blog 101 for law firms presentation

Blogging for Business

Using Web Communication to Enhance Information Delivery

Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, PA

Exclusively for the use of Partner Firms© Copyright 2009

What is a “blog”?

• a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site (Merriam-Webster)

• A Web site providing a variety of different thoughts, opinions, information, and news in a compressed, news journal format. (Hopkins, J)

Back to our website

Archive of Previous Articles

Article

Twitter

What am I trying to communicate?

• Expertise• Knowledge• Areas of specialty and practice• Important issues (tort reform, preemption)• Taking time to care—charity work and

other good contributions to the community

Blogging & SEO

• SEO: Search Engine Optimization• What is SEO?• the process of increasing the amount of

visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

Content Changes to Websites

• Constant content changes to a website not always practical

• Blogging serves multiple purposes by presenting content change, marketing, and creation of the firm’s image as an authority

• Blogging creates an avenue to integrate multi-media into websites

Topics & Subjects

Authors & Editors

• A single editor to receive & publish • Authors need to have some grounding in

the law: lawyers, paralegals, experienced secretaries

• Authors should be creative and at least “B” writers

• Avoid too much legalese

Who is your audience?

• Your current clients• Prospective clients• Other lawyers• General public

Video as a part of articles

Video & the Power of YouTube

YouTube

Publishing Software

• WordPress – Free design and publishing• Blogger (Google) – Free design and

publishing• DotNetNuke• Tumblr.• TypePad• Xanga

Lawyer Blog Sites for a Fee

• PaperStreet.com• LexBlog: www.lexblog.com• Martindale-Hubbel• Lawyers.com• Justia.com• Scorpion.com

WordPress.org

WordPress Simple Dashboard

New Publishing -- WordPress

Edit Published Blogs

User/Author/Subscriber Interface

Google Blogger—It’s Free

Keywording

• a term used as a keyword to retrieve documents in an information system such as a catalog or a search engine

• Including keywords in blogs, which relate to area of practice

• Personal injury, attorney, defective product, bad drugs, car wreck, car crash, truck accident, slip & fall, etc…

Questions to Ask

• Who will blog?• Will the firm “police” individual lawyer

blogs?• Who will blog?• What motivation or requirement will there

be for attorney participation?• What is the focus of the blog—its niche

subjects?

More Questions

• Does the firm need guidelines for authors?• Does the firm need to restrict content?

Should editorial restrictions be placed on political, religious, and controversial topics?

• What blog training should the firm provide?

Resources

Many on-line Resources