Law firm reputation management is one of the most integral parts of a firm today.
Nowadays, modern clients take the online route first instead of doing offline market research.
Digitization has changed the narrative for better or for worse.
If your law firm is associated with a bunch of negative reviews, people might not consider doing business with you.
On the other hand, if your law firm is associated with beautifully crafted multiple 5-star reviews, they will be confident in choosing you as their law firm.
Hence, firms need to manage their law firm reputation because it can attract clients like a magnet and keep scaling their business.
Below, we’ve mentioned some of the most important strategies for reputation management.
Determine Your Firm’s Current Reputation
Before you start vigorously incorporating law firm management strategies, you must understand where your firm stands in the digital world.
The first step is searching for your own business on the web, and if you don’t already have a website, you should consider it, along with getting a Google Business profile.
Once you have your Google Business profile set, you can go to your browser’s incognito mode and start by searching for your firm’s name.
If someone has done business with you, you might have already received some feedback from your clients.
If not, it’s time to build your online presence, which we’ll discuss in the next point.
However, let’s say you have some online presence and received a good amount of feedback. In that case, you should go through all the negative ones and find potential areas of improvement for the future.
Your business must be on Google, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram. Having more digital presence means you will have more chances to get reviews that you can use to determine the current reputation of your law firm.
Once you have solid feedback, work towards improving your firm accordingly.
If you don’t have a profile on any of these sites, create one to get your business started today. Moreover, you should also look into SEO and how to stand out from the competition.
Dealing with Reviews
Once you’ve done your initial law firm review, you now understand the importance of having an online presence. Once you have some reviews, you must understand how to deal with them.
When they get negative reviews online, most online businesses and law firms freak out and don’t know what to do.
That’s why understanding reviews is so important.
There are two types of online reviews that you can expect. The first one is the positive review approach and the negative review approach. So, let’s talk about how to deal with them.
Positive Approach Feedback
Whenever a client or a person leaves positive feedback, you should take some time to return the favor by sending them a message. This would leave a good impression.
You can say “thank you” or ask for feedback to improve your service.
Positive feedback is where you hand in gratitude and return the favor by building positive emotions with them. Another important tip is to avoid the boring response to reviews.
Instead of choosing vague reviews like “thank you for choosing our law firm,” try to be more specific and add your law firm’s name.
While these small details might seem like they don’t mean much, they are quite important in the long run and can potentially benefit your law firm’s branding.
Negative Approach Feedback
But not all feedback is positive.
Some might give you negative ones, but dealing with negative ones is rather easy. It is also the most important aspect of running a business because negative approach feedback gets you the most valuable information needed for you to improve in your law firm.
Hence, when it comes to law firm reputation management, negative feedback will help you improve in most endeavors of your firm. Firstly, showing empathy in your review is the most important thing.
If you become passive-aggressive or unprofessional, the viewers will spot it and not work with you. These viewers can be your potential clients that you will miss. Whenever you receive negative feedback, you need to empathize with the reviewer, move the conversation offline to solve their issue, and keep everything professional.
A lot of online businesses try to place the blame on the reviewer, which rarely ends well. Hence, even if it’s the reviewer’s fault, you should always be empathetic towards them and show them the right way.
Get Clients’ Feedback
When it comes to law firm reputation management, one of the things you should actively seek out is reviews. While organic reviews are preferable, if you’re a law firm suffering from positive reviews, you should ask your existing customers for feedback.
Ideally, you want to acquire as many positive reviews as possible, but it’s not simple. There are two main hurdles that you’ll encounter as a law firm when you’re trying to get reviews. These two hurdles are time and effort.
While there are many benefits to the digital age, lives are so fast that if you don’t have a well-planned review system, most clients won’t even bother giving you feedback. Hence, as a law firm, you must strive to make the review process seamless and efficient.
The Right Time
When it comes to gaining online reviews, the right time matters. If you’re familiar with human psychology and marketing, you know timing is everything. For example, you should not ask for feedback after talking about your client’s fee structure or when the case is in progress.
This is especially true when discussing the financial aspect, as it can cause friction, causing the clients to give you negative reviews. Instead, consider asking for feedback right after getting the job done and catering to your clients’ needs.
This will give them a sense of relief, and knowing that their problem has been solved, they will most likely give you the best possible feedback. Moreover, in-person requests are far more effective than online because the customer will feel responsible. But you should never push someone to give you a review but just request them.
Optimize Your Digital Presence
One of the best ways to ultimately boost the reputation of your law firm is to optimize your digital presence. Social media is a powerful tool for law firms to reach potential clients, build relationships, and establish themselves as thought leaders in their field. However, with so many law firms competing for attention online, it’s important to optimize your social media presence to stand out from the crowd.
Here are five tips for optimizing your social media presence as a law firm:
1. Choose the right platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some platforms, such as LinkedIn, are better suited for professional networking and sharing thought leadership content. Other platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, are better for engaging with a wider audience and sharing more informal content.
When choosing which social media platforms to focus on, it’s important to consider your target audience. What platforms are they most active on? What kind of content do they want to see?
2. Create high-quality content
The best way to attract and engage followers on social media is to create high-quality content that is informative, interesting, and relevant to your target audience.
