Hugh McLeod of GapingVoid has a manifesto by Chris Houchens called “Marketing by committee.“

From it:

If one person can produce ineffective crappy marketing, imagine what a committee can do.

Popularity: 7% [?]

On LexBlog, Kevin O’Keefe points to a study by my alma mater, Northeastern University, on “What Makes a Successful Corporate Blog?“

The study identified five factors as important to the success of a blog:

1. Culture- If you’ve got culture traits that are interesting to people (think Google) or if you’ve got culture problems (think Dell or Microsoft), showing what your company’s culture is really like is a great reason to blog. With the Google scenario, you’re giving customers a glimpse into a fascinating company, and giving behind-the-scenes info on a universally loved brand. On the other hand, when you’re dealing with consumer distrust or bad PR, blogging (if done correctly) can help repair a tainted reputation.
2. Transparency- Blog readers want to read authors they can trust. They don’t want to read blog posts by a company that is trying to take a thinly veiled approach at hawking their products. It really is a balancing act. Sure, your company’s blog can help sell products/services. But at the same time, you don’t want to seem like like you’ve got too much of an agenda.
3. Time- It takes time and research to write a worthwhile blog.
4. Dialogue- You’ve got to talk with your audience. You’ve read the cliche “Blogs are a conversation.” Well, they are. And successful blogs are conversations between the audience and the writer(s).
5. Entertaining writing- When the blogger brings a unique style to the blog, it makes the blog so much more interesting.

How does this relate to law firm blogging?

Culture- I don’t see how law firms would offer a glimpse inside their inner workings on a blog. Unlike Google or Microsoft, law firms aren’t trying to persuade the masses  to use their products. A law firm’s target is much more narrow in scope, and would not likely benefit from showing how business is conducted (not to mention issues of confidentiality).

Transparency- Law firm bloggers have seemed to do a great job with transparency. Rather than having huge, blinking ads saying “BE A CLIENT!!!!!! WE’RE THE LAW FIRM FOR YOU!!!!!!!”, attorney blogs are best when they establish the author as an expert on an issue. And since that expertise is essentially the service clients are purchasing, there is more benefit in the content and the writing than advertising the firm. Am I saying attorney bloggers should get rid of any mention of their firms, or get rid of links and contact information for their firms? Absolutely NOT. That’s the point. But the idea is to gain trust, then gain the clients.

Time- This is a big issue with law firm bloggers. When the time you spend writing can be so easily calculated into opportunity cost figures, the question of “is it worth it?” will always come up.

Dialogue- For the most part, law firm blogs are good at encouraging conversation. When the attorney is an expert on an issue, they’re likely to embrace discussion.

Entertaining Writing- Without style, reading a law firm blog, regardless of the expertise of the author, can be, well, boring. But when you have a writer that can make a sterile subject seem interesting, you’ve got something.

Popularity: 22% [?]

I apologize for posting so infrequently this month, but I’ve been working on some “behind the scenes” projects that are very exciting (to me at least!).

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something for legal bloggers (and with a name like LawFirmBlogging, I probably should post on-topic articles from time to time), so today I’d like to share a new site with you.

Zippy.co.uk is a technorati-like search engine for blogs, but it has a LOT of information. Type in the URL of your blog, and you’ll get the following information:

• Internal Links
• External Links
• External/Internal Link Ratio
• Total 2 Word Phrases
• Total 3 Word Phrases
• Total 4 Word Phrases
• Textual Content
• Alexa Ranking
• Google PageRank
• Google Backlinks
• Number of Indexed Pages in Google
• Yahoo Backlinks
• MSN Backlinks

Aside from providing a way to centralize data from the different search engines, the 2, 3, and 4 word phrase count is especially useful. Since most people only enter 2-4 words in their search engine queries, knowing your keyword density is very important. Clicking on the Total 2,3 and 4 word phrases reports will give you a rundown of your frequently occurring keywords, with both a count and the keyword density.

If you’re looking for a quick, dashboard-like application that gives a very good overview of how your blog is performing, it’s worth doing a quick search with Zippy.co.uk

Popularity: 14% [?]

When I was a little kid, my sister and I had a Saturday morning tradition. Our mother would give us each a couple of dollars, and we’d walk about a mile to Mike’s store. Mike’s was a tiny little convenience store with many different kinds of penny candy, and it was very popular with kids.

One day, on our way back home, I opened my little paper bag full of candy and pulled out a Cow Tale. I took a bite and hated it! I was right next to the canal, so I threw the rest in (the candy, not the wrapper!). I then noticed that no less than ten small fish swarmed the cow tale and ate it immediately.

The next Saturday, even though I hated the candy, I bought more cow tales. I went back to the canal to see if I could replicate the results. The answer: fish love cow tales.

What’s my point?

Let’s think about what would happen if my intent was to catch a lot of fish. I’d probably first think about worms, lures, etc. I might even go to the tackle shop and ask. Or turn on the T.V. and catch a fishing show. If it were today rather than when I was a kid, I’d just go online and do the research.

I’m sure I would get a lot of information on what works, what doesn’t, and I’d get lots of suggestions. But it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t end up with Cow Tales.

There’s a lot left to be discovered. Don’t just rely on what has been done in the past. Sometimes you need to throw candy in the canal and see what happens.

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Sometimes you need inspiration. Well, at least that’s true with me.

Keeping blogs and websites updated can often be trying and it takes a lot of effort. And sometimes I’ll ask myself: “Am I just wasting my time?”

I’ll look at the time I spend thinking of blog posts, writing, reading, etc., and do a little ROI analysis. It’s definitely a critical state of mind that leads to this. It’s rare, but it happens.

It’s times like these that make me look around for inspiration rather than validation. And today I found something truly great:

Hugh MacLeod’s “How to be creative”. 

If you need some inspiration, read this.

If you feel like you’re wasting your time, read this.

If you feel like you’ve got a great idea, but no one else agrees, read this.

Just read it. It’s that good.

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A couple of questions to ask yourself:

How do you foster the extraordinary?
Do you really want your firm to be seen as something special?

Which statement is true in your firm:

• We try new things.
• We take risks.
• We fail sometimes, but we learn from our failures.
• We do not take any risks whatsoever…..because we might fail.
• Not only do we not take risks, we repeat the things we know will not work.
• We are so dedicated to maintaining the status quo, that the thought of trying something new is unsettling.
• Please don’t talk to me. The risk of hearing a new idea scares me.

A thought occurred to me today, and I think I may be on to something. Sure, companies of all kinds say they want more business. They’re always trying to attract new clients. But maybe that’s not true.

I think we take for granted the idea that companies want to be innovative and better than the competition. Maybe that’s not the case.

When I think about it, why would you bother trying to put out interesting, though-provoking marketing materials, when you don’t want to be seen as extraordinary? When there’s no motivation to be better, the motivation switches to “let’s not be worse.”

If trying and failing is punished, wouldn’t you rather not try?

Popularity: 13% [?]