Using Your Law Firm Blog to Promote a Specific Practice Area
For solo practitioners and small law firms, a general all-purpose blog is not as effective as a practice-specific one. Law firms that blog on practice-specific topics have better marketing results: more Web visitors, inbound links and indexed pages, and, ultimately, more clients.
As a follow-up to Samantha Miller's post about practice-specific blogs, here are some more tactics to consider.
Consumers Search Online for Legal Topics, Not Lawyers
When an individual faces financial crisis and is considering bankruptcy, that person may look to the Internet for answers to address concerns and plan legal action. But he or she is not likely looking to hire an attorney, at least not at that stage.
If you are a bankruptcy attorney in that person's area, you want that business. When you have the content on your website and blog to answer the questions this consumer will enter into Google, you have a better chance, as long as your site is optimized so that this individual can find you. But if you are blogging about many different practice areas or about other topics not specific to bankruptcy law, you likely will not be highly visible in search engine results and that consumer will find his or her way to the site of a competitor.
Search engines reward fresh, relevant content. So if you blog on a regular basis on various bankruptcy topics, peppering your copy with the keywords that consumers are actually searching for when researching bankruptcy law, you will be rewarded with higher search rankings.
Worth the Effort to Get it Right
Consider that the American Bar Association's 2011 Legal Technology Survey Report found that the highest percentage of blogging lawyers are solo practitioners, while more than 60 percent of small law firms (1-9 attorneys) who maintain blogs reported that they obtained new business as a direct result of their blogs.
A firm's blog should be the central hub for social media activity, and various tools can automatically publish posted blog content to social media profiles. Moreover, a blog can be a successful platform to demonstrate knowledge in your core practice, facilitate networking and drive website traffic.
The "Do-It-With-Me" Approach
Like a website, a blog needs professional design, content and search optimization — all pegged to promoting your expertise in the area of law you practice. Few solos or small law firms have the time to integrate a comprehensive blogging strategy with an ongoing social marketing program. Technical help and strategic guidance from experienced law firm marketing professionals can help you make the best use of your time with social media, so you can do more blogging and less building.
It's an approach called DIWM — Do-It-With-Me. (Read "The 'Do-It-With-Me' Approach to Social Media for Small Law Firms.") If you work with professionals who can help you publish rich content on a consistent basis to showcase your practice, you enhance the power of your blog and your social marketing effort in a program you engage and oversee. DIWM supports, not supplants, your control of your blog to provide an optimal social media marketing return.
If you need assistance with building your social media presence, contact us to get a free Social Media Evaluation.
Source: American Bar Association's Best Practices Guidelines for Legal Information Web Site Providers
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