Blogging is an essential marketing strategy for today’s law firms. Attorneys who offer additional value to clients and prospects through a blog are more likely to achieve greater success.
But mistakes can be made that negatively impact your marketing results, damage your reputation, or cause you to lose out on potential revenue.
The law firms that have blogging policies in place get the most out of their content marketing while creating greater trust and credibility among their audiences.
What Law Firms Need to Consider When Blogging
Blogging consists of a wide range of activities that go beyond just writing and publishing content. The ideation, creation, and editing of content are also critical to the process.
These tasks may be distributed over a large number of people. So your law firm’s must understand the best practices that need to be implemented throughout the process.
Blogging can consist of guest posts that are shared on other websites, comments from your law firm on other blogs, and your responses to the comments from your audience.
Law firms have confidentiality and other legal considerations to make. Public statements can be misinterpreted. If a law firm provides inaccurate information, it could lead to legal issues down the line.
For law firms, creating a blogging policy guides the content creation and management processes. Local rules related to ethics and advertising should be included in your blogging policy strategy.
Fact-checking systems should be in place to confirm the accuracy of the information you provide. Changes in legislation require you to update your content in order to serve your audience over time.
Blogging Red Flags and How to Avoid Them
Law firms are responsible for their online activities. But aspects related to the social media activity of those who represent your practice must also be included in your blogging policy.
Including your firm’s name, logo, and other branding elements on social media must be carefully monitored.
Law firms should maintain transparent blogging practices. Disclose the members of your content marketing team and include bylines to ensure that readers trust your content.
Mentioning, interviewing, or recommending other service providers to readers should include the disclosure of existing business relationships with those parties.
Providing bios that include the credentials of your content creators supports the transparency of your blog.
Blogging Policy Guideline for Legal Professionals
Implementing the following best practices streamlines the content marketing process and prevents the issues that could get in the way of your results.
Your law firm’s blog must consider client confidentiality. Case studies and other information related to cases should not include details that may identify your clients.
Law firms have client confidentiality policies in place, and your marketing team should refer to them when creating content for your blog.
Any content that’s published online can be easily saved, duplicated, and shared. You may delete a blog post at some point, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still online somewhere.
Including disclaimers protects you against legal claims related to your blog’s content. Individual bloggers must distinguish their own views from those of their law firms whenever it’s appropriate.
Comments related to a legal issue may compromise an existing relationship you have with a client. Public comments can conflict with the interests of clients and should be screened prior to being published.
Having a blogging policy in place protects your law firm and its content marketing team. There are unique considerations that law firms must address when publishing content online.
Understanding the potential risks and applying these essential steps will help you get the most out of your blog while providing more value to your audience.
