Leveraging Your Reputation: 3 things you can do to boost your publicity

Tom Ciesielka is President of TC Public Relations (www.tcpr.net). Tom has over 25 years of marketing and public relations experience, working with individual lawyers and midsize law firms. He is also a former board member of the Legal Marketing Association in Chicago and has spoken at Chicago Bar Associations CLE programs. Reach him at tc@tcpr.net.

How busy are you right now? Hopefully you’re not too busy to still think about your own publicity, and to actually do something about it. Here are a few things you can do right now, without even leaving your computer:

1 – Share a helpful article online. Every day we find interesting articles and websites that would be helpful to other people, but sometimes it doesn’t occur to us to share them, or we think that we don’t have the time. But it really doesn’t take much time, and by sharing with others, it helps keep your name at the top of people’s minds. Post a link to the story or website on your Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook account, or e-mail it to someone who might benefit from it. If the link is too long, you can shorten it at Ow.ly, (http://ow.ly), Bit.ly (http://bit.ly), or Tinyurl.com (http://tinyurl.com).

2 – Post photos. If you’ve spoken at an event, gone to an interesting place, or even if you’ve seen interesting things around town, choose a couple of photos that you think people would be interested in. Then post them on your Flickr, Facebook, blog, or other online account where you share photos. Even busy people will take the time to look at a photo. Just make sure it’s not too big so that the photo will easily load on people’s computers or phones. You can use Picnik.com (http://www.picnik.com) to edit your photo for free.

3 – Congratulate someone. A lot of people do incredible things, but not everyone bothers to recognize what they do. You can stand out from the crows by letting others know that you’ve noticed their accomplishments. If you’ve heard about a promotion, or have read someone’s article, write a congratulatory email. It’s a simple way to connect with other people in a positive way and to keep your name out there.

Try at least one of these tips—after all, they cost nothing and don’t take much time. The more you do to communicate with others in these ways, you’ll feel like your publicity plan is easier to manage.

Summer cleaning

Tom Ciesielka is President of TC Public Relations (www.tcpr.net). Tom has over 25 years of marketing and public relations experience, working with individual lawyers and mid-sized law firms. He is also a former board member of the Legal Marketing Association in Chicago and has spoken at Chicago Bar Associations CLE programs.  Reach him at tc@tcpr.net.

Over time, we all have joined numerous networks online, opened up various accounts, updated different profiles, added ourselves to groups and lists, and published content related to ourselves and our firms. But how often do we check on all of those accounts and all of that content?

“Cleaning” and updating your online information should happen at least three or four times a year – usually more, now that we create and share information in real time. This post will give you a checklist to make it an easy, painless process, free of Lysol-fume-induced headaches.

For your firm and/or personal website:

• Homepage – Give your website visitors a reason to come back often. Have a news teaser on your homepage that links to your news page. Sync your blog to a section of the homepage so content is always changing – as long as you regularly “clean” and update your blog. Consider adding some personality to your site by incorporating a “sticky” idea that engages visitors (we use a Post-it note on our site).
• News – The news page should be updated monthly at the minimum. This is where you can highlight recent media attention or your current activities as it relates to your practices or your geographic region. Letting this get two or three months out of date paints a sloppy picture to website visitors, who may include potential clients.
• Bios – Often times, we write our own website biographies as soon as we are hired or as soon as the website goes live. Then we leave it stagnant for years. Just as the news changes, so do you! Update your bio at least once a year, highlighting new achievements and new interests.

For ALL your social media accounts:

• Pictures – Most social media accounts allow you to upload a picture so that people can identify you. It is wise to use the same one or two pictures across all platforms to stay consistent, not to mention it helps friends and connections recognize you and reinforces that you are active across multiple platforms.
• Profiles – With profiles, you need to decide which nuggets of information about you or your firm are the most important and make sure that information is readily available on EACH profile you have. This is an important part of maintaining your brand. As with a bio, this information changes over time, so be sure to revisit each profile at least once a year to make updates.
• Alerts/Privacy – Every platform has different settings for privacy and notifications. Take 15 minutes to log in to the programs and applications you use and see which settings you may want to change. Do you want to know when someone starts following you on Twitter? Do you want all of your friends to know when you commented on something on Facebook? These are all easy to control, so make sure you know what power you have.

Attorneys in Transition Event on May 8, 2009

Panelist Leonard Amari of Amari & Localo speaks about thinking beyond law firms for employment opportunities. (L to R) Cliff Scott-Rudnick, John Marshall Law School, Alexis Reed, Special Counsel, Leonard Amari, Amari & Localo, David Glynn, Law Bulletin at the Attorneys in Transition event co-sponsored by Law Bulletin and The John Marshall Law School on Friday, May 8th at The John Marshall Law School. Photo by Colleen O'Brien.

The John Marshall Law School and Law Bulletin Publishing Co. recently held the Attorneys in Transition Seminar on May 8th. Attendees enjoyed a networking breakfast followed by a panel presentation from five legal and business professionals. Panelists discussed resume tips, networking, financial planning and more with attorneys who are changing careers or in the process or finding their next job.

See the photos.