Nary a legal tech confab goes by without some speaker exhorting the crowd to get online and start blogging. Much the same happens at gatherings in other industries too.1» Everyone should have blog! becomes a sort of rallying cry to drive some lagging profession into the high tech world of the late 20th century.2» But what’s the point, really? Saying “everyone should blog” is a lot like saying “anyone can be president”, while it’s technically true, it isn’t very likely.
I get it, there is value in blogging. This blog has been kicking around for 16 years. Early on I was a big proponent of blogging, pushing colleagues and conference attendees to get on board. And pretty much nothing happened. Turns out a blog isn’t magic. It doesn’t open some sort of tech spigot from which much wisdom and Google foo flows. What it is is work, and writing, mostly writing. Did I mention the writing?
If you want a popular and effective blog you have to be a writer. Turns out a lot of people don’t like to write. I’ve kept this thing limping along by stuffing it full of links to other things, and running it for my own future reference. And you have to have something to say that interests people. That’s also hard. For example if more than 10 people read this bit I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
When I hear the familiar refrain of “Everyone needs to blog” I think about what they are likely getting at. First: write more, write publicly. That’s what a good blog needs. Second: adopt technology, try new things. Don’t be scared off by the tech. Third: find your voice, express yourself. That is probably the hard part.
To answer the titular question, yes, everyone should at least try blogging, you might be good at it.