Terrific post from Cordell Parvin about the growing importance of website bios. While Parvin notes that he used to hate the annual updating of his bio, he now recognizes the importance of fleshing out one’s online identity in an age when an increasing number of consumers of legal services are seeking help online.

Parvin’s post has a lot of great tips for lawyers regarding presenting themselves in the best light, our favorite being the advice to not have the website photos “taken after the cocktail party at the firm retreat.” With respect to photos, we would also emphasize the importance of displaying photos on all of one’s online profiles, whether it’s a law firm website, Avvo profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Lawyer profiles with photos on Avvo, for example, are clicked on over seven times more often than profiles lacking a photo. Just don’t make it the kind of photo that people click on out of morbid curiousity!

One old truism of advertising is that “long copy sells.” The idea is that pitches that include more detail will convert better than those that only provide high-level information. This truth of this adage gains more and more credence as the cost of a good or service increases (which is obviously true in spades for legal services). The more info you can provide a potential client about your background, your expertise and your approach, the better-positioned you will be to gain that client.

The good news is that even as people flock to the web to research legal services, the cost for a lawyer to present a comprehensive profile, complete with “long copy” in the form of comprehensive background info, downloadable documents, case highlights and video has come way down. You can build out such a profile on Avvo and the social networking sites for free (here’s a great example that incorporates video). Even the cost and hassle of producing a professional video spot has dropped.

Whether its your next client, employer, or partner - you never know when someone is going to be looking you up online. With the resources available today, there’s no excuse to not put your best foot forward.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 1:18 pm by Josh King, VP of Business Development and General Counsel and is filed under Josh King Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.