Requisites For Online Reputation Management Of Lawyers And Law Firms

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STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE REPUTATION OF LAWYERS AND LAW FIRMS

We are living in the Internet Driven times where Google provides the answer/ solution to every problem and is an important institute while making any decision. Gone are the days when legal clients looked for lawyers outside the court, according to the 2021 Legal Trends Report, 82% of the legal clients make their decision about the lawyers based on positive online reviews .

Hence, for the practitioners of law, it has become highly essential to proactively manage and maintain their online reputation so that their legal clients can find them and trust them .

MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE WHERE YOU ARE NEEDED

The first step in the process of online reputation management is putting yourself in your client’s shoes and understanding what and where they are looking for. Search for law services and look for highest ranking results and optimise your online operations accordingly .

It is advisable to search yourself in the incognito mode so that your browsing history does not affect your research .

What can you search for during your initial days of research .

  1. Your own law firm’s name to know about your actual presence
  2. Name of your attorneys
  3. Any relevant terms related to your law firm

MANAGE POSITIVE REVIEWS AND CATER TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS

Opinions and reviews are subject to a personal understanding of an individual. Hence, even your strictness may become rude for someone writing a review about you. If you spend some time on your reputation management you can tactfully turn your negative comments into your favour .

With the help of a search engine optimization professional you can have your positive comments rank higher on the internet. Whereas you can deal with the negative comments by replying to them politely or may be sometimes apologetically .

For example- If a client gives you a negative review on the internet saying that you are aggressive or rude. You can simply reply politely saying, “I am sorry to come out rude to you. It was absolutely unintentional. I was trying to be utmost honest and practical. I will still try to do better.”- Now by doing this you have totally changed your rude image into an considerate and polite lawyer .

Guide to authentic reviews from your law clientele

Honestly, there is no guide to what you can do to fetch most authentic and realistic reviews but there are certainly some tried and tested methods that can help you in sailing through it .

  1. Ask clients to include facts about how they could drive results under your legal supervision
  2. Ask clients to be specific and precise while drafting their review
  3. Ask them to add their photograph for better identification
  4. If possible, request them for a video feedback. Since, it offers highest authenticity

Besides this there are more tactics for getting positive reviews from your legal clients

  1. Persuade your most satisfied clients to write reviews
  2. Ask them to write a review on a website or portal where you have weak or negative reviews. Pro Tip: you can have them to write their positive review in the reply of a negative review
  3. Use technology- you can use an automatic review funnel that can segregate and position good and bad reviews at your desired destination

Does made up or false reviews work ?

There are some ethics of online reputation management that simply rejects the idea of manipulating the review content. Google’s algorithm is smart and can read through the intent of a content. If you produce any false reviews there are high chances that Google will dump it into the spam category. If Google’s based on whether algorithm picks them up as spam, it can have adverse effect on the process of search engine optimization .

Also, how can protectors of law break the law? Remember now there are lawsuits over reviews .

Now, WHAT CAN YOU DO IF A CLIENT IS NOT READY TO WRITE A REVIEW FOR YOUR LEGAL SERVICES even when he is happy and fully satisfied ?

Now that we have made ourselves clear that you can never make up any reviews, no matter how well your cases have been. There are several reasons why your clients are unwilling to write a review and as their lawyer you have to respect that .

Your clients can be busy, under confident about their writing abilities, concerned about their security or simply uncomfortable with sharing their identity over online platforms .

As a responsible lawyer, concerned with clients preferences and self reputation in the legal profession, what you can do is comprehending and resolving the problems of your clients .

For example- you can help your satisfied clients in drafting their feedback in case they feel under confident in writing one on their own .

ACE THE SOCIAL MEDIA DOMAIN

Your potential clients need to have full confidence in you without sharing any details of their case ith you. Today’s clientele is tech savvy and social media driven. They rely on your social media presence, your aura in your social media profiles and comments on social media about you .

Hence, to hit a bullseye and become that reputed lawyer that your future clients are looking for go for full blown social media optimization .

These are the key social media elements that can establish you as a strong, persuasive and reputed lawyer on social media .

  1. Have a professional display picture
  2. Use relevant hashtags
  3. Be consistent with posts
  4. Share your success stories online
  5. Have a public profile
  6. Educate your audience to persuade them
  7. Respond to the comments
  8. Engage with the community
  9. Occasionally pitch you innovative services to boost sales

Having a strong social media presence and firm grip on it will work as effective PR for your business. Ultimately, strengthening your reputation as a lawyer .

CEMENT YOUR FOUNDATION OF BEING A REPUTED LAWYER BY BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS

Although social media platforms are highly significant with a lawyer’s online reputation, still they cannot be considered reliable. Every now and then there are incidents where a social media platform changes its policies or the government imposes restrictions/ limitations on the use of social media in their country. Which can certainly have negative effects on your online reputation management .

Therefore, it is utmost essential to build and establish your own online channels for a seamless interaction with clients. First and foremost build your website that will serve as your digital asset .

A website serves as your online identification, establishing you as a reliable entity. Hence, enhancing your reputation as a lawyer online .