Cesia Green is a Barrie real estate and estates lawyer and a partner with Wall-Armstrong & Green. She blogs at wallarmstrong.wordpress.com/. I asked Cesia to tell me more about her experiences with blogging and the results she's seen.
How did you get into blogging?
"I went to a seminar run by Joanna Hoffman of Oomph Group on different ways of marketing for professionals. One thing that came up was using blogs and other digital methods to share knowledge as a way of making connections and therefore clients. At the end of the seminar, I went to my (now) partner with the idea for a practice-related blog."
What were your initial goals for the blog?
"My initial goal was to share knowledge. There is a lot of very technical information out there in my practice areas, as well as a lot of fun stories, and I enjoy sharing them with people who might otherwise never come across them."
Have your goals changed as time went on?
"They haven’t really; I still enjoy blogging primarily as a knowledge-sharing tool. I am always reading other peoples’ blogs and if I come across something interesting, or read an interesting article in the news, one of my first thoughts is how I can reference it in a blog post to better educate my clients and colleagues, both current and potential."
When we met, Cesia also told me that her firm's newsletters are a breeze to put together now that she's blogging. She simply chooses the best blog posts from the previous quarter.
What kind of feedback and responses have you gotten?
"I often feel like I’m shouting into the wind, so it’s great when I hit on a topic that gets some comments. I was given the opportunity twice to guest post on the livehigh.com blog, which was great. I have also been interviewed for a couple of articles, and occasionally get calls from other lawyers who have had similar issues to mine to discuss how they were resolved."
How do you keep up with blogging on a regular basis?
"I schedule absolutely everything in my life, and blogging is no exception. I have task reminders set for my two regular posts each week (estates on Tuesdays, real estate on Fridays) and I make sure that I have them up by then. When I’m really organized, I will do a whole lot of writing all at once and pre-schedule the posts."
What are your future plans for the blog?
"I intend to keep at it! I have always loved writing, and this is a great way for me to do that without the pressure of trying to write something longer for formal publication."
That's good to hear, Cesia. You're helping people understand two complicated areas of the law, and ones that so many of us will run into over the course of our lives.
