Blogging with video, or video blogging, is still an emerging facet of our ever-changing Internet. If you’re a tech-savvy lawyer considering turning your blog into a video blog—or want to start one from scratch—then you probably have some concerns: will anyone watch my videos? Am I jeapordizing my career? Do I have time to create a video a day? Read on for an analysis of these questions along with some tips should you choose to take that leap.

1.      Will people watch? Video blogging is still relatively new, so it’s difficult to say, but if the Internet has taught us one thing, it’s that people will watch anything. To maximize your chances, keep your videos light and easily accessible. Stay away from legalese and try to pick topics of interest to the general public, such as your legal take on current issues. Or you can go the other way and look for a hardcore niche to fill: just make sure that it’s one you know a ton about and in which you’re genuinely interested.

2.      Are you jeapordizing your career? You will have to be incredibly careful with what you say. Know your state’s ethics rules inside and out and always err on the side of caution. In addition, focus on legal matters, not personal ones, and that includes not discussing anyone—fellow lawyers, paralegals and most importantly judges—in a negative context. Your content may not be reality-show juicy, but it also won’t get you disbarred.

3.      Do I have time to create a video a day? Probably not, unless they’re short, unplanned in terms of content and unedited, and if that’s your process, you may put yourself in danger of running afoul of number 2. However, you could probably manage regular weekly blog posts.

Alternate option

Instead of starting a video blog, you might consider starting a webcast or podcast as an extra feature on your website instead. It will allow you to mix media content and you’ll have more time in between postings before your regular viewers get antsy. Webcasts are more common than video blogs, allow viewers to subscribe to your postings, and are generally considered more “professional” than video blogs.

If you video blog . . .
Should you decide to go ahead with a video blog, consider making the majority of your posts informational in nature. Using your experience and knowledge to educate the public about legal issues is an irreproachable use of your free time, and provided that your posts are legally accurate and you’re not violating you states ethical code of conduct, then you won’t have to worry about any repurcusions from your blog.

While there are some definite risks to starting a video blog as a lawyer, there are also some clear benefits: as one of the few video lawyers video blogging, you’ll definitely attract attention. In addition, people tend to prefer to be able to look at and listen to people, meaning that if you are at all compelling on camera, and you will likely attract a larger audience than you would with a text-based blog. Provided you take care with your content and give yourself enough time to do a competent job of video production, you can probably achieve some success as a video blogger.