Due to the expanding use of social media, it is important for legal professionals to assess their online persona to determine what Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter say about them today. Many professionals ask me about participating in directories or how to improve their website’s performance on the search rankings. I have strong opinions on the answers to these questions. I believe that there are four key aspects of the net that every attorney should be actively managing for their benefit, regardless of their practice, firm size, or personal preference.
If you are a lawyer, whether you like it or not, your “online persona” has been created and needs to be managed. When you “Google” your own name, you quickly see that people can form an impression of you with a few keystrokes. As social media use grows (Facebook has 500 million active users today), even more information becomes readily available and searchable. To make matters even more complicated, old directories are being modernized (e.g. Martindale Hubbell/lawyers.com) and new legal directories (e.g. Avvo, JD Supra) are being populated with data to attract users and advertising revenue. So it is only a matter of time before online information helps or hurts a legal professional’s business.
Many attorneys are conservative when it comes to embracing new technology, especially when they want to carefully follow ethical guidelines. However, others embrace this technology with open arms and deep pockets—just look at the number or plaintiff firms that have set up websites for potential clients in the gulf oil spill. Even if you’re not ready to use social media and specialized websites just yet, you should have an understanding of them to remain competitive, work with your clients, and prepare for the changes yet to come.
Used properly, social networking sites can help filter the constant, massive amount of information out there, allowing you to spend valuable time on what matters. And, if understood, the adoption of new technology can lead to better marketing and collaboration in a more efficient business format than ever before. So, what are some easy ways to get started creating a professional persona so you can start understanding the tools and how to take advantage of them?
There are many tools that are widely—and ethically—used by attorneys today. It can be done without overtly soliciting clients, spending inordinate amounts of time and money, or violating ethic rules. However, many delay while they create a social media “policy” that often becomes outdated before it is ever enacted. Some firms simply use the “if you don’t want it on the front page of the paper, don’t put online” policy or have a prohibition not to use social platforms to comment on or discuss confidential cases or client information. There are hundreds of online resources to help you make your own decision but, if you manage these correctly, social networking can be used to build trust, authenticity, and connections that can lead to referrals, improve client relationships and grow business.
Here are four of the most widely used search and social media tools used by attorneys today. Anyone in the legal profession must understand how these tools are affecting business and begin to understand how they should participate in them in the future:
1. Google
With over 70% of people beginning their quest to find a product, answer a question, or determine how to approach a problem with a Google search, it has become the major driver of most traffic on the net. While Google has yet to have its own social media platform scale to the size of the others we will discuss, many attorneys already invest heavily in being “found” on Google by optimizing their websites, hiring search engine optimization (SEO) experts, or purchasing AdWords so they are found in online search engines when someone types in the attorney’s name or area of expertise. Google continues to advance their own platform, both to improve customer experience (e.g. Google Buzz) and advertising revenue (e.g. Google Places) but still relies on other social media sites to find people. While having your own website used to be sufficient to stay on top of the Google search rankings, this is no longer enough as people look to social networks to validate and find things that their friends and associates have already validated. Just like people have always been referred to certain businesses in the past, this process is growing exponentially due to social media.
2. LinkedIn
Every lawyer should at least create a LinkedIn profile. With 75 million members, it is the largest online professional directory today. A free networking site, LinkedIn provides a professional, business-oriented platform to establish workplace affiliation and specialized areas of practice. It is an easy way to create your own professional online identity and establish connections with past and present coworkers. Additionally, they have advanced communication features to encourage involvement in group discussions and news. While usage of LinkedIn groups and discussions has not been widely reported as a great business development tool, LinkedIn results often appear in Google searches, especially if you have fully “optimized” your profile online. LinkedIn helps your clients and potential clients find and verify your contact information quickly and simply makes it easy for people to get in touch with you when they need to.
3. Facebook
With a plethora of privacy issues, and what appears to be a fight with Google over the future of social media for search on the net, Facebook has grown to be a strong and growing force. With a strong consumer focus, it covers all of the bases, which results in ever-changing layouts and features. It is clearly becoming a source in the legal space as personal and business lives cross paths; they have even put up information about many law firms without their “permission” or approval. As the largest social networking site, Facebook has many advantages if used judiciously. Legal professionals can even create a personal profile or a “professional page” that allows them to connect to family, close friends, and professional contacts without turning on all the other features (like commenting and games). Done correctly, a professional presence on Facebook, with the right privacy settings, resonates with a LinkedIn profile, and allows other users to “like” the professional which is like an online referral in a way. Thus, Facebook can be very advantageous to your overall “findability” on the net and is likely to become more important for reputation management over time.
4. Twitter
Twitter might be easiest and most useful social network tool for modern day lawyers. At this point, most major associations, universities, organizations, publications, and industry leaders already use Twitter. By following relevant users, it is a convenient way to bundle all relevant news and information that you normally follow onto one easy-to-use site and to receive it as the news breaks. Doing this helps people find you in return (Google continues use Twitter results in its own search results).
In addition, Twitter provides you with a personal platform where it is easy to connect with a variety of people, share quick updates and pieces of news that are important to you and the work that you or your firm is doing, and establish meaningful conversations. If your followers retweet interesting and useful tweets of yours, then your name will be spread to an even larger arena in order to build upon your credibility and authenticity. Twitter also gives you an environment where you can call upon a variety of people from different areas to answer your questions or provide needed help. Twitter essentially filters the news for you, providing you with the most authentic and current news, and at the same time it allows you to become a news source for others.
The Future
Google is certain to advance its social networking tools by improving its own, partnering with others, or continuing to acquire existing social networks. Google remains in a fierce and growing competitive environment (Bing, owned by Microsoft has already partnered with Yahoo) and will even have to compete with Facebook for some of its own advertising revenue. The advent of geo-location, mobile devices, and other new collaboration technologies continues to evolve and change the game for every player. At the very least, legal professionals should understand how they are perceived on the net today and begin participating at the most basic, risk free levels.
However, blogs are quickly becoming the new tool for people with meaningful information and content to use as tools to develop and expand their personal networks because blogs help you release authentic messages to potential clients at their point of need. The Zeughasuer Group, in a recent survey, found that more than 50% of general counsel are already using blogs as a major source of legal information. As the web continues to expand, users are demanding new, genuine information and insight into real things. By choosing a specific area of expertise and providing frequent updates and news, bloggers can easily establish themselves as industry thought leaders and increase their SEO without marketing, expensive advertisements, and without trying to keep up with constant changes in social networking
Quality will take precedence over quantity as the tools and technology continue to evolve, but legal professionals need to start managing their online persona today. Creating a goal for managing and using these four tools is a great way to do so. Once done, you will be ready to establish a leadership position in an area of expertise, with a known audience, making it all authentic and sustainable. It really won’t be long until all of this becomes as familiar to us as email.
Ezults has created a technology-enabled service that goes well beyond the minimum to establish net leadership using the latest collaboration tools. It provides the most advanced platform to publish authentic content and seamlessly integrates social media and other technology for professionals that simply don’t have the time to learn and manage it all on their own.
