Texas attorney Stacey Burke speaks to the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association on how to develop your individual lawyer brand.

1. +
Individual Lawyer Branding
Stacey E. Burke

2. +
Introduction to Branding

3. + What is a Brand?
A brand is anything - a symbol, design, name, sound,
reputation, emotion, employees, tone, and much more -
that separates one thing from another.

4. +
Business v. Personal Branding
 Branding on a business-level is common, but today
branding is becoming just as important on a
personal level. After all, you might work for a
business that works with other businesses, but it’s
people working with people that makes business
relationships valuable.

5. + Tag Team Strategy
You don’t have to choose between building a personal
brand and a company brand. You can build both
simultaneously.

6. +
Become Your Own Brand
 Personal branding is the process of developing a
"mark" that is created around your name or your
career. You use this "mark" to express and
communicate your skills, personality, and values. We
can each have our own brand
and cultivate our
power to stand out
and be unique.

7. + Building Connections
 Even if you work for a company that already has an
established brand, building your individual brand still
has benefits for both you and your employer,
because:
People like other people, and like to follow other people
online, as they’re often more interesting than a company.
Having a personal brand is more important now than ever
before, as high-level executives of companies/brands come
out to the forefront to connect directly with their
audiences.

8. + A personal brand is who you are, what you stand for, the values you
embrace, and the way in which you express those values. Just as a
company’s brand helps to communicate its value to customers and helps it
to stand out from the competition, a personal brand does the same for
individuals, helping to communicate one’s unique identity and clear value to
potential employers or clients.

9. +
So Why Should You Build Your
Individual Brand?
 Building a recognizable personal brand opens
professional opportunities for both career advancement
and thought leadership, including:
 Jobs
 Sales / more clients
 Speaking engagements
 Publication opportunities
 Awards
 When you’re the face of your
business, building your personal
brand makes perfect sense.

10. +
But Wait, There Are More Reasons
 Look Like A Leader. Having a personal brand helps to build
trust with your audience, by positioning yourself as an
authority and thought leader in the legal industry.
 Media Mentions. Having a defined personal brand makes it
easier for you to pitch to and be found by media (online
publications, magazines, television, radio, podcasts, etc.).
The media constantly searches for experts to share their
insights.
 Get More Clients. Building a personal brand that positions
you as the go-to expert in a specific niche helps you to
attract more of your ideal clients. When you’re positioned as
an expert, it’s also easier for people to refer clients to you.

11. +
Steps to Developing Your
Individual Brand

12. + Step One
Build an Authentic Foundation by Figuring
Out Who You Are

13. +
Step One
 Your personal brand should not be an inauthentic
persona.
 Branding is not about positioning yourself as
something that you are not. It’s about purposefully
and strategically showcasing your authentic self to
your audience and your customers.
 Your personal brand should be a true reflection of
your skills, passions, values, and beliefs.

14. +
Step One
 Ask yourself:
 What do you want to be known for?
 What do you want to accomplish?
 If you could only give one piece of advice to your
audience, what would it be?
 Your personal brand is more than just a reflection
of who you are today; it’s a
roadmap of where you want to go.

15. + Step Two: Inventory Your Existing Assets
To build a strong brand foundation, start by taking
inventory of the offline branding assets you already
possess, including licenses and certifications.

16. + Step Three
Define Your Target Audience

17. +
Step Three
 Before you start crafting your personal brand, you
also need to determine who you’re trying to reach. Is
it other industry thought leaders? An individual at a
particular company? Recruiters?
 The sooner you define the audience, the easier it will
be to craft your story, because you’ll better
understand the type of story you need to tell (and
where you need to tell it.)

18. +
Step Three
 In order to attract your perfect clients, you must be
willing to repel those you do not want to work with.
This means identifying a specific target audience
and building a brand that is attractive to them.
 Create your ideal client profile. The more you
understand about them, including their desires and
challenges, the more prepared you will be to
structure services they truly want and need (identify
their pain points).

19. + Step Four: Build Yourself Up Online
One of the most important aspects of personal branding is making
sure your online presence is engaging to hiring managers, co-workers,
and others—even if you’re not on the job hunt.

20. +
Step Four: Optimize Your Website
Biography

21. +
Step Four: Keep it Professional
 Ensure you have a strong social media presence
you own and control
 Professional photography
 Professional logo
 While your story should match
across all platforms, once you
know where your audience is
most likely to turn, you can
redouble your efforts there.

22. +
Step Four: Social Proof
 Having current and former colleagues and managers endorse
you is one of the easiest and most effective ways to define your
personal brand, allowing others to communicate your value for
you. Just as a business might cultivate customer reviews and
testimonials for use in sales and marketing collateral, you too
should cultivate your own reviews in the form of
recommendations and testimonials.
 The most important sites on which to ensure you have positive
ratings and reviews include:
 Avvo
 Facebook
 Google My Business
 Yelp

23. + Not sure who to ask?
Not sure who to ask? Former managers who mentored you closely are ideal, but
other connections can also craft effective recommendations, including professors
and leaders of organizations you belong to.

24. +
Step Four: Connect
 Research your desired industry and follow/connect
 LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for this

25. + Step Five: Produce Content
Content marketing is a long-term play, but it pays incredible dividends
when done correctly.

26. +
Step Five
 Be consistent with how often you publish new
content for your audience.
 Common content types:
 Text / articles
 Videos
 Podcasts
 Webinars
 Online courses
 PDF guides:
 Checklists &worksheets
 Infographics
 Slideshows
 Case studies

27. + Step Six
Monitor Your Brand a.k.a. Online Reputation Management

28. +
Step Six: Watch Out for Trolls
 The Internet is an amazing tool for business
marketing, but it also serves as a megaphone for
people’s opinions.
 If you let negative online publicity go unchecked, it
can leave digital damage behind that can take years
to go away.
 Proactively monitoring your
brand’s presence on the web
is a smart strategy, but its
effectiveness depends on
how thorough you are and
what tools you use.

29. +
Step Six: Set Up Google Alerts
 Google Alerts is a free service provided by Google.
Obviously, Google is one of the best when it comes to
crawling the Internet for information, and it does a pretty
good job of finding names, phrases and keywords
published anywhere the Googlebot can access.
 The first alert to set up is for your name. Enter your name
inside quotes. This ensures you’ll only get alerts for your
exact name and not instances where your first name
appears in one location on a page and your last
somewhere else on the same page.

30. +
Step Six: Or Try a Paid Option
 There are other good paid options:
 Radian6: It allows you to track mentions of your name and other
keywords throughout millions of different sites, including Facebook
and Twitter. It also tracks things like blog comments, forum posts,
and more.
 Mention: You can get your first alert for free. It tracks mentions of
your name throughout the web, including on some social media
sites, for no cost.
 Social Mention: Monitors more than 80 social media sites, including
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
 Talkwalker Alerts: A slightly more robust version of Google Alerts
that lets you customize your alerts a little further and filter the
results.

31. +
Questions?

32. +
Connect with Stacey:
 Facebook: @MarketingLawyers
 Twitter: @staceyeburke
 Instagram: @MarketingLawyers
 LinkedIn: /company/stacey-e-burke-p-c
 Website: www.staceyeburke.com
 My e-newsletter: http://bit.ly/StaceyMail