Rainmaking Recommendation #114: 5 Reasons to Care About Your Online Presence

Recently, I have spoken with a few attorneys who have said that they have no interest in promoting themselves online.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net

These were a few of their reasons:

• They wanted to have privacy;
• They didn’t want to have to do the work necessary to keep their online presence up-to-date;
• They didn’t have the time; and
• They didn’t think it was necessary to build their books of business because they had been doing fine without it for all of these years.

Here are 5 reasons why you should care about your online presence (I will be writing in-depth blogs on each of these in the coming days):

1. The first place people will go to find out about you and your practice, even if they have been referred, is online;
2. You can meet people that you would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet using social media networking;
3. If you don’t claim your name on the various social media networks or websites, someone else might and they may use it to spread negative information about you;
4. It is one of the least expensive ways to build your brand; and
5. You may be ethically required to do so by the Rules of Professional Conduct.  Rule 1.1 is about Competence:

A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge,skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.

While there is nothing specific about using technology in this rule, your clients may need to know how to avoid problems when using the internet; this means you need to know it as well.

No longer can you avoid the internet or social media.  You need to know what, why and how to use the internet in the most effective ways – not only to build your book of business, but also to keep abreast of all of the changes occurring in the legal industry and the worlds of your clients, prospects and referral sources.