Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Blawgs Successful for Stark & Stark

Blawgs Successful for Stark & Stark

Screenshot of the Traumatic Brain Injury Blog When I discovered Kevin O’Keefe’s company LexBlog during my research for “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies” I had to contact him right away. Lawyers? Blogging? My first thought was that lawyers were among the least likely professionals to blog. I was wrong—happily so. LexBlog is in the business of building blogs for lawyers and law firms, for PR purposes, for establishing expertise, for better communication.

Kevin sent me several URLs for successful law blogs, among them a blog by New Jersey law firm of Stark & Stark called the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog. Lawyer Bruce H. Stern posts about new case law, news and events, and courtroom strategies. The blog is targeted to clients and potential clients. I asked Richard DeLuca, Director of Business Development at Stark & Stark, to share how blogs are working for Stark & Stark. Read the whole interview for some startling news about just how highly Stark & Stark values contributions to the blog.

BMWB: When and why did Stark & Stark start up the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog?

DELUCA: We launched the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog in July 2004. I had just started as the Firm’s Director of Business Development and began a process of interviewing the Firm’s Shareholders to discuss their practice and business development initiatives. When Bruce Stern and I met, we discussed the fact that while there were many existing websites dealing with traumatic brain injuries, the information they presented was dated and no one place maintained a library of information.

It had been Bruce’s experience that people suffering from traumatic brain injuries often had many questions about their injury and used the internet to seek out information on coping strategies as well as developments in legislation, funding programs and support groups which impacted their lives. Since Bruce had focused his practice on assisting brain injured individuals for the past 20 years, was active in ATLA (Association of Trial Lawyers of America) and multiple brain injury advocate associations, we decided that we had access to much of the information individuals and their families were seeking. Because of this we decided to launch the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog which serves its readership as a one-stop repository of news, legal developments and information important to brain injured individuals.

BMWB: What effects has the blog had on your clients? How about within your company?

DELUCA: The Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog has had a positive impact on our clients. On average, we receive between 5 and 10 inquiries per month from individuals who have read a post on our blog and would like to discuss their specific situation. We have also received very positive feedback from readers who have thanked us for making information accessible to them which they may not have found otherwise. While the software that powers our blog does not allow us to know exactly how many people receive our RSS feed, we do know that since we launched the blog 8 months ago, we have had over 14,000 unique visitors to the blog and just over 36,000 total visits.

Within Stark & Stark, launching the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog has been instrumental and has impacted every aspect of our e-communication initiatives. We established “metrics of success” to measure the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog’s statistics against. Based upon those results, in September 2004, the Firm launched a second blog, The New Jersey Law Blog which is focused on providing updates on legal and legislative developments impacting businesses and individuals in the state. I am happy to say that we are experiencing the same positive results with the New Jersey Law Blog as we have with the Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog.

BMWB: Would you recommend blogging to other lawyers? Why?

DELUCA: I would recommend blogging to other lawyers because it is a very effective way to communicate with a broad cross section of potential and existing clients. Through a well-produced and frequently updated blog, you can begin to develop recognition as an authority in your field.

BMWB: You mentioned that Stark & Stark are considering blogging during compensation reviews. Can you explain how this might work, and why Stark & Stark thinks blogging is so important?

DELUCA: Blog participation will in fact be part of compensation reviews for the firm’s attorneys. Each post that is submitted for addition to either of the Firm’s blogs is attributed to the authoring attorney. Because of this, it is simple for the marketing department to submit a list of contributors to the attorney review committee.

The Firm’s management has seen first hand the power which blogs possess in their ability to distribute information and reach a desired audience. This communication power, coupled with our client’s need to receive information tailored to their needs/interests, makes blogging a logical solution.

Content is king. Therefore we need our attorneys to help populate our blogs with relevant and timely information. We have instituted a program in conjunction with the Firm’s marketing department whereby that group feeds leads (information for blog posts) directly to the attorneys. When the firm first started blogging, most of the initial posts originated this way. However, now that we are 8 months into the game, many attorneys (not just the young, tech-savvy associates) have embraced blogging. Latest estimates show that almost three-quarters of posts authored and submitted for addition, come directly from attorneys who have read about a development in a trade journal; finished a matter whose conclusion will impact similarly situated clients or potential clients, or have read/heard something newsworthy that will impact a Firm client or that client’s industry.

We believe that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg in what blogging can do for us as a Firm, and are excited about the future’s prospects.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 03/15 at 10:22 AM • Blogs