Lawyers are still holding tightly to the older, more traditional ways of marketing. As we’ve heard before, old habits die hard. This is especially true when it comes to lawyers advertising their services in the web 2.0 universe. The effects of too much self-promotion are becoming abundantly clear.

Websites, newsletters, blogs and other advertisements are becoming increasingly self-promoting.

Getting exposure for your content is usually a good thing. However, with professional services, such as lawyers providing legal services, bad publicity is not a good thing.

When you publish content on the web, make sure it isn’t just a giant advertisement for yourself.

The following are some suggestions to avoid egregious self-promotion.

1. It isn’t all about you. The reality is that by writing about what you know, by being an expert in your field, you are promoting yourself is a good, but more subtle way. Think about the last time you read something you really admired or found interesting. If you didn’t know who the author was previously, chances are you took the time to find out afterward. This is what lawyer marketing in the web 2.0 world is about. Contribute good info and you will be remembered.

2. Attention on the web is fleeting. With lawyer marketing in web 2.0, your time is limited. You need to be helpful but concise. I always tell people to create bullet lists, outlines instead of long essays. Provide a lot of information in a small space.

3. Stay current, but don’t get overwhelmed. In addition to being brief, you need to be current. With web 2.0 lawyer marketing, people don’t want to wait a month for your next blog post. By the same token, you don’t need to produce 3 articles a day to stay current. I would advise planning out a couple of blog posts, perhaps 2-3 a week. Do the same with your social media efforts. This will help you increase the effectiveness of your efforts.

4. Be yourself. Put a creative and interesting spin on your articles. As the pool of information on the internet fills, you need to be interesting and relevant to rise to the top. The best way to achieve this is to speak in your own voice.

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Tags: advertising, article marketing, Blog, internet content, law firm advertising, legal, legal marketing, marketing, self-promotion, social media, web 2.0, website content, writing

This entry was posted on February 8, 2010 at 9:36 pm and is filed under article marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.