A post last week by Mark Herrmann at the Drug and Device Law Blog about "Blogging as a Business Development Tool" got me to thinking about why I started my legal blog and, more than a year later, why I’ve continued to post. Mark's post concludes "[o]n the whole, then, we'd say that blogging has not been a tremendously successful business development tool." On the whole, I'd probably have to agree with Mark, reluctantly, at least from the tangible direct measurement perspective. But I still blog on, as does Mark, anyway. WHY??
Mark's post addresses the burning question all, or at least most, legal bloggers think about, at least from time to time: why am I spending all this time doing a blog and what am I accomplishing by continuing? Importantly, Mark's answer ultimately is:
Not to worry. We write this blog for many reasons other than business development [like what, Mark? - write a post on WHY you DO write - OK, so you did sorta - at least part of what you get out of it, but in the end, WHY REALLY do you keep blogging?]; our lack of results on the business development front won't cause us to close up shop. Exhaustion may, but lack of business won't.
When I started my legal blog, I think I WAS looking for an effective business development activity which (1) exploited what I thought were some of my best skills and (2) I could enjoy doing. I never thought it would be the “magic pill” that would mean I would never want for clients again. But I do have to admit that I DID think it would have a more quantifiable result this far in to the adventure. Nevertheless, I have every intention of continuing, in part because of some unexpected benefits I have found flow from blogging and in part because I genuinely just like doing it (i.e. same reason I play golf or go to the movies).
Quantifiable Direct ROI.
Has blogging brought me more clients? Well, definitely not directly that I know of -- yet. [SO, for any prospective clients out there, please, please DO reference this blog when you call to retain me just so I know it actually did make a difference.] I wish the answer was more positive, but I’ve come to accept that this was probably always too much to expect - yet.
I agree with many of those who commented on Mark’s post that corporate clients such as the banks and even medium sized privately held businesses which are my primary clients just don’t choose their counsel based on what those individuals and law firms have on the web – yet. In part, that’s probably because the most important decision-makers are at least as old as I am (turning 50 this year) or are in the same neighborhood.
While proud to have accommodated themselves, and adapted, to technology along their professional path of advancement, they (well, we, since I must include myself) still see the internet and what it has to offer as a secondary resource – it wasn’t around when all of us first learned how to find what we needed. Although we appreciate (and even use, perhaps even rather proficiently) its presence and availability, deep down, I’m not sure we really trust it – yet - for those “bet the company” times.
But we are changing in spite of ourselves and every year, more and more decision-makers are those who, by birth age or conversion, see the internet as a primary tool for obtaining information about ALL important business and professional issues. So, eventually, legal blogs WILL be a way of differentiating between available counsel who otherwise all seem alike. (And, the cynical me believes that soon after that happens, there will become a new occupation of professional legal blog writer to pen entries for those not otherwise up to (or willing to spend the time on) the task of demonstrating their legal prowess.)
The only question is WHEN that WILL happen. I believe it will be sooner rather than later. What I and other legal bloggers still clinging to the business development potential of legal blogs are ultimately counting on (I think) is that the speed of change will continue to accelerate and that we will ultimately benefit by getting in early. At some point - if not already - having a blog will be as important to attracting clients as having a website, as having a business card, as having print collateral marketing materials, as going to service organizations or some other networking organization. When that happens, we hope it matters that we were there first.
Here and Now.
All right, SO back to the here and now. No direct ROI on this business development activity. Why continue? At least for me, most posts do take more than a few minutes to do and I could certainly find something else to do with the not insignificant amount of time I'm spending on the blog.
At this point, I would like to ask any clients or prospective clients lurking out there to weigh in on what, if anything they get out of this or any other legal blog, and what, if any difference, it makes to them whether their lawyer blogs. I like to think this matters to you (see my post from almost a year ago about "Why Every Client Should Want Client Who Blawgs"), but does it???? I like to think you’d rather have a lawyer who spends time doing this sort of thing, but does it????
Intangible Benefits. Let’s assume for the moment that the most severe critics are correct – there is absolutely no benefit to be gained business development-wise from legal blogging. Even if that’s true – which I’m not convinced it is – I think I would still continue legal blogging. Why? Because of some unanticipated consequences flowing from the mere act of legal blogging.
