As the year winds down, many in the legal industry are busy trying to tie up all of their administrative loose ends. Between work and the bustle of the unprecedented but still busy holiday season, brainstorming for your blog may have been put on the back burner.
If you’re looking for an easy topic for your next blog post, you can’t go wrong with a classic Year in Review. It’s a pretty common annual staple for most blogs, and this year, there’s more to write about than usual. 2020 was undeniably difficult, and the temptation may be to just push past the mess; however, looking back at all of the content that you created alongside the year’s events is a worthwhile endeavor for both you and your readers.
Here are a few quick tips and examples for your Year in Review post:
Look over what you’ve got
The first step is to look at the content that you’ve produced in the last year. Pick out what the big, recurring themes are, and make note of them. If there’s a post that jumps out at you as being particularly emblematic of a larger idea that kept appearing, set it to the side. If something happened in your niche that directly connected to important national or global events, maybe bookmark the article on that as well. For example, David Jacobson of the Bright Law Blog focused on how COVID-19 “affected business in every way including the Government’s economic response” over the course of the year.
Pick your style
There are a few different options for how to present your year in review. You could give your readers direct access to what you consider the highlights of your blog from the last year, like Larkin Hoffman in 2020 in Review: Jim Sanders’ Series on Protecting Payment in the Construction Industry. This is a good way to get more life out of your previous posts.
You could also opt summarize the year in regard to one specific niche. Foley & Lardner provides a strong example of this sort of post in HIPPA Right of Access Initiative: 2020 Year in Review by presenting a compilation of facts and information on HIPPA rights law that they accumulated over the course of 2020.
Enjoy it!
Blogging is supposed to be enjoyable for your and your audience. Your Year in Review doesn’t need to be super lengthy or complicated to do a good job giving your audience a rundown. And remember to be personal with it; give your audience a feel for how you’re feeling about the end of the year before or after diving into your content.
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You can check out all of the 2020 Year in Review posts within the LexBlog network on the 2020 in Review tag! Happy blogging and happy holidays from all of us here at LexBlog!