Legal Marketing & PR

Community Creation Inspiration: Calling for Guest Bloggers at Your Law Blog

By Amy Derby

Should You Open Your Blog Doors to Guests?

Today Bill Marler put out a Call for Guest Bloggers on Food Safety and Food Law, which I thought was pretty cool. Even cooler? He’s opening his blog’s doors to the industry and the defense.

What’s so cool about Bill Marler?

Well, many things. (After all, he’s Batman.) More than anything I love Bill’s blogs because he uses them not so much as an advertising campaign to gain business — he’s got plenty of that — but as a platform to try to keep kids off dialysis… something I’m all for.

By taking things one step further to allow guests from all perspectives of this food safety mess we’re all in, he’s also branding himself as a guy who can listen. Bill listens; I know that because I know him. Now the rest of his readers can watch him listen, too.

Community means hearing all sides of a conversation.

Most folks don’t seem to be very good at conversation. We like to present our case, then disappear back into our own little caves. If someone says something we don’t like — here in Blogland — we can delete the comment, ignore the comment… And when we do, that says, “I don’t care about you. I’m here for me. Listen to what I’m saying — please! — but I don’t have the time or energy to care about you.” That’s why I like to see folks respond to their comments.

Why not take things one step further and let others talk once in a while?

Why not show your readers you care by inviting them to say something right where everyone can hear them? It makes your readers feel welcome, and it makes the readers who will stumble upon your blog in the future see that you care about more than just presenting your case.

Should every law blog have guest bloggers?

Maybe not. But I have a lot of respect for the ones who do.

What do you think about guest posters at law blogs? Have you done it? Thought about it?

Full post as published by Law Firm Blogger on December 14, 2008 (boomark / email).