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Katie Briel is a Digital Marketing Manager at the international law firm Womble Bond Dickinson. She joins us for Episode #56 of the Personal Injury Marketing Minute to discuss how personal injury attorneys and other lawyers can develop a personal brand online.
See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.
Lindsey:
Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield.
When it comes to legal marketing, you, as an individual, are one of the most important marketing assets for your firm. Yet, just as a poorly planned marketing campaign will fall flat, an unexamined personal brand can be a mismanagement of one of your most valuable assets, you.
Katie Briel is joining us today to discuss how to build your personal brand, so that your identity can become a unique value add for your firm. Thank you so much for joining us.
Katie:
Thanks for having me.
Lindsey:
For those who didn’t catch your first episode on leveraging LinkedIn for lawyers, refresh us a bit on your background in the legal marketing landscape.
About Katie Briel, Legal Marketing Expert
Katie:
I worked for a large transatlantic law firm for over five years as a digital marketing manager, and one of my duties there was to help people to develop their online brand, personal brand, and utilize social media. So, I trained a lot of people on how to optimize their profiles and maximize their efforts on LinkedIn.
Lindsey:
That is definitely an important tool in the digital sphere for your personal brand. There’s a lot that you can do with your LinkedIn other than just essentially post your resume and have a headshot up there. There are some tools that you can use that can help define that personal brand. But before we get too much into that, what exactly is a personal brand and why do lawyers need to have one?
What is a Lawyer’s Personal Brand?
Katie:
Well, I think that what you need to know about people, and if you think about this yourself, I’m sure it resonates and makes sense, is that people remember things that give them some type of feeling, whether that be an image, a conversation, or anything else. So, a personal brand is utilizing your strengths to resonate with people through giving them some type of feeling about either what you represent, what you’re passionate about, the services that you offer. That’s how I would define it loosely is giving people something to hold onto and remember you by.
Lindsey:
How can that play out in a tangible way? What does that look like when you’re looking at a lawyer and you can say, “Yes, this is what his personal brand is,” or hers?
Katie:
I think that first of all, people are going to recognize something that they personally relate to. Is it relatable? This person is a sports fan, they like baseball, or are authentic online in any work that they create. Do they seem trustworthy and someone you can easily talk to and come to for help? Because these people for personal injury lawyers in particular are going through a hard time, and so they want to find somebody that they can relate to and feel like they can be themselves. A lawyer that is very unapologetically themself is easier to relate to.
Key Elements to a Lawyers Personal Brand
Lindsey:
Absolutely. When thinking about building this personal brand, what are some of the key elements to building a personal brand that you can do both online and offline?
Katie:
Well, I think first, people really need to understand what is their goal? What are they about? What are your passions? How can you relay those in a professional way? There’s a lot of different avenues that you can take here to be memorable. You definitely don’t have to go out and be over the top about everything, but there are definitely a lot of different ways that you can be memorable.
What are you about? What are you passionate about? How do you like to work? How does that relate to other people? Really try to maximize letting people know that. You’re going to have to do a little bit of work of finding the right channels and mechanisms to get that in front of people, whether that be online profiles, advertising, paying to play, so to speak, to get in front of people and let them understand who you are.
Examples of Lawyers with Personal Brands
Lindsey:
Sure. Can you give us some examples, both positive and negative, of lawyers who have developed personal brands? I know specifically in the personal injury world, there are some very big people out there with big personalities that obviously come to mind, but what are some examples that you can think of in that sector?
Katie:
Maybe a little bit of an easier example, corporate lawyers that I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with one gentleman who’s now a congressman who is the every man. His personal brand is all about being very honest and upfront. “I’m going to show you my kids,” “I’m going to show you my dog,” “I’m going to make a video telling you exactly what happened in Congress today, and I’m very relatable.” You can see yourself in this person. He is active military reserve, just all American, [inaudible 00:06:09] guy.
