Some lawyers pick blogging as their marketing tactic of choice. That’s great for certain lawyers and certain practice areas. It can garner attention for the attorney from clients, prospects, the media, and others.
Oddly, I sometimes get this question: “Who should write my blog posts?”
I was confused the first few times I got that question. Who should write them?
I responded with “you.” And the questioner would look at me like I was crazy. The response was invariably “I don’t have time to do that” or “I’m not very good with that kind of writing” or some other story.
Well, then maybe blogging isn’t the right way for you to spread your message. Maybe you need to look at other options like advertising, networking, social media, or something. Blogging is not required.
Why It Has to Be You
Of course, you can find people who will take your money and do the writing, but they won’t do it the way you would do it. They can’t. They won’t be you.
Writing blogs is different from writing articles for your website that have that corporate or law firm feel. It’s more personal. It’s your opportunity to be you and inject some personality.
Personality is a huge part of what makes many lawyer-written blogs work. It’s not essential, but telling your stories in your way will go far if you’re only cranking out a limited number of posts. Of course, that’s not always the case. If, for instance, you’re creating the next SCOTUSblog or Above the Law, then you don’t need personality in the same way. But if you’re doing something more along the lines of the typical lawyer blog, then personality is essential.
Why Personality Is Important
Because, for the most part, there are an abundance of lawyers qualified to do the work. There are fewer with personality.
Personality is a key differentiator. If people like you, they’re more likely to trust you. You need to build a connection between you and key others. Relationships are about being liked and trusted. Your blog is a great way to create, build, and maintain those relationships.
To express your personality, you’ve got to tell your stories, use your own unique words, and be yourself.
No one else can express the real you. You are all you’ve got. You can’t outsource your personality. Trust me, if I could outsource personality, I’d have done it already.
When you read my stuff, you know it’s me. That’s part of the charm, right? Who else could write this shit? Who else would use the word “shit” when referring to my stuff? It’s me. It’s got to be me. If someone else sat down in front of this keyboard, it would be different, and you wouldn’t feel the same way about it. Right?
If you’re going to write long scholarly articles without personality, go for it. Put them on your website. Organize them around topics and build central resource pages. Don’t bother with personality. Impress your audience with your expertise. Draw traffic with your valuable information. That’s a great approach. It’s different from blogging, and it works. Visit our North Carolina family law website to see an example. It gets tons of traffic and stimulates lots of inquiries.
However, if you’ve decided that blogging is your preferred approach to starting and building relationships, then you’ve got to be willing to do the writing. You’ve got to be willing to find the time and the energy to sit down in front of the keyboard (or the dictation microphone) and crank it out. You’ve got to do what I’m doing as I sit here typing away right now. It’s got to be you.
How can you find someone to write your blog posts? You can’t. Sorry.
P.S. I’ll admit that my headline was kind of a sneak attack. I wanted to draw in those who would farm out their blog post writing. If that’s you, I hope I changed your mind. If you were going to outsource it, then I hope you’re deciding not to go in that direction.
