5 More Tips on Finding Things to Write About in Your Law Blog

Last fall, I wrote a guest post for Scoop, JD Supra's blog, that gave attorneys tips on finding topics for blog posts.  I won't repurpose that content - if you want to read those tips, go check out "5 Tips for Finding Things to Write About in Your Blog Posts or Legal Articles" over at JD Supra's blog. 

This time around, I thought I'd discuss themes and scheduling.  Magazines, for example, work in the long-term and not only do they have their publications scheduled months, if not years, in advance they also have annual theme issues (e.g., the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue; Time's Man (or Woman) of the Year; People's 50 Most Beautiful). 

You can do this, too.  Here's what I mean:

Five Tips for Finding Things to Write About in Your Next Blog Post

1.  Tie your practice area to a theme and write your posts around that theme for a certain period of time.  For example, tax attorneys might take six weeks near year-end and write a series of posts dedicated to issues surrounding tax strategies, charitable deductions, pending tax legislation, etc.  Stagger the posts over the last two months of the year.  Plan for it. 

2. Have certain "annual" blog themes.  Hurricane season starts June 1st every year, and here in Texas as well as the rest of the Gulf Coast, we are well aware of it.  Personal injury blogs could calendar that date and each year write a series of posts that deal with hurricane preparation, how to file a claim, warnings that homeowner's coverage is not the same as flood insurance, etc. 

3.  Consider pending legislation and what will happen when/if it passes and write a series of posts on the new law(s).  For example, Florida recently did a big whammy on its state budget by gutting a lot of state oversight agencies.  Conservationists are upset; developers are excited.  Posting a few short articles on what has happened and what it means is good for blog readers and it also provides the lawyer with a solid base of reference links along with an ability to demonstrate his or her legal acumen by explaining what the new statutes mean to the rest of us.

4.  Look at what is going on in your world, bite the bullet, and write about it.  Get personal and share with your reader.  Is the tanking economy causing your staff to start talking about car pooling, or are you seeing more people bagging their lunches now?  Write about this.  Here in San Antonio, for example, there is a growing number of thieves who are stealing pedigree dogs out of homes.  Heartbroken pet owners are offering huge rewards ($4000 was on a Reward poster at my local taco house last week) no questions asked.  Makes me angry.  If I were writing an animal law blog here, I'd be writing about that trend. 

5.  Create a blogging calendar and block out themes that correspond to your practice areas.  Personal injury could split the year with two months on Med Mal, two months on Wrongful Death, etc.  Then, within those themes, search for news stories (local is better) that correspond with the theme of that time period.  And, don't forget to link to the news story and do not cut and paste from it.  Use your words, and use the link as your support. 

CAPTCHAS: What Are They, and Are They Worth the Trouble?

CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," and I use them on my blogs. Whether or not you choose to use them on yours is a different matter.

What is a CAPTCHA?

It's that annoying little gizmo that asks you to retype a random series of numbers and letters into a little box, to show that you're human and not some spamming computer. They even have a little audio icon, so you can hear the series if the scramble is too hard to read (which lots are, I've noticed). 

There are different kinds of CAPTCHAs, with differing levels of complexity.  Older ones are nicer and less problematic than the later versions. 

Should You Use CAPTCHAs on Your Blog?

I do. Some don't: they argue that the balance between Spam-Fighting and making their blogs comment-friendly means not having a CAPTCHA. They worry that a CAPTCHA costs them comments.

Personally, I think it depends on the blogging platform - not all CAPTCHAs are the same. Check yours out. If it's a problem, then consider pulling it.

For example, Typepad (a popular blogging platform) has CAPTCHAs that bother me.  One writer-friend loves Typepad, and I like to comment on her blog every once in a while.  However, I'm doing this less and less because it's such a hassle.  What's going on? 

There's an added burden to her CAPTCHA of requiring me to sign in via one of my social media accounts before I can leave a comment.  Time-consuming.  That alone stops me.  And this is a friend:  what if I don't want the blogger to know who I am, because I'm worried about uninvited enewsletters, etc.? Anonymous commenting is not only faster for me, but protects me from this mess.

What about Anonymous comments?  That's for a different post on a different day.  

Finding the Time to Blog or Tweet: 30-Minute Social Media Marketing by Susan Gunelius Helps You

30-Minute Social Media Marketing by Susan Gunelius (available on Kindle) gives several excellent examples of implementing a social media strategy on a daily basis with a relatively short time commitment.

Read the book, and you've got the ground rules - along with lots of links to check out, tips to try, and tricks to streamline things. The 80/20 Rule is great. The Quick Tips throughout the text are good.

If your goal is to invest long-term in a social media marketing plan, or if you are just getting your feet wet at Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, this book is worth your investment of time and money.

There are two limitations, though:  first, times are changing so fast that some of the information is already dated. Of course, this isn't the writer's fault, but it does limit the usefulness of the book.

Second, I question some of the times within the schedules here - particularly for the newbie.  There are nifty schedules here, ready made for you, and that is a wonderful idea.  However, take for example Chapter 22's sample 30 Minute Marketing Plans where one plan has a mere 5 minutes allotted to write a post including an image.

Me?  I’m thinking 5 minutes to tweet (start to finish) seems reasonable - write the tweet, gather your hashtags, shorten the URL, edit as needed to meet that 140 character limit - but a quality blog post?

I dunno about that. Hasn't been my experience with my clientele - or with me. Still, tweaking and personalizing these schedules to fit the individual is an obvious need here.   Doesn’t mean that what’s provided here isn’t a great help. 

I recommend this book.