Build your Online Profile as a Lawyer
So we know how important having a digital presence will be. But, how can you start to build your online profile as a lawyer?
We will all have different starting points. Some of you may have avoided it while others may have a few channels up and running already.
If you have a number of active channels at the moment, great. But, if you are starting from scratch you need to ask yourself before you start anything:
What are my objectives?
Do you want a new job, a raise, a new role, respect from your sphere, business opportunities or to get featured in more traditional media outlets more frequently?
There is no right or wrong answer to this and it may change over time. The breakdown of where you spend most of your time and energy will depend on the audience your trying to appeal to.
We will have a look at this later in more detail but you need to assess whether you’ll be looking to appeal to fellow professionals or the general public.
Your answers will determine the levels of priority you should put on each channel. Some of the options available to you are:
LinkedIn Page: The best platform if you are looking to build a professional network.
Twitter Profile: Twitter is best used professionally to give quick takes on trending current affairs.
Professional Facebook/ Instagram Profile: Both platforms here are great for building an image and picture of what you represent as a brand. It is a lot more image and video heavy.
The first two are for better in a B2B setting. If you do have a personal Facebook or Instagram account you should enable your privacy settings.
There is also the option to have a personal website. This is great as it is a channel you will own entirely but it is okay to start this a bit later down the road.
Once you have decided upon the channel/s you want to be on, there are a number of things to keep in mind. Take a look at the following checklist:
– A professional but personal head-shot
Don’t show a picture from a recent night out, but it is ok to show a bit of “color”. It doesn’t have to look like a headshot for a passport application and you don’t have to be in a suit. Choose a good quality photo you’re comfortable with and then try and stick with it.
Naval Ravikant, Founder of AngelList recently spoke on Twitter about the importance of a good profile picture on social media:
“Pick a unique picture that’s recognizable from a distance and don’t change it. It’ll stand out in a pile..and allow busy accounts to notice and remember you”.
You should use the same picture across your different channels too.
– State clearly the problem you solve
Intuitively, we want to speak about ourselves in our headlines and bios. We want to mention the certificates we have, where we trained etc etc.
But, you need to refrain from talking too much about yourself. If you are using these channels to grow an audience and bring in new business then that is what you should focus on. So, talk about the problem you solve.
– Fill out all of the information sections to make your page look active
This is simple, put in the contact information your comfortable sharing. Make your profile full and highlight the fact you’re a real person with a real background.
– Post different types of content to fill up the page
This comes before your content strategy. You need to fill up your page. Share and craft a few different pieces of content.
The first one or two could be a blog article you found interesting or a photo you took during your workday of you and your team. This stage is just to give your profiles a bit more life.
This blog post is part of our Branding For Lawyers Series. Look out for our next post on it.
