Marketing Corner: Leveraging the Blogosphere
By Kimberly Alford Rice
Reality check: According to the WordPress website, there are more than 327 million people who view more than 2.5 billion blog pages each month. WordPress.com users produce about 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day. There are 54,523,503 WordPress sites worldwide. How can lawyers leverage the blogosphere to build a prosperous practice? Glad you asked. Blogging is one of the most powerful and least expensive marketing tools available – ever! A self-hosted WordPress blog site cost less per week than a Starbuck’s chai latte. Blogging on a consistent and persistent basis will position you as an expert in your chosen areas of practice. The possibilities are absolutely endless of the connections you can make. Hosting a blog places you on the world stage, and right in front of your targeted audiences, all at the same time.
With thousands of people sharing content for every one person creating content, useful blog posts can spread like wildfire via social networks. There are hundreds of millions of people on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn eagerly seeking useful, interesting content to share.
To blog regularly and in an impactful way, you need to stay alert for rich content. Blogging can make you smarter or at least better read!
Blogging gives you a platform to shine, to become an influential voice in your profession and beyond.
As a professional (legal) writer, blogging provides a creative outlet for you to share views and perspectives that you may not otherwise have.
Blogs are super juice for website SEO (search engine optimization). Studies show us that blogs drive three to five more website traffic than adding fresh content alone.
Blogs are designed to be short. Depending upon your chosen topic, a typical blog post can be 300 words or less. Unlike a well-composed brief, drafting a blog need not take a lot of your valuable billable time.
If you commit to blogging over the long-term, this commitment will be widely noticed by prospective clients who are following you and will come to regard you as reliable and solid.
Blogging can be a tremendous public service. In addition to posting blogs on timely and interesting legal topics, you can carve a special niche of being helpful to others. And, isn’t that why you pursued law in the first place - to help others?
Kimberly Alford Rice is principal of KLA Marketing Associates, a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services. As a law marketing authority, Kimberly helps law firms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies which lead directly to new clients and increased revenues. Additionally, Kimberly provides career management services to lawyers in transition. She may be reached at 609.458.0415 or via email at kimberly@klamarketing.net.