Monday, February 09, 2009

Blogging, when self promotion is counter productive

From this blog, you can derive that I am very interested in strategies and tactics for lawyers and law firms to increase their exposure on the internet. Great web content, a relevant and informative blog, the right directory listings, search engine optimization etc all play a role in increasing potential clients to your practice.
All this being true, there has to be a correct tone in all the content that you publish out to the internet. I recently read a blog post by an solo practitioner regarding car accidents. It was very informative and relevant to someone looking for information on car accidents. Unfortunately, the author continued to mention himself and his practice as being qualified to handle car accident cases. Instead of the blog appearing informative and authoritative, it read more like a billboard. This cheapened his well thought out post. Maybe a few visitors will decide to call him, but someone more web savvy will see right through this post. In addition, I don't think the rest of the blog sphere will link back to this site as it looks more like advertising than an article.
So what's my point? If you have a blog, keep writing interesting and relevant posts. You do not have to plug your practice in the post. The fact that you write the post and credit the information to you and your firm, does far more to establish crediblity than mentioning your name 20 times.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right on. With blogging, social media, and the like, still in their infancy, too many lawyers are still trying to be "markety" instead of "informative". The irony is, that being informative leads to better marketing.

Legal Marketer said...

Great point Gyi. If I'm injured in a car accident and need to find a lawyer, I want to find the most qualified lawyer, not the most flashy-marketing lawyer.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more with you. It is the classic misunderstanding that it isn't the name you keep plugging, it the message and content you keep sending. If people like what you have to say, they will find out who you are. Boasting is a turn off.

Legal Marketer said...

Well said Jeff. Boasting leaves the visitor leaving for a more credible source of information.