If you find yourself with a little more time on your hands, now is the perfect opportunity to revive your marketing and business development efforts by getting back to the basics. From refreshing your social media profiles and legal directories to taking inventory of your website, there are several ways to get started. Here are five to start:
- Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile – If you haven’t looked at your LinkedIn profile in years, now is the time to review and revise. LinkedIn has many benefits for all types of professionals – it’s a way to promote what you do and the clients you serve, gets your name ranked on Google, allows you to connect with other professionals, share industry news with contacts and more. One of the first things people look at on your profile is your picture and your headline; make sure your picture is professional and current, and write a compelling and unique headline . Next, filter through your skills and endorsements to see what additions or changes should be made. Lastly, make sure to update your current responsibilities and highlight your experience in the summary.
- Review Your Social Media Footprint – If you’re using Facebook or Twitter professionally (but admittedly haven’t updated either regularly), you may want to reconsider using these platforms. If they aren’t serving you in the best way professionally, you might want to devote your time and energy elsewhere and set those accounts to private. If you’re using these regularly, now is the time to review and revise your profiles just like you would do for your LinkedIn. Ensure your profile photo is current and that your messaging is consistent across all platforms and reflective of what you actually do.
- Update Your Professional Directories – Refresh your listings with new information, successes, accomplishments, a new photo, etc. Directories are one of the simplest and most effective ways for real estate, financial and legal professionals to grow their online presence. Examples of directories for lawyers include Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Justia, FindLaw and Avvo, among others. These can help lawyers expand their visibility in search results pages, collaborate with other attorneys, get authoritative links to their firm’s website and grow their overall online authority. Learn more about the benefits of legal directories in our blog “The Importance of Legal Directories in Law Firm PR: Comparing Guides & Examining Effectiveness.”
- Invest in Industry Knowledge & Share What You’ve Learned – Do some good old-fashioned research on your industry – read blogs and articles, participate in webinars and reach out to your peers. It’s a great time to brush-up on your industry and all of its moving parts. Consider writing an article or blog on what you’ve learned and share it on your newly revived social profiles.
- Update Your Website Content – Review your website practice areas, about pages, and your bio. Is it reflective of what you do now? Or is it outdated? Your bio is one of the first things that prospective clients or peers in your industry look at when researching lawyers. If you haven’t refreshed it in over a year, it’s outdated. Keep it current by adding in recent successes or accolades. If your practice area page lists 15 areas but you only handle 5, then it’s time to refresh. Beef up the practice areas that you truly specialize in and list recent successes to showcase your experience.
