6 Ways to Protect Your Online Reputation

Your reputation and identity online are vital to your practice. It matters not if the information on the Internet is true or false, who you are in the that community becomes reality to the consumers searching for a lawyer. To protect your reputation, it’s important to know what’s being said about you.

The following steps can help you be sure your online reputation is not costing you clients and damaging your reputation.

 1.  Check Search Engines Monthly: Consumers are searching for lawyers online in record numbers. To discover what people are saying about you on review sites, in blogs and in social media, search your name and your firm on all the major search engines. The results are presented in the following order of appearance:

o   LinkedIn profile

o   Law Firm web bio

o   Facebook profile

o   Twitter profile

o   Images of you from around the web

o   Articles and blogs about you or written about you.

Review each, particularly the first four. Edit as needed. It is important to keep your profiles up to date. Every time you write an article or complete a court case, update your bio and your page will stay up in the rankings.

2. Set up a Google Alert on your name. This is a great way to see when your name appears in search engines. To create an alert, go to the Google Alerts home page and type your name in the “Create an alert about ____” box. You can select if you’d like to receive e-mail alerts when your name appears once a day or once a week.

3. Protect What You Can: Check your social media privacy settings and change as much as you can. Next look at your personal networks and eliminate language and photos you don’t like.

check your list 

4. Register Your Name as a Domain: If you haven’t already, register your name as a domain to prevent anyone from taking it from you. Even if you don’t use it right away, it will be protected for the future. Also secure your name on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

5. Publish Regular and Informative Content: Although you can’t control everything that is written about you, you can control the content you provide. Regular and informative articles, blogs, podcasts and features on your pro bono work all help to keep your reputation online positive.

6. Address Negative Reviews: First, realize that consumer research shows that a few negative reviews improve the credibility of the positive postings. Second, a negative review could reveal an office procedure that needs changing. Finally, your response to the review restating your commitment to client service sends a powerful message to potential clients reading the review.

Protecting your online reputation is an important part of building and sustaining your practice. Being aware of what’s out there and correcting any problems will go a long way to ensure your online reputation isn’t costing you clients.

Community Outreach-Good for Your Community and Your Firm

Community Outreach: An activity of providing services to populations who might not otherwise have access to those services.

Adding local community outreach events to your strategic business plan can benefit both the firm and the community. Supporting local community events is a way to increase brand recognition, create happier employees, gives you an opportunity to offer much needed assistance and builds your reputation and presence in your community. 

Increase Brand Recognition, Grow Networks:

It’s easy to see how being involved in a community event yields greater recognition in the community. Connecting to good works builds trust, cultivates a sense of belonging and can increase your network to include people you might not find in your advertising campaigns.

As an added benefit, when you sponsor an event, you will receive a back link to your website from their site.

Outreach Engages Employees Beyond the Billable Hour:

A recent study by Deloitte found that employees and executives who participate in community outreach programs are “more likely to be proud, loyal and satisfied employees,” and while the study didn’t target law firms, you can be sure that this is true of the legal community as well.

Engaging employees in volunteer opportunities shows that the firm management cares more than just the dollars earned—that the employees are worth more than their billable hours. These activities bring the group together in a new and satisfying way, makes employees feel respected as individuals and can be proud of their firm. And, getting out of the office to support a local event can help avoid burnout.

How to Create Community Outreach.

Start with your State Bar and Local Bar Associations. Your State Bar has a pro bono program that you can support and your local bar may have a foundation that donates to local non-profits. To find community organizations, take advantage of some of your local social services programs. Contact them to determine area of need that you can fill. The United Way can also help in your selection.

When you've decided where you want to donate your firm’s time and treasure, find the outreach that fits your firm’s interests and capabilities. Some suggestions:

·      Make a financial donation,

·      Offer pro bono services,

·      Offer mentoring to local students,

·      Volunteer with a social service agency, or

·      Offer to host a community event at your office.

Once you’ve decided on an event, you’ll want to promote it. Update your blog and social media profiles with information about your efforts. Create a blog post with details of the event and link to the post with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and your SBM member directory.  After the event, create a follow up blog and post your pictures.

Community outreach, whether a big or small effort, is worth your consideration. It will increase recognition of your brand, build your reputation and create a more well-rounded firm.  

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

Sally Consumer is an active user of the Internet. She uses it to find coffee shops, restaurants, doctors and lawyers. More often than not, her searches take place on her phone or her tablet. If your website or blog loads slowly, doesn't fit the smaller screen forcing Sally to pinch or zoom in order to read the content, she will move on to a more responsive or mobile friendly website.

Google has long been aware of Sally's search habits and has decreed that its search robots will include a website's "mobile-friendliness" as a ranking signal. This means that site pages that can't fit comfortably on the smaller screens will see a downgrade in ranking.

How do I know if my website is mobile-friendly?

Ever efficient Google has created a website where you can enter your webpage URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web address to test it. Find and click on the Mobile-Friendly Test, enter your web address and you will quickly know the results. If you fail the test, contact your web developer or website host to find out how to make your website responsive or mobile friendly. 

What is a mobile-friendly design?

A mobile-friendly website is one that is designed to work the same way across all devices. A website with no usability concerns regardless of whether it's being viewed on a phone, tablet or laptop is mobile friendly. If your website, like most law firm websites, is basic with few navigation drop-downs and no animation, it may pass the test. 

The key features of a mobile-friendly website are:

Static content that doesn't change,

Simplified navigation,

Images display smaller, and it's

Not reliant on a particular operating system to work properly

What about a responsive design?

A responsive website is one that changes based on Sally Consumer's needs and the device she's using to conduct her search. With responsive design, text and images change from, for example, a three-column layout to a single column display. Unnecessary images are hidden so they don't compete with the more important information on the smaller display. 

The key features of a responsive website are:

Content changes,

Abbreviated navigation,

Improved images, and it's

Reliant on a particular operating system to work properly.

Which do I need?

A simplified mobile friendly site will give you a consistent website experience across all devices. If you don't have a large mobile audience (less than 35%), your site is simple with mostly text and images and your picture sizes are small, allowing for quick loading, a mobile-friendly site is for you.

Consider a responsive site if more than 35% of your web traffic is on mobile devices, your website content is complex or has features that are difficult to use on a phone or tablet or you want your website to appear up-to-date longer. Be aware that a responsive design takes expertise, proper planning and a larger budget. 

Sally Consumer is in a hurry. She wants to solve her problems now. She will quickly pass by websites that load slowly and are hard to navigate on her phone or tablet. To be sure your website is the one she picks, test it for mobile-friendliness and make any necessary adjustments. i