New York Lawyers Success Blog

Observations on Why Women Lawyers Don’t Blawg

I was asked to post some of my thoughts on the barriers women lawyers face when marketing and building their practices with social media, websites, blogs, video and so on. Over the past year I’ve written a few times on social media and have shared some of my ideas, (see, e.g., Leadership, Women, Lawyers: resources and Leadership, Women, Lawyers: technology). I have also, in the course of doing so, talked to other women about my experiences with social media. There are some excellent substantive sites posted by women lawyers, but I’m not surprised to hear that the blawgs by men seem to outnumber women’s sites. In my (humble) opinion, there are several main explanations: Lack of time, technical ability and support, and fear of failure, ridicule and mistakes.

Lack of time. I think the biggest impediment is lack of time. I know that when all three of my kids were home I had absolutely no time in my week to take on a novel marketing approach. Social networking by blawging, twittering, facebook and so on are still pretty new phenomena in the legal world, and it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to get started. It’s much easier for a time pressed attorney to stick to traditional marketing efforts. Since many women don’t see the value proposition of social media to their law practice, the time commitment seems disproportionate (or, in other words, blawging seems to be a waste of time). Personally I don’t think that is true just for social media. It is very difficult to quantify the value of any professional writing effort, not just blawgs. For example, for about the past 10 years I’ve been the author of three chapters in a legal treatise that is updated annually; I can’t point to a single client that actually came to me because I write those chapters. Ditto my articles in print publications, my service on bar committees, and so on. But like the blawg, all of those things are important to my personal “brand.” I do believe that a strong personal brand on the internet will be more and more essential for professionals, and a social networking presence is a tool for that. It’s not a straight highway to more clients. It is a part of the picture, and by being present in the space, clients, prospective clients, and business associates get to know who I am and what I stand for. I think that is a very important added value.

Lack of technical ability. I think there is a perception that it’s too hard for digital immigrants (that’s everyone over the age of 25) to learn to use social media effectively. The reality is that it does indeed take a lot of effort just to create a website that is passable. When I teach about social media, I explain that for me it has been a very gradual progression, from the simplest “webmaster” training I got some five years ago when I was the chair of an ABA committee, to “training” on facebook from my college age sons, then simple posting to fill out a LinkedIn profile. Only much later did I start actual blawging, and it took quite a while before I was pleased with my content and the overall blawging experience. I strongly encourage people to take it one step at a time: find easy ways to step into social media and then gradually push the envelope. Also, many people don’t realize that they can start a blog and not make it public. Try posting to a controlled audience of friends and family for a while if you are concerned about going “live” to the world.

Lack of support. Also a good point. By looking at the seminars and webinars on social networking, it seems that most of the energy is focused on risk management, the need for protective “policies,” and incidentally some fluffy language about how blawging might enhance marketing efforts. But there seems to be very little out there to actually support lawyers who want to start blawging. This is pretty predictable and consistent with the real world: most firms don’t really support any professional writing, whether for treatises, periodicals, or any other medium. Law firms support increasing billable hours and collections, and that’s about it. An aspiring blawger will probably need to be comfortable doing it on her own, without firm support.

Fear. Fear prevents a lot of people from trying new things, and it’s no different in cyberspace. I suspect that many would-be blawgers fear ridicule or negative feedback from their firm or peers. One must gauge the tolerance of firm management for novel, creative and public activities. Some firms may be comfortable, some just look the other way, and some won’t tolerate it.

Many professional women have achieved their success by phenomenal outperformance of their peers. They’re perfectionists. Publishing to the internet is not something that is generally comfortable for someone whose personal standard is perfection, because “mistakes” or mis-steps go viral pretty darn fast. Fear of mistakes prevents many a perfectionist from following through with new or novel ideas. Similarly, the fear of failure. What if no one comes? What if I can’t keep the blawg going? I suspect that for some women, the possibility of not being a success keeps them from trying in the first place.

I’m curious to hear your reactions to these thoughts. There are probably a lot of resources out there that can help women lawyers who want to blawg successfully.

Cynthia Rowland

www.womenlawyerleaders.blogspot.com