It’s difficult to break old habits. The ways in which a lawyer markets his or her firm are no different. I still see lawyers participating in far too much self-promotion. In the world of internet marketing, traditional methods of self-promotion aren’t as effective. Let me explain.

Websites, newsletters, blogs and other advertisements are becoming increasingly self-promoting.

Getting exposure for your content is usually a good thing. However, with professional services, such as lawyers providing legal services, bad publicity is not a good thing.

Don’t write content that serves no other purpose than to “toot your own horn”.

Here are some ideas to consider.

1. Stop talking about yourself. By writing about the material you know best, by positioning yourself as an expert in your field, and by making your content creative and interesting, you will promote yourself indirectly. Think about the last article you read that you really enjoyed. I bet if you didn’t know the author before, at the very least you checked out who they were afterward. This is what lawyer marketing on the web is all about.

2. You have a very brief amount of time to make your point. People on the web have ADD. Make sure you can make your point quickly and concisely. You want to be interesting and informative, but not long-winded.

3. Update often, but don’t over-do it. With web 2.0 lawyer marketing, you will not keep an audience if you write content once every other month. On the other extreme, it isn’t necessary to produce 4 articles a day. The best course of action is to plan out two to three blog posts and week. Do the same with your contributions to social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter).

4. Talk with your own voice. In a nutshell, be interesting. The amount of information put out onto the web increases with every second. To rise to the top, you need to be interesting. When you speak in your own voice, the content will take on your personality and will differentiate from what others are writing.