Carol Schiro Greenwald, Ph.D., is a marketing and management strategist, trainer and business development coach for attorneys and law firms. Her consulting programs often address questions like: Want to be a rainmaker? Want associates to learn to develop business before they join the partnership? Worry about partners who are unable to bring in sufficient business to cover their salaries?
After the recent publication of our CEO’s article, Online Reputation Management for Attorneys and Law Firms in the New York State Bar Association Journal — which was sparked by a lunch with Carol — we asked her for her most frequent advice for attorneys and law firms regarding image and reputation management.
In your book about strategic networking, you observe that “in terms of developing business, individuals may want to…enhance their reputation.” How can they go about doing that?
The most important thing is to think about networking as strategic. Strategic means you tie it to your goals and to your capabilities. Focus on creating niches of potential clients to relate to. Be as small and focused as you can in terms of who you cultivate. That’s because they want you to be like them, and you can’t build a reputation with everyone.
We observe that strategy all the time when we see national politicians who are popular in one part of the country and not in another. They are relevant in one and not in the other. The same is true when you are building a reputation for yourself as a professional. You have to decide who you want to be relevant to. Everyone listens to the world through the radio station of self- interest. If you want to build your reputation, you need to understand that and to play to it. You have to be responsive to their issues. To achieve that, go where your clients and prospects go. Do what they do. Read what they read. Learn their jargon.
If you want to be a thought-leader as part of your strategy for attaining that, you have to get your thoughts out there. But first you have to establish or update your image.
Image is clearly important for attorneys. In this digital era, what advice do you give them to establish a good one?
Pay attention. Have a well-planned, strategically marketing-oriented LinkedIn profile. It is the largest networking database in the world at the moment. People need to be on it. They need to take it seriously. Don’t put your title at the top. Put the benefits of what you do, there. Attorneys also need to go to other key databases that matter to their constituents. AVVO might be appropriate. Whatever the platforms, be consistent with your information.
Ensure that when people meet you in person, you look and sound like the person they read about there. Don’t use a picture that no longer looks like you. Image has to be the same in person and online.
How valuable is the increasing use of videos and podcasts for reputation-building?
They can be very valuable if they present the person’s image well. Videos that look like they were produced on Zoom are ineffective. Poor quality does not help you. If it is professionally produced and you are trained in how to present yourself on camera, video is a worthwhile investment. Otherwise, better to write and do podcasts.
Podcasts are great if you have a low voice and speak distinctly. Your podcast should reinforce the image you have created and want to project.
Attorneys are often told to seek testimonials from clients and colleagues. Is it ethically permissible to request them? What happens when the result is a critique rather than praise?
It is permissible. In New York State, it is also legal to provide a client with a discount on future services or a gift in return for providing a testimonial. But you are not allowed to tell them what to say about you or where to publish it. What reinforces your reputation — and what they can say — are comments regarding how you are at providing client service, at communications and understanding their needs. There is an automated system to elicit reviews, as well, that can be used.
There is nothing you can do to remove bad reviews. But you can respond to it in this type of way: “I am so sorry that the service we provided wasn’t satisfactory for you, and I welcome the opportunity to talk with you about it.” This is not saying they are right or wrong. It is an acknowledgement that your services had negative results in the client’s mind.
Many people forget their social media posts become part of their professional image. How can attorneys apply more oversight to this practice?
Social media should not be confused with private conversation. It is public. It is permanent. You should not post opinions about controversial issues unless it is relevant to what you do. Don’t publish photographs or comments you would not want on the cover of The New York Times and are relevant to your clients and prospects.
Don’t ruin an excellent, well-constructed reputation by saying something off the cuff on social media. Just don’t say it.
Reputations are very fragile. They are very hard to develop and very easy to ruin. People need to take all the precautions and strategies they can to build and maintain them. Reputation is for the long-term. So, it is important you consider it one of your strategic game-changers.
Carol Schiro Greenwald, Ph.D. helps professionals and professional service firms to structure and implement growth programs that are targeted, strategic and practical. She is the author of Build Your Practice the Logical Way – Maximize Your Client Relationships (with Steven Skyles-Mulligan, American Bar Association, 2012).
Her new book, Strategic Networking for Introverts, Extroverts and Everyone In-Between (American Bar Association, Law Practice Division), was published in 2019.
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This is part of our continuing series of interviews with experts whose work relates to online reputation management.