For most attorneys, reputation is everything.  Back in the day, attorneys gained their reputations primarily through word-of-mouth and personal interaction.  Today, building a reputation must contain an online element since this is where most people gather and interact in the 21st century.

Here are three steps that will help you build your legal brand online:

1.  Own your niche.  To own a niche online, you have to produce rich content and share it constantly.  And it is much easier to build your brand in a select niche than it is to stand out in a huge market like “attorneys”.   Like Stephen always says, “it’s the niches that lead to riches.”  Even online, it’s important for you to focus on your geographic region so you are able to niche your practice in an area that can provide living, breathing clients for your practice.

2.  Nurture your contacts.  Once you’ve started to build an online audience, it’s important for you to focus effort on nurturing them.  Find the places online where your target market is hanging out, then go there and connect with them.  LinkedIn Groups are great for identifying captive audiences of potential followers and referral sources.  Use that rich content you are providing online to help the members of your groups solve their problems.

3.  Engage.  When people post a comment to a blog post or online article, take the time to engage with them.  Take your current contact list – the people you already know – and find them online, then engage with them there – friend on Facebook, follow on Twitter, endorse on LinkedIn.  If you give a speech or attend a conference, be sure to collect business cards from the people you meet there and start interacting with those new contacts online.

These steps will take some time and effort on your part, but the rewards in terms of referrals and leads will be well worth it.