On the flip side of that, I worked with someone who presents himself as, “You know what? I’m the big dog. I deserve to win.” He shows up at law conferences and other speaking engagements in a top hat and tails and this steampunk style outfit and a T-shirt that says, “Deserve to win.” He believes it and he sells it. So, very big personalities, but presented in very different ways. I think there are a lot of pop culture references that we could all think about in these instances, if you think about someone like Taylor Swift versus Elon Musk.
Showcasing Your Personal Brand
But I think for lawyers, there are a lot of different avenues. Speaking engagements, obviously it gets you in front of a lot of people and it gives you a huge opportunity to display your personality. I think you need to embrace some of your own quirks. If you’re a Star Wars fan and you’re putting out a post on May the fourth about, “May the fourth be with you,” latch onto it, embrace it. There are going to be people that relate to that and it endears you to them. They certainly will remember it.
The other thing that I think people really need to understand is being consistent and again, that’s going to build your brand. If you’re putting yourself out there as the every man, you have to consistently be the every man. Create content, be present, be active in your industry as what you say that you are. For personal injury lawyers specifically, there’s a lot to relate to there.
I think sharing some of your own personal experiences, maybe it’s not you directly but your family or things that let your audience know that you can relate to what they’re going through. It’s not just about the suit or winning. Even though, “Hey, I’m going to win for you,” is a good message too, but just relating to them as people and how you’re going to be there for them and help them through this process. I think that would be an effective personal brand to build, being reliable and trustworthy in those ways.
I think certainly depending on the situation, and I’m sure there are regional differences, someone in North Carolina may relate very differently to someone in California. So, what’s in your environment? What’s going on? How can you relate to people in that economy specifically? There are a lot of things you can pull from, but using your authentic self and relatable examples and being consistent about who you are and what you’re passionate about I think is what you have to do to build a personal brand.
Embracing Your Unique Personal Brand
Lindsey:
I think you’re hitting the nail on the head with authenticity and the consistency of it, because if you are not being authentically you, if your personal brand is coming from somebody that you maybe would like to be but not necessarily are, or if it’s something that you think will resonate with a certain group, but it’s not true to who you are, you can’t have consistency in that. You’ll be miserable and people will be able to sniff out a fraud.
I think you are absolutely right, where if you are going to have consistency in this, which is incredibly important to building this personal brand, it needs to be authentically you. The way that you present your personal brand is going to obviously resonate differently with different people. So, somebody in the corporate world who is putting on the top hat and tails is going to attract a different demographic than the person who is going to be very genuinely authentic, family man caring for you. When it comes to personal injury, how can personal injury lawyers identify and understand their target audiences for personal branding purposes?
Katie:
I think it’s important to understand everyone’s personal situation. Find those elements that you can relate to personally. Make sure that they feel comfortable and that you understand and you’re authentically there to support them and be a stabilizing force when they’re going through this very difficult time. They should know that just by looking at you. They should get that feeling of authenticity and, I would imagine, some degree of kindness just from the get go. Your messaging to people, your demeanor, how you introduce yourself are all going to give them that feeling of you being there to support them and interested in their own personal situation and not just another client through the door.
Lindsey:
Right. As you’re developing your personal brand, it seems like it would be common sense that your personal brand isn’t, “Hey, I’m a big jerk,” and it’s definitely going to be something more than your ego shining forward. It has to be something that resonates with your clients of, “Here’s who I am and here’s what I have to offer you as you are going through your struggle. We’re going to get through this together.” I think as you said, they should be able to see this with their first interaction with you and with every conversation.
Katie:
Well, look, there could be a strategy where you say, “I am a big jerk, but do you want to win?” Certainly, you can go that route. I think it could probably be successful. Somebody who’s very mad about their situation, maybe they feel very wronged, may decide, “Hey, I just want the guy who wins.” So, that could be a strategy for someone, especially if it doesn’t naturally come to you to be very kind and warm and open and giving.
