Blogging – The First Step is Creating a Strategy

In the past 12 months, I’ve seen a splendid interest from my customers inside the place of running a blog. Even my most internet-skeptical lawyers are venturing into this new area (nicely, new to them!) and exploring the possibilities that come with increasing their brand online via a weblog. It can boom your credibility and visibility. So what makes a splendid weblog? One phrase: strategy.

As I frequently tell clients, the whole lot you placed out into the arena must have your wonderful stamp… Your brand. From layout to content material, that includes your weblog. Before jumping in head first, I continually propose clients prevent and understand the strategy in the back of the journey they are about to embark on. If you do not have a plan, your weblog becomes misplaced, and you lose consciousness. Do your studies. Look at what is out in the blogosphere, what is NOT out in the blogosphere, and in which you fit in, along with your know-how, your heritage, and your target marketplace. What do capacity clients and referrals need to study? How will you be capable of having interacted with them in conversation, so to talk? What should it be known as? How regularly will you post, and will your posts have a set format? Will you write them or rent a ghostwriter? These are the questions (and extra!) you need to answer earlier than you get began. Here are some primary points to do not forget with regards to your blog…

1. The Topic. Finding your area of interest in blogging is an essential part of the technique. Randomly commenting on events or ideas won’t cut it in this day and age…You have to have something that sets you aside and distinguishes your weblog from the alternative million or so out there. So how do you already know what to weblog about? Use your knowledge, your private emblem, and your target marketplace initially. You want readers to get an immediate sense of who you’re, what you do, and what makes you stand out. Once you have got that straight, pass it on to your target market. A copywriter that I paintings with says she regularly images writing to a specific character… Do the identical along with your weblog. Who are you writing to? Other legal professionals? Potential customers? A specialized industry? It will help you turn out to be clear on what your blog wishes to cover and how you may position your voice and your recommendation within the exceptional light.

Finally, reflect consideration on the subject. Find a manner to distinguish your weblog from others accessible which are similar. Mine places attention on easy, sincere prison advertising and commercial enterprise development recommendation that may be carried out to everyday lifestyles and is formatted in a very particular pattern (query, poll, answer, and dialogue). Are you enthusiastic about a certain topic within the regulation? Have a unique perception of town-precise rulings or regulation? Does your felony know-how translate nicely into a long-term newsworthy subject matter (neighborhood actual property? Celebrity divorces? Travel problems?)? Turn it right into a blog. Just make certain to select something that pastimes both you and your target market and do it in a voice that stays genuine in your private logo.

2. The Time Commitment. The first query out of most of my client’s mouths once I propose a blog is the following: How tons of time will it take? The answer is simple as much as you want it to. There are many ways to consider time for running a blog. However, the maximum vital element to recognize is how you want to dedicate a great deal. It may additionally sound harsh, but if you’re no longer willing to dedicate some time and your consciousness, you can as nicely now not embark on the journey. A few times a month is respectable. It would help if you planned on posting at least once every week to surely gain outcomes from the blog. It will help you construct a following and get readers on board to comply with you and keep up with your posts.

3. The Design. Though maximum running blog platforms provide up templates of ways a weblog must include appearance, it’s as much as you to impress your private emblem on the web page. The proper check: Can a person without problems discover the blog as YOURS upon first glance? That doesn’t mean intricate layout or bells and whistles photos; it without a doubt approach bringing a sense of organization to the visuals and reflecting your brand within the color, fonts, and symbols used. My largest pet peeve in blog design is the dearth of originality. It takes just a few extra minutes to comprise your emblem or signature hues into the banners and headlines (equal with your Twitter web page when you have one) to set yourself self-other from the opposition. A few other tips? Make positive your emblem or tagline plays a prominent role as quickly because the page appears; Stick with the same colorings and fonts as your internet site, brochure, or commercial enterprise cards; Be organized inside the way you think out the placement of buttons like “search” or “documents” and make certain they are without problems noticed; Use photograph and video to beautify your posts, and make certain headlines appear to be headlines and no longer really blocks of the replica.

4. The Content. While the blog’s path and voice need to come from you (and your non-public brand!), there is no harm in bringing in help. A few of my customers have currently begun operating with ghostwriters. Though you have to nevertheless devote your time to overseeing the content material, these experts can assist shape your words and submit them on an everyday foundation. My advice in case you’re planning to go to this course? Stick with someone in the felony arena, whether it’s a lawyer, former attorney, paralegal, or law pupil; find a person you hook up with-although it’s someone else writing, it ought to nonetheless reflect your tone and your opinion, and all content has to be directed with the aid of you, and be clean at the arrangement from the beginning via putting a agenda for what number of posts you expect in keeping with a week or per month.

Once you’ve got hooked up a plan for all the elements above, it’s simply a matter of time, consciousness, and dedication. Please think of the blog as a real extension of your business improvement and provide it the thought and recognize you would like anything else. Think through your posts (ensure they stay heading in the right direction!), preserve your non-public branding front and center, and most importantly…Have fun with it. Engage, enlighten and encourage connections, and you will reap the consequences.