Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Is Conversation More Valuable than Content?

It’s been suggested to me that engaging in an interconnected blog conversation might be as important as providing new, unique content.  That is, talking about a topic raised by others might give you as much marketing punch as if you raised the topic yourself.  I don’t think there is any way to test that suggestion, and, even if there were, what does that say about your marketing efforts?  Providing insight into a trend or newspaper article is one thing; but talking for the sake of talking seems disingenuous.

It also raises the issue as to whether successful blogging is about nature or nurture.  Those selling blogs will tell you that anyone can learn to be an effective blogger (by, for example, engaging in blogging best practices, like “just talk about it”).  I’m not so sure.  I read blogs where people have either a unique perspective or expertise on a particular topic.  All lawyers should fall into the latter category and make blogging work for them.