10 Laws To Abide By When Digitizing Your Attorney Personal Brand
Featured Image: iStock/Panuwat Sikham
Lawyers need to maintain a professional image and high-level of credibility to score with clients. In this day and age, when digital communication has taken over all aspects of life and career, attorneys are pushed into curating their personal brands online. While there is a tendency to go wild in such a space, lawyers need to abide by at least ten laws to make their mark in a digitalized landscape.
LAW #1 DEFINE YOURSELF IN AN INTERACTIVE MANNER
With professions like law, the more you tell clients about your strengths, successful background, and won cases, the better it is. Let your potential clients know about your milestones. This is just one part of the deal here.
Once you have all the things that need to go in your profile, structure the content and make it click-worthy. For example, on your website’s ‘about us’ page, don’t simply write all about yourself in plain text. Instead, divide your resume into paragraphs, sections, bullet points. Also, use visuals like video to make your profile realistic and welcoming.
Points To Grab:
1) Define your achievements and milestones in detail
2) Structure content into readable bits of information
3) Make your resume attractive and interactive, e.g. with video
Explore: How To Successfully Market Your Legal Consultancy Business
LAW #2 REMAIN STRICTLY PROFESSIONAL YET APPROACHABLE
When you join the online world for attorney personal branding and marketing, then the game of professionalism changes slightly. You need to appear as if you will get the job done, but you also have to be pleasant and reachable. How can you do this? First thing, when you pick a profile photo for your website or social media, select one in which you are suited with a smile.
Points To Grab:
1) Appear proficient at all times during the legal process
2) Perk up but remain professional so you don’t look or sound sloppy
3) Smile in profile photos yet be well-dressed with good posture
LAW #3 AVOID BEING STRICTLY BORING AT ALL TIMES
For an attorney, you can come off uninteresting sometimes to people who come to you through online means. The thing is that traditional consumer behaviour has changed and clients (just like customers) want instant gratification. This is true for any business. Thus, it is important that you appeal to your potential or new clientele on more levels than just through corporate appeal.
Points To Grab:
1) Don’t bore your clients by rambling and not hearing
2) Make your conversations sound inviting and gripping
3) Understand online client psychology, it is different
LAW #4 MAKE A UNIQUE AND PROFESSIONAL LOGO DESIGN
Before building a personal brand for an attorney like yourself, get a winning logo design made. Even if you don’t have a proper company, you need a compact and attractive graphic that encompasses your personal image as an attorney. Most attorney logos use befitting colors like blue that is a symbol of security, black that looks serious, or grey that isn’t too dark and appears neutral. Thus, it is critical that when creating a legal service logo, designers understand typeface and color psychology, and they also comprehend the way you want your clients to see you.
Points To Grab:
1) Get an expert and polished personal brand logo design
2) Research design elements that fit your attorney image
3) Create a personal brand image that aligns with your target market
LAW #5 BUILD B2B AND B2C CONNECTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
In the digital world, being on social media platforms is one big step forward in building your attorney’s personal brand. Even if you don’t consider Twitter or Facebook initially, you must create a profile page on LinkedIn. It is where experts meet and connect.
It is also where you can find corporate clients. In your free-time, if there is any, try to join groups and communities catered towards legal services like Lawyrs, Slack, and Quora. Here, you may find lawyers like yourself or even professionals from diverse backgrounds. What this activity does for your personal brand as an attorney is that it not only opens up surprising avenues but also widens your knowledge and vision about this field.
Points To Grab:
1) Be on social platforms that connect you with lawyers and clients
2) Join forums and groups with like-minded or diverse conversations
3) Learn new things on law from international lawyers’ community online
LAW #6 CREATE A WEBSITE FOR ATTORNEY PERSONAL BRAND
You cannot establish your online personal brand presence if you have no website. Being on social media will get you just far enough but it won’t help you reach the finishing line.
To make the most of digitizing your attorney business, a fully responsive website design is critical. It acts as your office and also as your distinctive business card. A website designed by an expert user-interface designer and user-experience developer will bring out the best characteristics of your attorney brand to the limelight. One thing that may help you is to explore the top law firm websites for ideas.
Points To Grab:
1) Get a responsive and fully optimized website design
2) Focus on the best features of your attorney brand
3) Explore the web for legal business websites
LAW #7 REGISTER ATTORNEY BRAND ON ONLINE DIRECTORIES
Having a website is just one step to getting yourself known online. Once all your landing pages are in place, register the site in directories like Google My Business, Yelp, FindLaw, Avvo, Lawyers, and Law Link. The requirements of being on these lists may include paying monthly fees and providing authentic information about your attorney practice.
Points To Grab:
1) Grab clients from registering on online directory
2) Explore more avenues to grow your legal service business
3) Provide legitimate information about yourself to online listings
LAW #8 ESTABLISH YOUR LAWYER’S AUTHORITY ONLINE
For any business, an entrepreneur needs to establish his/her authority in front of not just clients but for any one who may need legal services.
Most of the time, in the online sphere, it is not just about obtaining a case, but also about making people aware of law. It is about sharing information about legalities or educating people about the loopholes, pros and cons, challenges, and opportunities.
You can host webinars, develop free short courses, offer free consultations, produce podcasts, make videos for newbies, and be part of live talk shows.
Points To Grab:
1) Build authority and credibility online using out-of-the-box ideas
2) Make the information or data you share entertaining
3) Make people aware of law in general and legal services
LAW #9 INVEST IN PAID SOCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS FOR A BOOST
Advertising is not the only option to promote your personal brand but it is one that reinforces your presence online on search engines, other websites, or on social media platforms.
To truly enjoy the fruits of online personal branding, you need to invest in SEO and PPC side-by-side, especially if you have the finance to really push yourself in the market.
Points To Grab:
1) Invest in both inbound marketing and advertising
2) Set a budget for online promotional activities
3) Use different places around the web to advertise
LAW #10 NEVER COMPROMISE ON GRAPHIC DESIGNING OF CONTENT
This is one often overlooked aspect of personal branding among attorneys: graphic design. It is not just about making printable or digital items for branding and marketing, but also so much about how you want your appearance to be.
Your world, as an attorney, doesn’t have to be all black and white. As I mentioned in the beginning you need to stand out so don’t be afraid to experiment and add a bit of unconventional elements to your personal brand.
Points To Grab:
1) Use art and design to make your personal brand captivating
2) Experiment with graphic design principles and elements
3) Be a non-traditionalist and raise yourself from the crowd
Which tip would you grab (for free) from this list? Share your thoughts.
