If you are truly vested in increasing your online presence, then you probably have either started a blog or have plans to do so (hopefully soon).  Here are four steps that will help you develop a successful blog for your law firm:

1.  Set your goals.  Why do you want a blog?  Most attorneys who have blogs realize the contribution they can make to extending your expertise, helping your SEO, providing a forum to engage with prospects and providing relevant content to spread to social media networks and other areas of influence.  Before you start a blog, you need to establish goals that align with your overall business objectives. 

2.  Know your target market.  The main reason prospects would visit your blog is because they need to be better educated about the subjects involving your area of practice.  You can’t keep prospects engaged without knowing what they really want, so a clear understanding of the problems your target market faces and speaking to them about those problems in clear, concise language makes you a valuable resource.

3.  Create original, relevant content.  This is the hard part for most attorneys – what to say.  I often tell lawyers to make a list of the most frequently asked questions they get from clients and write about that.  Provide solutions.  Weigh in on popular topics that have a legal twist – like estate planning mistakes celebrities make, IP implications of the “Dumb Starbucks” pop-up coffee shop – just search Google News for trending topics.

4.  Create efficiencies.  Take blog content from past presentations, make a video or repurpose other content for your blog.  Create an editorial calendar and map topics a month or so out.  Have other experts in your firm or your network contribute content.  You can even outsource your blogging if you are careful to choose the right person or company to comply with your standards for content and legal ethics.