Are legal blogs advertising? Should they be regulated as advertising?

I don’t think so, but boy do I have a bias!

The Argument: States want to protect their consumers from lawyer advertisements disguised as editorial content.
Well, I can understand that. Just like they regulate the little ads in magazines and newspapers masquerading as actual news stories with the -5 font “Advertisement” disclaimer. I was really thinking about buying some plates from the Franklin Mint once. And another time, I really thought that scientists had made a breakthrough discovery, and that if I bought a copper wristband, it would increase my energy, make me much more intelligent, and seem both warm, witty, and kind to women. But I saw that one little word, and came to my senses.

Okay, I’m being sarcastic. I apologize.

Could blogs be considered advertising? Absolutely. I would be dishonest to try to ignore the fact that the goal of most law blogging, in the end, is acquisition of clients. If the goal in blogging is to establish expertise, it follows that that expertise is going to result in business. If the goal is to get the firm’s name “out there,” the same applies.

But should every blog post be submitted to a disciplinary committee for review? I don’t see how that could happen.

One of the strengths of blogging is that it is immediate. A story breaks, and bloggers are on it. People come to blogs because of their frequently updated content. And authors can post said content because it is so easy and effortless. New rules and regulations would take away the one of the main reasons for the popularity of blogs in the first place.

But another question comes to mind: How do you identify what is advertising and what is not?

On this site, I’ve compiled Ethics Rules on Legal Advertising and Marketing for all 50 states. Looking through them, I have read many rules on where a lawyer or firm may place an advertisement. But I have yet to find a clear definition of what an advertisement is.

One definition I’ve seen is that advertising involves an active quest for clients. But is having a blog an active quest for clients?

Well, if after every post, I put “See how I can help you make more money with your law firm by calling me at 555-555-8785″, I’d see that as an active quest. But what about if I just have an email link somewhere hidden in the depths of my blog? I’d see that as more of a passive quest.

But now I’m getting into semantics. Back to the issue at hand.

One of the appeals of blogging is that (and this is a mantra repeated often) blogging is a conversation. People like blogs because they show a person’s perspective on a subject. While many marketers spend hours creating buzzword-heavy text that is meant to look like editorial content, people just don’t buy it. As the web matures, our BS meters are becoming increasingly well-tuned. And the emergence of splogs makes us even more aware when we’re being duped.

The truth is: if you’re an attorney who is just writing “give us your business” text and passing it off as a blog post, you’re not going to get very far.

So, with that all said, I don’t think legal blogs should be regulated as advertising. Are there some bad apples out there? Of course there are. Are some people going to take advantage of blogs to plug their businesses? Yep. But should we treat anyone who blogs as a potential scam artist? I don’t think that’s the best way to handle it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

This being a long weekend, I had strict plans to do absolutely nothing yesterday. I was sitting on the couch, rifling through the channles when I happened to see Mark Cuban speaking to the Online News Association Conference.

Speaking to a room full of people that work with online media, Cuban made some bold statements: The internet is old news. Noboday cares about the technology.

Some attendees wanted to get very deep in details asking questions like “If you ran a newspaper’s web site, would your home page have video on it? Or would you put that deeper in the site to avoid unnecessary bandwidth costs?” (I’m paraphrasing here. I don’t remember the exact question)
Instead of jumping in, Cuban did what he does best: he looked at the bigger picture. The answer: who cares if you have video on the home page? What’s it doing for you? Is it sponsored? Are you getting paid each time it’s played? Or is it something people are seeing as content they’re after? It doesn’t matter that you’re an online newspaper. Forget about the technology. Get people what they’re looking for.

To simplify things even more, here’s what Cuban said:

“What do you have access to that distinguishes you?” Cuban asked. “What are the assets you have in terms of writers? What are the skills they have that allow you to distinguish your organization from everyone else?” Figure those out, he said, then “just lever the hell out of them.”

I think that can apply to any business.

1. Access- What do you have access to that no one else does? If you’re a tech firm, maybe you have access to V.C. No matter what your firm does, you have access to something that others don’t.

2. Distinguishing Skills- If you don’t have distinguishing skills, you’re just trying to blend in. But I’m guessing you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.

3. Assets- You’ve got assets. You’ve got attorneys that no one else has. And hopefully they’ve got the distinguishing skills and access to get what your clients want.

You’ve got these. Now “Lever the hell out of ‘em.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’d really like some opinions on this one.

A client at a law firm is planning their ad placement for the rest of the year. In the past, they have used a “We would like to congratulate attorneys X and Y on being named SuperLawyers….” in their print ads.

Knowing all the buzz about the SuperLawyer situation, my immediate reaction was to stay away from this. It just doesn’t “feel” right.

But the client brought up an interesting point: Maybe it’s just lawyers that know about the SuperLawyer controversy. And since the ads are not targeted to other lawyers, it shouldn’t matter.

Given that short background, I’d like to know: do you think a firm should run an ad touting their recently named “SuperLawyers” in a magazine or paper focused on their target clients?

Popularity: 5% [?]

I just read an interesting article entitled “The One Number You Need To Grow,” by Frederick F. Reichheld. The article explores a different way of calculating the ratio of clients who promote your firm to the detractors.

The result is a measure of loyalty, which is absolutely crucial in winning word-of-mouth referrals for law firms. Simply put, from the article:

If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention.  You simply need to know what your customers tell your friends about you.

Popularity: 3% [?]

I just got an email about the 11th Annual Webby Awards, which has a category for Law. From the Webby Category:

Law

Web sites for law firms, legal service providers, pro-bono legal services, litigation support, and self-help legal information. Sites that feature content on legal issues, trials, law and business issues, court decisions or legal advocacy.

From the email I received:

The awards, hailed by the New York Times as “the online equivalent of an Oscar”, officially launched their Call For Entries last week. Justice Learning took home the top prize at the 10^th Annual Webby Awards, while sites from Court TV, Jurist, and FindLaw were among the nominees.

If your firm has a site that you think is Webby-worthy, I would definitely encourage you to enter. While designing your firm’s site with an award in mind is an absolutely awful idea (you’re trying to get clients and make money….not have a pretty site), the converse is also true: If you’ve got a great site that is really working well for you, maybe you deserve an award!

And as any law firm knows, a little bit of nationwide good publicity never hurts.

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I’ve got to restrain myself a little bit here because I’m working on something for this topic behind the scenes right now, and I’m not quite ready to share yet.

With that said, Kevin O’Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs has a post entitled “Blond Attorney Gets New Clients at Myspace.”

Here’s the moral of the story:

Bankruptcy attorney Anicia Ogonosky started a myspace page called legallyblondepa. Her thought: people in their 20s often come out of college heavily in debt, and that’s a great market for her. And, since people in their 20s are using myspace, it made sense to promote her practice there.

Well, according to the post, she was right. Five days after the page went up, 10 people had filled out her online bankruptcy consultation form.

The moral of the story: Promote yourself where the work is.

Popularity: 11% [?]