You have to know that about yourself and evaluate who you are and how you present yourself. That should still be up there with that first step of who do you want to be? How do you want to present yourself? What you’re passionate about? But certainly, there are different ways to approach it, different strategies. I think probably the overwhelming amount of people that are going through a hard time want somebody who they feel is going to be kind to them and help them in a compassionate way, but I think there’s probably a strategy and an argument for the other side too.
“Who Am I?”
Lindsey:
Right, where you want them to be kind to you, but a force to be reckoned with. If they’re going up against a big insurance company, they’re not going to be all sweet and sunshine and roses. You want them to have a backbone. I think that’s a great point. I guess, one thing that you somewhat mentioned there, which is really the first step is figuring out who you are, how would you recommend that a lawyer goes about that?
Katie:
Well, ask your friends, ask your family. If you were to describe me to someone else, what would you say and what would you say that I do? Certainly, if you have a mentor, ask them and just get some of those words that they would use to describe you. First of all, do you agree with them and do you think you could be authentic in providing that person to other people that aren’t your family?
Schoolmates, anyone that you’ve even interacted with in a less formal scenario probably could give you some feedback on how they interpreted you in meeting you. I think that’s a really great way to also learn some stuff about yourself, but see how you’re perceived. Maybe, there is a little more there than you thought, but it will certainly give you some words to describe yourself and how you’re going to interact with people.
Lindsey:
For sure, and then you can take some of those attributes that you want to emulate and really lean into them and make sure that you’re projecting that consistently.
Katie:
Right.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Personal Brand
Lindsey:
As lawyers are building their personal brand, they are developing content around it, putting it on social media, being mindful of it with every interaction that they have, taking on speaking engagements and are presenting this in a big way about themselves. How can they measure whether or not this is actually effective and whether they’re really resonating with people and whether this persona is bringing on more clients and closing the deal on clients?
Katie:
Well, certainly, having some metrics around followers on social media, engagements on social media, meaning people reaching out to you, comments, likes, and shares on social media is a good way to quickly evaluate if, first of all, you’re getting more reach and if your messages are resonating with people. I think there are all kinds of tools to track online engagements that can help you to understand your audience and if they are seeing the messages and actually clicking through and finding out more information about you.
But being asked to be a speaker in more instances, people talking to you after a speaking engagement saying, “Look, this was really interesting,” whether that be to have a counterpoint or to just thank you for speaking or that something you said resonated, I think it’s just as important if somebody says, “Okay, well, you said this and what about this?” Because they’re really listening to what you have to say enough to think about a counterpoint or an additional question, to look at it from a different angle.
I think those are really easy ways to measure how your personal branding is working for you and how you can, again, lean into some of the things that are really working and then eliminate some of the things that aren’t. If you’re posting on social media every day and you’re spending a lot of time on that, but you’re not getting a lot of lift there, maybe you reduce that number of posts. You spend that time looking for other speaking engagements or you make a video or you do something different to try to engage your audience versus creating the same types of posts over and over again.
Lindsey:
Right, and then checking back in to make sure that your posts and your strategy are all aligning with your personal brand and making sure that you’re getting feedback that is reflecting what those adjectives are that you’re wanting to emulate and embody.
Katie:
Right.
Mistakes Lawyers Make When Establishing a Personal Brand
Lindsey:
Absolutely. What do you see as some of the common mistakes and pitfalls that lawyers make when they are developing and executing their personal brands?
Katie:
Well, a lot of lawyers take themselves very seriously or they think that that’s the way they’re supposed to be. You spend a lot of time getting your JD. Lawyers in general, people have this perception of them, but they think they either have to be cheesy to be memorable or they have to be over the top. I just don’t think that that’s the truth. I think with the example I used earlier about the corporate lawyer turned congressman, he just is who he is and he’s going to tell you straight. I think that we tend to think that everything has to be bells and whistles, everything has to be showing blinky lights and that kind of thing. You don’t have to be that to be memorable.
