Outsource – But Do It Right!
I try to read legal blogs regularly – many are fascinating and thought-provoking, some are funny and some are really informative. One of my regular reads is Real Lawyers Have Blogs and he has a post up right now about blog spamming. One thing I really loved in his post was this:
And at all times, add value to the discussion. You went to law school. You have 7 years of college and graduate education. It is actually possible to offer insight and commentary, as opposed to looking for the next get rich/cut corners advertising scheme.
I personally have been working to establish myself as a blogger and as a virtual legal assistant, so I’ve been commenting, linking, etc. I try to either add value to conversations or to congratulate or praise a blogger because their blog has been meaningful and inspiring to me. In my time commenting I have noticed a few of these blog spammers (and had some comment on my site) and think it is really sad that some people hire someone to comment on blogs in this manner. It’s no wonder outsourcing and virtual assistance sometimes has a difficult time getting respect – I’m thinking that it is cheap outsourcing or low-cost (and low-value) virtual assistants who are performing some of these spamming tasks.
If you are trying to establish your online presence go right ahead and hire some help to do it – but think about the best way to do it and what kind of presence you want. As was quoted in Kevin’s post (from Simple Justice’s post Comments as Lawyer Advertising) in reference to one comment linking to a lawyer’s site, that contained broken english and no value,
It makes you look like a blithering idiot. Is that what you are trying to accomplish?
So if you are short on time and choose to hire someone, possibly a virtual assistant or the like, who can research your networking options, help you find relevant posts to comment on, find blogging material for you and generally assist you in growing your online presence – take the time to choose the right helper and make sure they (and YOU) go about building your presence in an appropriate manner. It will help give your business a better reputation.
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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No matter how many times I try to explain to the gentleman from Simple Justice that these spam comments may be coming from someone calling themselves a “virtual assistant” and bid on a job for $3 an hour, he’s just not hearing it.
The whole point of my comments there is that if you’re going to hire a virtual assistant, you have to do some research and hire a legitimate virtual assistant. If you just opt for cheap labor instead of taking the time to find out who you’re hiring, you risk damaging your business.
But, wow, this guy just really hates VAs based on his comments about the VA industry being a lie and a scam and that our services are “abhorrent”.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm -
Well April, I didn’t really see your original comment on Simple Justice as spam, especially not in the category of blog spammers being discussed in the post. I think you have to be cautious though in how you approach a comments conversation though – it’s not too professional to get in an argument over something that wasn’t really contained in the post anyway. You and I both feel it COULD have been a cheap va who did the spamming, but that wasn’t the gist of the post. Not everyone will appreciate that there is a difference from a professional va and a cheap one anyway.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
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