new information that people can’t get anywhere else.  And don’t be afraid to take a stand on certain issues, people like blogs that are opinionated.

So what are you waiting for?  Go get started.  You can go over to blogger.com, wordpress.com, or typepad.com and get a free blog.  If you want the blog to be hosted on your own website, talk to your developer.  It is a very easy process, and you can do it at a very low cost.  Most people shy away from blogging because they think it is a lot of work, but once you get started you will see that everything is easier and faster than you think.  Just commit yourself to writing a couple new posts a week, and you are well on your way.  Happy writing!

Past Editions of this Series:
Part One – Intro to Social Media for Attorneys
Part Two – Signing up for the Networks
Part Three – Using Blogs as an Information Source