Every lawyer, practice group and law firm has a brand. The savvy among us understand the importance of controlling our brand’s image, and we devote appropriate levels of budget, staffing and time to brand planning, strategy and implementation. To be truly effective, however, an additional step is required: ongoing brand monitoring.
Years ago, when people talked about our brands, it was behind our backs, and we almost never found out about it. Today, the speed and reach of technology means most of these conversations happen right before our eyes, and the eyes of our clients and prospective clients. The number of locations where our brands might be mentioned is mind-boggling, and the conversations are happening regardless of whether we consent to them or even know about them.
We can hope that the conversations about us are positive, but unhappy clients – and even our competitors – can be less than kind in an instant, with nothing more than a single blog post or tweet. We have all read the horror stories of brands for which such comments spiraled into disaster.
While the brands of law firms and lawyers might not have the same public profiles as, say, Taco Bell, one could argue that the repercussions of unchecked negative comments could be more devastating.
On the other side of this coin, brand monitoring can give your firm an opportunity to personally thank those who have made positive comments, and provides intelligence about where your targeted audience is engaging.
For years, lawyers have monitored their clients, the clients’ industries, and their competitors using online tools. Every lawyer and firm should consider using these same free and easy-to-use tools to monitor and protect their online reputations.
Google Alerts – These alerts will search the entire web for mentions of your brand, including some social networks. Set up an alert for your name and your firm’s name. Include typical variations of each, including at least one of the key areas in which you practice.
Twitter – To keep up with tweets about your brand, run a search using Twitter’s advanced search tool, and save the search for ongoing monitoring. As an alternative to remembering to run your saved search, Tweetalarm keeps track of Twitter conversations for you. With this tool, you also can track who is tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL like bit.ly.
Facebook – If you maintain a Facebook page for professional, rather than personal, networking, use the search feature to view mentions in different areas of this network. Make use of search filters to see results in specific areas such as public posts, posts in groups, pages, etc. If you have one or more groups dedicated to your professional brand, remember to set up notifications for postings.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is recognized as the leading social network for professionals and should be one of the tools you use regularly to network and monitor your brand. Simply run a search for your name and your firm’s name through the search box at the top of the page. You can narrow search results to include only mentions by people in their profiles, group mentions and mentions in LinkedIn Answers.
Google+ – While not yet as widely used as some other social networks, Google+ continues to gain in usage and has a search box where you can find anything about your brand happening on its network. Narrow your search from “everything” to just Google+ posts to see updates that mention your law firm and lawyers’ names.
YouTube – Thanks to the ability to record videos from webcams and post them immediately, YouTube should not be overlooked in brand monitoring. Use the site’s main search box to find videos about your brand. Any videos resulting from your search can be sorted by number of views.
HootSuite – If you participate in more than one social networking site, you might want to use a tool such as HootSuite to monitor social media. HootSuite allows you to track and manage multiple accounts, including those on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. It is free for up to five accounts and has a mobile app.
Don’t fear the commitment
So, you run a search on your brand using one or more of these tools and find that the insightful article you published last month has been retweeted numerous times and the free counsel you provided to your favorite charity has been mentioned on its blog. Nice. Your brand is in fine shape.
Right?
Just because the results are good today doesn’t mean they will be the same tomorrow or next month. Creating and keeping a positive online brand for your law firm and attorneys is an ongoing process, and one you should not neglect.
Joi Scardo is a Senior Marketing Strategist at Jaffe, a full-service PR and marketing agency for the legal industry. “Seven Easy and Free Ways to Monitor Your Law Firm Brand” appeared as a post in the Jaffe Weekly Tips at jaffepr.com on July 9, 2014. Joi can be reached at 850-830-2356 or by email to jscardo@jaffepr.com.