New Media Marketing for Attorneys

In the marketing for attorneys context, what is the meaning of the term "new media?"  Although a hundred marketers might provide a hundred different definitions, new media marketing for attorneys would certainly include the concepts of subscription, interaction and feedback, dialogue, time-shifting, content in small chunks, and the lack of of a "middle person" in terms of producing and distributing content.  As my friend and mentor, Paul Colligan, might say, the lawyer or the law firm becomes "the media."

There are many potential vehicles and aspects to a new media marketing for attorneys strategy, including social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, content sharing sites, online articles, etc.  Each new media outlet has its pluses and minuses and could be considered by a lawyer or law firm.  Depending upon the marketplace that a lawyer is trying to reach, one new media outlet may have greater or lesser value.

In my opinion, however, the most effective new media marketing for attorneys currently has four primary pillars: (1) blogging/mini-blogging; (2) podcasting (audio and video); (3) web video; and (4) webcasts/teleseminars/webinars.  A law firm should begin with one of those four strategies and develop a system for implementing it on a regular basis.  Once one of those pillars has been established and implemented, the law firm should quickly move on to the next, until all four have been put into place.

Please let me know in the "Comments" section below how you define new media marketing for attorneys, and which methods you believe are currently the most effective.