No.

In March 2013 after blogging daily for 6 years the team at PJH Law took a blogging holiday.

During our blogging sabbatical we took a tour of other Solicitors’ blogs to see if we were missing anything. We weren’t. Many blogs are lacking all or some of the following:

1. Generosity:

A blog should be an act of giving, where analysis, insight and information is freely shared and references made to others’ content. I see very few Solicitor blogs where the blog makes a link to content at another firm’s website. Other professions freely and generously link to their “competitors” sites. Solicitors rarely do. Referring to another Solicitor’s blog or article is an act of generosity and a show of confidence. Barristers are far better at linking to other Barristers’ work and output.

2. Authoritative Content:

Many of the blogs were authoritative but that authority was undermined by all or some of the following:

a) Tortured syntax.

b) Poor grammar.

c) Atrocious spelling.

d) Twisted and convoluted sentence structure.

Why bother content marketing when the content is poorly structured and showcases nothing but the inadequacies of the writer’s grasp of the rules of English grammar? Would you want to employ a Solicitor who spells “loses” as “looses” for example? I know that this comment will elicit cries of “grammar police” and so on, but if a Solicitor does not have complete control and mastery of the English language then why employ them?

3. Credibility:

I have seen some Solicitors’ blogs hosted on WordPress which show google ads. The google ads reflect the readers last google search. So you might be reading a blog on holiday pay which has a google ad at the end for One Direction’s latest tour. The tags used for the blog are also transparently for SEO purposes and sometimes do not reflect the content at all. Worse still some of the content of the blog look and reads like a sales pitch.

4. Engaging Content:

This is the worst and most frequently committed blogging crime. Many Solicitors are writing blogs about the same subject, in the same way and with similar content. The content is neither entertaining nor engaging. Why can’t Solicitors be more spiky and controversial with their content? We are supposed to be fearless and independent. Solicitors’ blogs suggest as a profession we are:

a) Boring.

b) Conventional.

c) Extremely cautious.

d) Small c conservative.

Who’d want to be any of the above?

5. Conversational Style:

The acid test on whether a blog is working is how many comments it receives. Liam’s magnum opus on redundancy pools garnered over 60 comments. Most Solicitor blogs are a comment free zone.Virtual tumbleweed is blowing around the comment button.

 

So in future all PJH Law blogs will try to follow the five principles above. Our blogging holiday is over and our blogs will be on one of the six categories over there —————————>

Practicing what we preach, the following blogs tick all or most of the above boxes:

Kerry Underwood – authoritative, spiky content from a fearless thought leader.

http://worklifelaw.co.uk/           -Laurie Anstis’ musings on the URL but with plenty of useful and insightful employment law content.