Yesterday's SF Chronicle had a slightly-behind-the-times but still enjoyable article on small-business blogging by Ilana DeBare. Yes, even small businesses are blogging--who knew? But one passage did jump out at me:
Folger Levin & Kahn, a midsize San Francisco law firm, started an
intellectual property law blog in March (www.iplawobserver.com) as a way to
showcase its IP knowledge to potential clients.Folger attorneys spend a total of 10 to 15 hours per week writing blog
entries about recent appellate court decisions on IP law."A lot of law firm business is based on word-of-mouth, where someone
tells a friend about Folger," said Gregory Call, a Folger partner. "That works
very well with my generation, which is 45 and over. But what's the equivalent
of word-of-mouth for younger people today, many of whom are moving into
decision-making positions? Maybe a blog will do that .... I don't think people
will hire us just because we have a blog, but they may talk to us because we
have a blog."
Now this is actually news. As the husband of a former corporate attorney, I'm well aware that a law firm isn't going to devote 10 to 15 hours a week of billable associate time to blogging because it's the cool thing to do. They're doing it because it pays. Blogging actually has a positive ROI. Well, depending on your blog.