Your content should be a mix of different formats, such as blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and images. You should also share content from other reputable sources, such as legal news organizations and industry experts.
When creating your content, be sure to focus on quality over quantity. It’s better to publish one high-quality piece of content per week than three low-quality pieces of content.
3. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to get your content seen by more people. When you use relevant hashtags, your content will show up in the search results for those hashtags.
To find relevant hashtags, do some research to see what other law firms and legal professionals are using. You can also use social media analytics tools to identify popular hashtags in your industry.
4. Engage with your audience
Social media is all about engagement. Don’t just post content and then disappear. Be sure to respond to comments, questions, and messages from your followers.
You can also engage with your audience by participating in relevant discussions, sharing other users’ content, and running contests and giveaways.
5. Track your results
It’s important to track your social media results so you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can use social media analytics tools to track metrics such as reach, engagement, and website traffic.
Once you have a good understanding of your social media results, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, if you see that a certain type of content is getting more engagement, you can create more of that type of content.
Monitor Feedback from Reviews
Monitoring feedback from reviews is an essential part of reputation management for law firms. Online reviews can have a significant impact on a law firm’s reputation and ability to attract new clients.
Why is monitoring feedback from reviews important for law firms?
There are several reasons why monitoring feedback from reviews is important for law firms:
- Online reviews are becoming increasingly important to consumers. According to a recent survey by BrightLocal, 93% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. This includes potential clients who are looking for a lawyer.
- Positive reviews can help law firms attract new clients. A study by Moz found that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So, positive reviews can help law firms build trust with potential clients and make them more likely to choose their firm.
- Negative reviews can damage a law firm’s reputation. If potential clients see negative reviews about a law firm, they are less likely to choose that firm. Negative reviews can also damage a law firm’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it more difficult for potential clients to find the firm.
Elect the Right Partner
Electing the right partner for law firm reputation management is a critical decision. This partner will be responsible for protecting and promoting your firm’s reputation online and offline. They will also be responsible for managing your firm’s social media presence, responding to reviews, and handling any negative publicity.
When selecting a partner for law firm reputation management, there are a few key factors to consider:
1. Experience
Choose a partner with experience in law firm reputation management. They should have a deep understanding of the legal industry and the unique challenges that law firms face.
Expertise: The partner you choose should have expertise in a variety of areas, including social media management, public relations, and crisis communications. They should also be able to provide you with guidance on how to comply with ethical rules and regulations.
2. Resources
The partner you choose should have the resources necessary to effectively manage your firm’s reputation. This includes having a team of experienced professionals and access to the latest tools and technologies.
3. Cost
Reputation management can be expensive, so it’s important to choose a partner that fits your budget. However, it’s also important to remember that investing in reputation management is an investment in the future of your firm.
4. Relationship
It’s important to choose a partner that you can trust and communicate with effectively. You will be working closely with this partner for many years to come, so it’s important to have a good relationship.
Once you have considered these factors, you can start to narrow down your list of potential partners. Schedule interviews with each partner to learn more about their experience, expertise, resources, and cost. Be sure to ask about their specific approach to law firm reputation management and how they plan to help your firm achieve its goals
FAQ
What does a reputation manager do?
A reputation manager in a law firm is responsible for protecting and promoting the firm’s reputation online and offline. They work to create a positive public image for the firm, build trust with potential clients, and manage any negative publicity.
Here are some of the specific tasks that a reputation manager in a law firm may perform:
- Monitor online reviews and social media mentions of the firm
- Respond to positive and negative reviews in a timely and professional manner
- Develop and manage social media campaigns
- Generate positive press coverage for the firm
- Handle crisis communications
- Train and advise firm employees on reputation management best practices
What is the best practice for reputation management?
The best practice for law firm reputation management is to be proactive and transparent. This means regularly monitoring your online presence and social media accounts, responding to positive and negative reviews promptly and professionally, and generating positive press coverage for your firm.
How do you manage reputation management?
Reputation management in a law firm is the process of protecting and promoting the firm’s reputation online and offline. This includes monitoring the firm’s online presence, responding to reviews, generating positive press coverage, and handling crisis communications.
What are the skills of reputation management?
Reputation management is a complex and challenging field that requires a variety of skills. Here are some of the most important skills for reputation management:
- Communication skills
- Research and analytical skills
- Strategic and critical thinking skills
- Problem solving skills
- People skills
- Digital skills
Is reputation management part of SEO?
Reputation management and SEO are closely related, but they are not the same thing.
Reputation management is the process of protecting and promoting a company’s or individual’s reputation online and offline. This includes monitoring online mentions, responding to reviews, and generating positive press coverage.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be done by optimizing the website’s content, structure, and backlinks.
Reputation management can play a role in SEO in a few ways. For example, if a company has a negative reputation, it may be more difficult for its website to rank in SERPs. This is because Google and other search engines use a variety of factors to determine ranking, including the quality and relevance of the website’s content, as well as the website’s backlink profile.
Saad Ali
Saad started his Content Writing journey in 2019 on Fiverr, where he catered to over 100 businesses in different niches like SaaS, Crypto, Meta, Gaming, Entertainment, and more.