Lindsey:
I say that a lot in the personal injury world, where there is a lot of the repeated same “justice you deserve” persona or the big swinging hammer guy. But some of the best, most effective lawyers that I know and have had the privilege of working with are very mild-mannered, very sweet, very caring, compassionate people. Some are slightly introverted, don’t necessarily want to be out and have their face in front of everybody, but you can tell by having a conversation with them that they are intelligent, that they are caring, that they truly want the best for their clients and everyone else around them.
For a personality like that, I guess, I would have the question of how do you take someone who isn’t necessarily wanting to be in the limelight, how do you have them build their personal brand as being the most amazing person that they are?
Katie:
Well, I think that’s when you start to look for ways to relate to people. Is there a particular area that, again, you have a personal conviction to or personal story that you can relate to and express to people? Maybe, a particular accident happened to someone in your family or to yourself. I think that’s when you start to drill down into, what can I really be the subject matter expert on? That’s because I have this relatable experience and or I’ve done a lot of work here, I’ve got a lot of experience, I’ve had a lot of success in these areas. Stop trying to be everything to everyone and really lean into those areas that you have more experience.
Don’t Be Everything to Everyone
Lindsey:
Absolutely. Again, with the being relatable, it doesn’t necessarily need to be something that is through your law firm. It can be that this lawyer has a family and so he wants to connect with other people who have families and small kids, or they have an elderly parent and they want to connect and be able to support the senior community, or if they have a passion like cycling or rollerblading or hiking-
Katie:
Absolutely.
Lindsey:
Reaching out and really being an active part of those communities as well and making those connections and having that be a part of their persona.
Katie:
Right. I work with a lot of professional services consultants now, one of which is a little league coach, and he said, “I really approach consulting as coaching.” I said, “Well, that’s exactly what it is. So, embrace that. It’s something that you know well.” I was like, “Throw up a picture of you and your little league team on your LinkedIn profile. Start to explain to people how you would manage a project, how to coach your client through the project.” I think that’s a perfect example.
There was another really popular lawyer, he was a corporate lawyer and in the tech industry primarily, and he ended up becoming a marketer because he became very popular making TikToks joking about corporate lawyers. He was honestly joking about himself and how silly sometimes it seemed when people are trying to get things done and they have to go through their legal department. That was very relatable because it’s true. He wasn’t derogatory in any way. He was just silly about it and making these funny TikToks, and also how lawyers react when they hear certain common questions.
So, I think there’s a lot of different ways. Again, your personality can really shine through because he’s a jokester and he used that to his benefit. If you’re a coach, there’s so many life lessons and things you can impart to people and use as methodologies in your day-to-day work and certainly in your communication style.
How to Start Experimenting with Personal Branding
Lindsey:
I absolutely love that. Well, if a lawyer wants to start experimenting with personal branding, where do you think they should start?
Katie:
I think they should take a look at all of their online profiles, whether that be a bio on your website, your LinkedIn account, your Facebook account, where you’re putting up information about your services and who you are as a person. A lot of times, people don’t want to mix their personal Facebook with their work, and I understand that, but I do think for personal injury specifically, Facebook is probably a valuable tool. So, they should consider a profile for their legal services there and evaluate it.
Is it consistent with this exercise we’ve been going through about who you are, what you’re going to lean into, how do you talk to people, how people describe you, and what you’re passionate about? Make sure they’re all consistent and up-to-date. Commit to them. Update them. Put out information about things. Understand that there are plenty of tactics out there that you can invest in to gain reach and that are really effective and don’t have to be necessarily expensive to get you in front of the right people at the right times.
Lindsey:
That’s really helpful. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of that with us today. Hopefully, it will encourage some lawyers to be reflective on who they are, who they want to be, and then present that message with the world.
Katie:
Thank you. It was fun. Thanks.