FCPAméricas Blog
An FCPAméricas Status Update
3.02.2012
Tomorrow marks the five-month anniversary of the launch of the FCPAméricas Blog. Remember the first post on October 3, 2011? Is the FCPA Working? Three Dispatches from Latin America.
Now, almost 40 blog posts in, I am taking stock. The following are a few things I have learned so far, and some thoughts about potential new directions.
Is anybody out there? Legal bloggers sometimes feel as if they write in a vacuum, a feeling confirmed by a recent survey by InsideCounsel, Greentarget, and the Zeughauser Group. The survey revealed that in-house counsel largely participate with blogs and “new media” as “invisible users.” They rarely contribute content, and they give little public indication that they are following the source. They prefer to listen and consume. This makes sense – I do the same with lots of sources.
And thanks to Google Analytics, I know that you, the readers, are out there. According to the statistics, each FCPAméricas blog post gets anywhere from a few hundred hits to a few thousand hits. Thank you for reading!
To give you a sense of the community you are a part of: the majority of readers visit from the United States. A large percentage comes from the Americas, mostly Brazil, then Argentina, then Chile, and finally Mexico. There are even occasional readers from places like India, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam…there was even one hit from Lesotho. The analytics also tell us that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regularly check in, which is great.
A special thanks to the FCPA bloggers community. As you probably know, there are a handful of FCPA blogs out there. What you may not know is that many of us communicate regularly and even debate on occasion. I have the highest respect for the ways they continue to trail blaze in this arena, and appreciate their referrals to the FCPAméricas Blog. The analytics show that viewers are commonly referred to FCPAméricas by links on the Wall Street Journal’s Corruption Currents Blog, Tom Fox’s FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog, and the FCPA Professor’s blog. Thank you for the support, Messrs. Matthews, Rubenfeld, Fox, and Koehler!
Going forward. The InsideCounsel study concluded that, if a law firm maintains a blog with compelling content, it has the potential “to become, in the eyes of a majority of in-house attorneys, as relevant as a traditional media operation.” That kind of relevance is this blog’s objective, especially with regard to the Americas. With that in mind, I will continue to emphasize the quality of posts, even if it reduces their overall quantity. The site also hopes to continue building a diverse group of contributors from throughout the region. If you are interested in offering your own perspectives as a guest writer, please let me know. Finally, FCPAméricas is working to translate all posts into both Spanish and Portuguese, so that the site can better connect to its regional audience.
Call for feedback. You can comment below, or you can send me a private e-mail. What have you liked so far? What other topics would you like the site to cover?
The Américas is a fascinating region where anti-corruption issues are developing rapidly. There is a lot of work to be done – we hope you will join FCPAméricas as we try to make a contribution.
Thanks for reading.
The FCPAméricas blog is not intended to provide legal advice to its readers. The blog entries and posts include only the thoughts, ideas, and impressions of its authors and contributors, and should be considered general information only about the Americas, anti-corruption laws including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, issues related to anti-corruption compliance, and any other matters addressed. Nothing in this publication should be interpreted to constitute legal advice or services of any kind. Furthermore, information found on this blog should not be used as the basis for decisions or actions that may affect your business; instead, companies and businesspeople should seek legal counsel from qualified lawyers regarding anti-corruption laws or any other legal issue. The Editor and the contributors to this blog shall not be responsible for any losses incurred by a reader or a company as a result of information provided in this publication. For more information, please contact Info@MattesonEllisLaw.com.
The author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author.
© 2012 Matteson Ellis Law, PLLC
Post authored by Matteson Ellis, FCPAméricas Founder & Editor
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