In this time and era of internet and technology, the online reputation of lawyers, attorneys, and law firms are increasingly important.
The reputation of a lawyer or law firm can be jeopardized if not properly managed.
Reviews are the channel with which people get to pour out their minds and thoughts about an individual or an organization.
Unhappy clients can hinder the growth and ruin the reputation of a lawyer, attorney or a law firm with negative reviews.
As a lawyer, public opinion about you and your law firm matters a lot.
The opinion of your clients and the public can either lead to your growth or hinder your growth.
It is important that lawyers, attorneys, and law firms have a functional reputation management strategy in place to help manage their reputation.
What is reputation management?
Reputation management is the practice which involve managing and enhancing an individual or organization’s reputation in the public eye.
It simply means the practice that helps an individual or organization maintain a good track record in the public eye.
It is the process of identifying what people are saying or feeling about you or your business and taking appropriate steps in making sure that what they are saying does not negatively affect you or your business.
Reputation management is about monitoring and managing online reviews and social media mentions.
It involves the online monitoring of what people are saying about an individual or organization.
Review sites monitoring, social media monitoring and analytics are the different ways with which the reputation of an individual or organization can be monitored and managed.
Why reputation is so important for Lawyers and Law firms?
The reputation of a lawyer and a law firm directly or indirectly determines the success of the lawyer and the law firm.
Potential clients will make decisions based on the reputation of the lawyer and the law firm.
A good reputation will lead to immense benefits for lawyers and their law firms.
The reputation of lawyers and law firms is very important and it can benefit them in several ways which include:
1. It helps to establish trust
A survey from BrightLocals showed that 80% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.
This means as a lawyer, having a good reputation increases the trust people will have in you.
For people to trust you, it means you have been doing something good.
For clients and prospective clients to trust you, it means you must have been providing excellent legal services.
A good reputation will naturally increase the trust and confidence that prospective clients will have in you.
Trust will not only make people believe in you; it will also sustain your law firm brand.
2. Acquisition of new clients
The reputation of a lawyer and his law firm will determine if prospective clients will want to hire him or her.
With a good reputation, prospect clients will definitely want to hire the lawyer but with a bad reputation, they will not.
As a lawyer, when your clients are saying good things about you online, other prospective clients will have more trust and confidence in you.
They will be able to make a quicker decision about you.
Due to your good reputation, you will be able to acquire more clients.
3. It enhances brand sustainability
The ability for a brand to remain at the top among its competitors is what sustains the brand.
Also, the ability of lawyers and law firms to remain at the top among their competitors is what sustains their brand.
A lawyer and law firm that does not have a sustainable good reputation cannot be at the top among its competitors for long.
With a good reputation management strategy in place, lawyers and law firms will be able to sustain their reputation and brand.
4. It increases the value of a lawyer and law firm
A lawyer and law firm with a good reputation experiences increase in demand.
More legal consumers will naturally want to hire a lawyer with a good reputation, leading to an increase in the demand of the lawyer.
As a lawyer, if your demand is high, it increases your value.
You will be highly placed in the mind of people and your law firm will become a reputable brand.
5. It generates more revenue for lawyers and law firms
A lawyer with a good reputation is highly sought after.
Legal consumers wouldn’t want to seek the services of a lawyer with a bad reputation.
A lawyer with a good reputation is a lawyer with an excellent track record.
The demand for a reputable lawyer is high. Increase in demand leads to an increase in revenue.
Lawyers and law firms with good reputations generally have more clients seeking their services.
Acquisition of more clients generates more revenue for the lawyers and the law firms.
Lawyers and law firms with good reputations also charge higher for their services. This also leads to an increase in revenue.
How positive Online reviews will bring clients to law firms?
The importance and power of positive reviews cannot be overemphasized.
Positive reviews are very instrumental in the growth and success of a business.
According to a survey, 90% of consumers said the positive reviews influenced their purchase decisions.
68% of consumers say positive reviews make them more likely to use a local business.
This means that a lot of people make purchase decisions based on the positive reviews they read.
Prospective clients will first read online reviews from different legal review sites before making a choice of the lawyer or law firm to hire.
A lawyer or law firm with more positive reviews from its clients will naturally be the choice of prospective clients.
Positive reviews also increase trust and confidence in the mind of prospective clients.
It gives them an assurance that since other people are saying good and positive things about a particular lawyer or law firm, they are in safe hands.
5 review sites every law firm and lawyers should be using to get reviews
Review sites are platforms where individuals, professionals and businesses have their professional and business pages.
Review sites are of great importance to both consumers and businesses.
Prospective clients are able to make better and quicker decisions by reading through review sites.
Lawyers and law firms are able to showcase their selves and their businesses to the public through review sites.
There are several review sites available on the internet.
We are going to recommend the top 5 review sites for lawyers and law firms.
1. Lawyers.com
Lawyers.com is one of the top review sites for lawyers and law firms.
It contains a database of over 1 million lawyers of different specialty and practice.
Lawyers can easily sign up and create their profile with all necessary information about them and their practices.
Clients can leave reviews and rate lawyers on their review pages.
Lawyers and law firms with higher ratings have more opportunities to get hired.
Prospective clients can search for lawyers based on their location, and area of specializations.
2. Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com is another top review site for lawyers and law firms.
It is similar to lawyers.com with numerous profiles of lawyers of different practice areas in different cities and states around the United States.
Prospective clients can search for lawyers based on their name, location or specialty.
3. Better Business Bureau
Better Business Bureau is an online review site for different kinds of businesses and services.
It is one of the best review sites in the world where you can search for any kind of products and services.
Legal consumers can search for lawyers from any locations in the U.S, Canada, and Mexico.
Prospective clients can read reviews of a lawyer and also leave a review.
4. Avvo.com
Avvo.com is an excellent review site for lawyers and law firms.
It contains a huge number of lawyers and law firms of different practice areas.
You can search for lawyers based on their name, practice area, or location.
All necessary information of a lawyer is available on the lawyer’s page.
5. Google my business
Google my business is a review site for any kind of business.
Google my business is the largest review site in the world and can increase the SEO rating of a business.
Lawyers and law firm can create their business profile on Google my business to increase their SEO ratings and get more clients.
Reputation management software to grow your reviews
Reputation management software are software that is used by individuals to help them manage their online reputation.
These software help to generate reviews, monitor and manage reviews.
We are going to suggest the top reputation management software for review generation and management.
1. Intellius Medica
It is a reputation management software for review generation and management.
With different features such as review generation, review monitoring, review response, WordPress plugin compatibility and more, it is an excellent software to grow reviews.
2. Birdeye
Birdeye is a great reputation software to generate and manage your reviews.
It contains features such as review generation, review monitoring, review response, ticketing, and so on.
3. Grade.us
Grade.us is one of the best reputation review management software available.
It has many great features such as review generation, review monitoring and performance, review alerts, automated web and social media contents and more.
4. PowerReviews
PowerReviews is a great reputation management software for review generation and management.
It amplifies user-generated contents and customer’s feedback to measure customer’s experiences.
5. GatherUp
This is another great reputation management software for review generation.
It consists of several features and functions such as review acquisition, reputation management, website content, local SEO factors, customer feedback, etc.
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