Here’s some valuable things I’ve gotten, really rather directly, from the fact I’ve devoted time to legal blogging over the last 15 months that I never really expected, or for that matter, even knew were possible outcomes:
- Tech Savvy. I have become SOOO much more tech savvy about what the internet can offer to me substantively. When I started my blog, I didn’t even know what an RSS feed was, had never heard of Google Reader or any other news aggregator, had no idea what the heck Google Notebook was and how useful it could be, had barely been introduced to LinkedIn, and certainly didn’t know anything about Twitter (which I still haven’t quite figured out what to do with yet). Now I know what all of these are and have found ways for them to be useful to me in ways I had no idea were even possible. Mainly what happened is that the blog helped me understand exactly why I would want to know anything about these - I needed them for, or because of, the blog and then found out they were also extremely useful in the rest of my life.
- New Connections. The blogosphere IS another distinct networking community. There are now people who I feel I know through reading their blogs that I would otherwise probably have never met. In addition to that just being plain “neat”/”cool”/ [insert your slang word here], I actually do think that if I ever do have an appropriate referral, these ARE the folks to whom I will definitely send the work. And I hope that at least some of the other legal bloggers out there feel the same about me. How often will that be? I have no idea, but if part of getting work is a numbers game, having people who would not otherwise know of one's existence certainly can't hurt.
- Exposure to New Thoughts. My new found tech savvy and connections have also allowed me to learn and be exposed to all sorts of ideas and facts I really don’t think would have come to me without doing the blog, at least in part because I really had no idea these facts and ideas even existed. I wasn’t looking for them – with the blog, they came to me effortlessly and unbidden. And that really has been exciting.
- Research Files. Over time, I’m developing my own library of information about issues important to my practice which is a whole lot more searchable and useful than those file folders occuppying a whole two-drawer lateral filing cabinet in my office. Already I have found myself looking for things that I’ve written a blog post on to answer a current question. Having searchable succinct research files is definitely a plus.
Tangible Consequences. In addition to these intangible benefits (which when combined with my sheer enjoyment of writing and learning which is quintessentially the blog at its innermost essence, would probably be enough for me), I DO think that – when properly measured and compared against other business development activities – there is a tangible, if perhaps immeasurable value to legal blogging as a business development activity. Like pretty much every other attorney in America, I do my fair share of speaking at CLE (continuing legal education for the nonlawyers out there), trade and civic organizations, and other venues; writing articles for traditional press, taking clients out for lunch or to sporting events, attending networking events, participating as a member of nonprofit Boards of Directors, sending client updates and personal notes, client golf, and all the rest of what has come to be viewed by the legal profession as the promised path to attracting clients. I’m better at some of it and worse at other parts. The point is that blogging is just one more activity to add to the repertoire.
Different business development activities work differently for different lawyers. The trick has always been to figure out what works best for you and do more of that and less of the rest. None of these activities is likely to have results in isolation or without a certain level of commitment (and perhaps talent) by the attorney involved. I could attend a year of Rotary meetings, but if all I ever do is arrive (perhaps late), eat, and leave, I won’t get any work out of that business development activity either. Usually it’s a mixture of all of this and no one really understands what it is that really works.
I think the jury is still out about where legal blogging fits in all this. I know that I have felt that it helped me create important bonds with new clients faster than I felt I otherwise might have been able to establish and that is certainly helpful, both for them and for me; being able to send a client a link to a blog entry I’d done on the question they just asked me seems well received. Blogging has also helped me feel more confident in speaking about topics I may have recently posted about, which is certainly a useful thing. And at some level, I carry the torch that every little differential helps….
True Worth of Legal Blogging.
SOOOO… where does that leave the cost/benefit analysis of legal blogging? On the purely quantifiable dollars and cents, numbers, direct ROI, the blog has been a dead bang loser - so far - especially when you figure in the out-of-pocket cost of the fees I have elected to pay LexBlog out of my own pocket after the first six months of doing the blog on Wordpress. Yet, I still feel committed to continue blogging. Why?
For me, legal blogging emphasizes my talents and is a good fit with my other more traditional business development activities. I think I still have a great deal to learn about how to make legal blogging integrate with, and leverage, those other activities – and this is where I ultimately hope to make the most use of my legal blog in 2009. [Help, anyone?] My goal is to be able to legitimately say that legal blogging is a significant contributor to my worth as an originator of new work at my law firm. To do that, I'm going to have to really COMMIT to finding ways to make it matter more. We’ll see how this goes…
Bottomline, though, I just LIKE doing the blog. I’ve always liked to write and I always like to learn and think about new things. It’s just PLAIN FUN to do it in a way where you can share that experience with others in what is really a very risk-free environment. I hope other folks get something out of it all, but even if they don’t, I’m still having fun doing it. And as long as that’s true, I’ll probably keep finding the time to keep doing it, whether (or not) I can find ROI ……
