Recently, the American Bar Association released its 2007 Legal Technology Survey Report. You can buy it, but I wouldn’t for what they are asking for it. You can get a summary of the survey from Amy Campbell’s Web Log, which will cost you nothing.

Amy, points out an interesting bit of information from the report:

According to the ABA survey, even though it is recognized that blogs can be a great marketing tool, they are “not catching fire just yet.” Only 5% of firms (responding) produce a blog. And as awareness tools, blogs are still underutilized: more than 50% of respondents never use blogs for current awareness of current events, 22% use blogs less than once a month, 12% use them 1 to 3 times a month, and 12% once or more a week.

She went on to state that she is not surprised by the ABA findings as law firms and attorneys are slow to adopt these types of technologies.

While I am sold on the benefits of blogging, lawyers as a group tend to be more cautious and risk averse. Similarly, the term and concept of RSS feeds is difficult for most people understand. And, RSS takes that little bit of extra time to set up and understand, that frankly, most busy professionals just don’t have.

Amy further points out that:

using RSS feeds and aggregators is even less common and less understood. 83% of respondents never use RSS (syndicated news feeds), and only 5% use them use them one or more times a week. Ikens reports that this low usage could be a matter of terminology as those who use tools such as MyYahoo! or iGoogle may not know they are using RSS feeds.

And I would agree that all of this just shows there is a great potential for growth. Firms who are publishing a practice area blog or firm blog can separate themselves from the rest. Starting a well designed, well maintained and regularly updated blog will position you as an expert in that area of the law. It is a wonderful tool for promoting your firm as Michael and I have both done with our Family Law Blogs. And best of all, you are providing a valuable service to your readers and to the public in general. You are providing value by providing information. And you are providing that information for free. Which may be why I personally see the solo and small firms jumping on blogging faster than “big law”. Not only are solos and small firms quicker to adopt new technologies, we tend to be more open to the idea of providing this type of value for free. And best of all, the type of marketing will bring in business.

Thanks to Legal Blog Watch for the heads up on the Report and Amy’s great summary of the Report.