3 steps to building your reputation online

As mentioned in other posts on this blog, thriving in the new business landscape requires that attorneys and other professionals build a reputation as the “go-to” expert in their field. But how does one go about building their reputation online?

First, it helps to choose a very narrow professional niche on which to focus your efforts. The narrower your area of specialization, the easier the process will be. Once you’ve done this, there are basically three steps to building your reputation using online tools:

• Creating Content – This means regularly writing cutting-edge material about the issues facing your area of specialization – and making them available to the world for free. The goal here is to educate people, not to give them a hard sell. Types of thought-leadership content include articles, blog entries, case studies and presentations.
• Posting it to Your Website – You will want your website to be a repository for all of your thought-leadership content. This way, when people refer to your bio, they will immediately understand the depth of your expertise. Since your website is the center of your marketing universe, it’s vital that you have a good website that reflects well on your firm and serves to promote each key individual in your organization.
• Distributing Your Content – This is all about getting your content in front of the right eyeballs. In the Web 2.0 world, this is increasingly accomplished by using social networking technologies like LinkedIn and Twitter. However, you can simply email it out in the form of a newsletter and/or get it published in a professional journal.