Daniel Newman, author of The Millennial CEO and guest blogger at the Huffington Post, wrote a compelling post on Tuesday about demystifying small business blogging. His key points really resonate for attorneys as well.

Small business owners – yes, that’s you – struggle with making blogging a priority since they have so many other hats they wear and fires to put out over the course of a day. While most recognize the need to be on social media, they often “set it and forget it” – forgetting that blogging and social media is a beast that needs to be continually fed to deliver any benefit.

Newman argues that if you as a small business owner do only one thing, it should be blogging. When done correctly, he says, blogging can separate your business/practice from others that do the same thing in the same area for roughly the same price.

He provides a 5-step approach to creating a successful small business content strategy, which I am repeating pretty much verbatim here:

1. Integrate a blog into your firm website that regularly posts content from your firm’s leaders.

2. If you don't have time to write the content, hire someone to ghost write for you who can articulate in your voice to show leadership in your areas of expertise. (My note: be sure it’s someone familiar with writing for attorneys and who knows the ethics rules of your state bar association.)

3. Regularly (at least once per week) post content and share it to all of your networks, feeds and mail lists. In addition make sure your teams are sharing it with their online communities such as their LinkedIn groups and networks.

4. Use internal linking to take readers to pages on your site that discuss your services. However, do not create content full of sales and marketing pitches. A blog shouldn't be used as a direct sales technique.

5. Focus on measuring the community building rather than just the metrics. It is easy to get your content seen, but having it seen by the right audience takes commitment and time. (Realistically six months or more before you see significant growth in meaningful metrics).