by Elora Schatzker and Catherine Mitchell
The Toronto Chapter launched its 2011-2012 luncheon season on September 29, 2011 with an interactive and informative session on the subject of helping lawyers to develop and grow business through blogging, featuring former lawyer turned social media evangelist, Adrian Dayton.
This presentation had it all – an engaging speaker, opportunities to share war stories with our colleagues, practical methodologies and law firm-specific tips, and a heart-warming conclusion that left participants smiling.
Adrian opened the session by asking audience members to brainstorm on and then share the objections to blogging and social media that they have heard from lawyers in their firms. Reassuringly, he had heard them all, and he provided some concrete suggestions for overcoming those roadblocks. In addition to the standard recommendations to find champions or to run a pilot project, the following suggestions were offered:
- Worried about naming or inferring clients? Focus blog content on the laws that have affected your client(s) or the pain points and opportunities associated with the laws, rather than on the client detail itself.
- What about conflicting points of view/opinions within a firm? Make it a policy to run a conflict check prior to naming a company or organization in a blog.
- No time to write for the blog? Consider creating a practice group blog and leveraging an entire practice group, rather than one lawyer.
Adrian suggested that it’s also not a bad idea to ask the interested lawyer to describe the blogs they read personally. This will give you a sense of their understanding of what makes a good blog.
Adrian also noted that Womble Carlyle, a leading firm in the blogosphere, requires potential bloggers to attend an in-house seminar on the blogging process and to pre-write 8 complete posts before the firm will launch and support the blog.
Review samples of other good legal blogs here:
Finally, Adrian noted that blogs are no different from other business development tactics in that they require time and persistence before any benefits are experienced. That being said, he did highlight the example of a lawyer who received his first high-level file a week after launching his blog. As Adrian noted, “these results are not typical!” Again, he had numerous tips for keeping the blogging momentum going, including creating a ‘master mind group’ of champion lawyers to support each other, the use of weekly or monthly progress meetings, and skills coaching.
The packed room was highly engaged, as evidenced by the number of people who volunteered their key takeaways (in exchange for a DVD copy of Adrian’s recent social media boot camp session.) Also available here is a copy of Adrian's Sample Blog Proposal
For more information, Adrian’s website is http://adriandayton.com/. And for those who missed it, or who want to see it again, the video Adrian shared to close out the session is available on YouTube: