Brand You, Social Media and Legal Practice ~ Part II

I have written extensively on social media. You can go here and here.

Brand You is not something that lawyers can ignore in a digital age. If you do a search on Google right now, where do you appear? Here is my search result.

You will see that the search returns my blog, Twitter and LinkedIn; and of course I have worked hard to make sure that is the case. Now of course it helps to have a name like mine as opposed to Tom Smith. Even David Meerman Scott had to add in his middle name because of the difficulty of being found.

Going forward clients will look you up. Make no mistake about that. They won’t just stop at the website. Will that inform the decision-making process or leave them feeling underwhelmed?

Do you care? You ought to.

Brand You is not a matter of happenstance.

It is a matter of:

• What your firm’s website says about you.
• What you say about yourself (wherever that might appear).
• What your colleagues say about you.
• What your former colleagues say about you.
• Where you have been mentioned in the press.
• PR.
• Client recommendations.
• Off-line material.
• The organisations that you act for – if that is known.
• Your pro bono work.
• How you position yourself.
• What you have published.
• What networking you do.
• The design of your business card.
• The photographs that appear on the internet!

The point is you need to start thinking much more carefully about Brand You and how social media can work in your favour. Yes you are on Twitter, but if I did a search of your profile, what have you been saying about yourself and others? What have you posted? What have you re-tweeted? Don’t think this doesn’t matter because it does.

If you haven’t given any consideration to developing a strategy for your brand then may be you should. At the very least I would be analysing what my competitors were doing and making sure that there wasn’t something obvious that I was missing.

If you want to start with something that can improve your on-line presence then LinkedIn is where I would start.

Start thinking about what your profile says about you to others – particularly to clients. Have you changed it in the last 90 days? If not why not? What about uploading some video via Slideshare. The point is that you have to be distinctive otherwise you will be get buried under the weight of people who are doing the same area of work as you are.

My message is clear: don’t neglect your brand. Guard it with your life. When the market really heats up it may be the best marketing tool you will ever own.