It’s nearly impossible to go to any company website and not find a blog. Heck, I used to ghost write for a landscaping company that had a blog and they didn’t even need the extra attention. Most likely, if you’re reading this, you have a blog (or your thinking about it).

Since joining LexBlog I’ve found over 5,000 law blogs and legal tech blogs. I’ve read upward of 20,000+ posts. This includes all the dead blogs out there and blogs with thousands of followers. I can tell you why a blog failed within minutes. For me, I’d like to avoid seeing another dead blog because the company didn’t know what they were doing or trusted the wrong people. In this post, I cover three considerations for every Legal Tech Blog and how they might be featured on Legal Tech Daily.

The Content

Purely promotional pieces are fine, I won’t remove them from Legal Tech Daily, but I’m not inclined to feature those kind of posts on the homepage or share them on social media. I mean, who goes out of their way to watch commercials? That might be fine for the Superbowl, but most of the time, people will not watch (let alone read) a commercial.

Part of the strategy for good blogging is to get the attention of your potential clients. You also need to establish credibility and a sense of authenticity. The way to do that is through giving value. If a reader walks away having learned something valuable, you’ll get more attention and more likely to get recommendations. As the old saying goes, “a sale lasts once, a positive referral lasts a lifetime”. You might have a reader that’s not interested in buying anything from you right now, but maybe down-the-line they might know someone else that needs you.

The same goes for posts that are SEO grabs. These kinds of blogs attempt to gain higher search engine rankings with the promise of “high-conversions”. The thought is simple and that’s why so many companies buy into a pure SEO strategy. It’s all about the math. More people visiting site  = more potential clients. So overload the site with keywords, [location]+[speciality]+[name]+[Blog]. Seems great until they read your drab posting. Unless they are desperate for a solution, they will take their problem to someone else. Here are a few alternative ideas to posting without being self-promotional.

Dynamic content takes precedence:
  • Current events with impact are always great and draw attention.
  • Updates to ongoing events
  • Upcoming events or changes to upcoming events
  • Responding to others posts (Agree, disagree, or add an alternative perspective)
  • Don’t have to just “report”, add your two cents. 1. What is it? 2. Why is it important? 3. Who cares?
Evergreen/static content that also works:
  • How-to guides
  • Explication posts, aka “explain something complicated”
  • Compare and Contrast. Take 2 seemingly similar concepts/products/ideas and show how they are the same/different
  • Personal Narrative. Tell people a story about people at the company or the company itself.
  • Spotlighting: conduct an interesting interview with an expert over a difficult topic
  • Advocating: connect products to charities, causes, access to justice, etc (looks good for the company and helps promote awareness)

The Feed

Please have an RSS feed. Feed readers are in widespread use. However some are difficult to aggregate or share your posts.

I’ve struggled with:

  • Feedburner (which included all Typepad blogs)
  • Blogspot/Blogger
  • Proprietary RSS based from a company that doesn’t specialize in blogging
  • Squarespace
  • Wix
  • Weebly

Usually there’s nothing too troubling, but many RSS feeds will only provide snippets or they send out jumbled code. No aggregator on the planet features a post that is only a snippet. It looks terrible for them and for you.

You can also try hooking-up your blog to a dedicated RSS service, but be careful. Some of them will make fake posts on your behalf when your subscription lapses. The content usually states something along the lines of “please renew your subscription” with a title of “Why Pineapples make Great Pets”. They are meant to embarrass you into renewing, especially after your audience emails you asking “what’s going on here?”.

Without a dedicated RSS, you’re expecting that your readers will find you via social media. That’s fine, but still consider implementing a decent RSS. I won’t add a blog that doesn’t have a good enough RSS. I’ll try to work with you on fixing it, but otherwise, nope can’t add it.

The Share

If you’re not sharing your blog on social media, you’re just yelling into the void. Sure, you might get some followers, but I wouldn’t expect them. When you post online, you need to tag relevant people or other companies. You also need to say something about your post that you just completed.

If you think, “Wow, I just spent the last hour blogging. I’m done after I hit ‘publish'”, then you’re wrong. You can’t just expect to copy/paste the URL into a tweet and expect anyone to click on it. SAY SOMETHING! Tell your readers what’s in the post. Synthesize your ideas into meaningful sentences that scream out, “READ ME!”. Even if no one clicks on the link, social media followers should still take note of your thoughts. Remember, the goal is not to get people to your site and convert them into sales. The goal is to establish your credibility and expertise while revealing that you are a flesh and blood human.

You also want to be commenting on others posts. Respond to what they have to say. Give your two cents.

I try to do that with Legal Tech Daily. Sure, occasionally I’ll copy a great quote, but most of the time I try to find something to say.

Conclusion

Honestly, most of this seems like a no brainer. This is really the simple childhood lesson of “just be yourself”, but for writing a blog. However, I know the struggle and blogging is playing the long game.

The best blogs have a great following for a reason. They give their readers something of value with nearly every post. Consider giving some of your knowledge over to the public. Make it easy to find your posts by sharing them and implementing an RSS feed. Don’t just sell-sell-sell, remind everyone that you’re a human and that your company is made up of humans. Have fun with it.

I’m here if you ever need me. I want to see others succeed and would love to be a part of your success. Just let me know what you need.