Five Online Reputation Management Tools for Lawyers

Today’s client or customer is more savvy than ever. They want reliable and credible information that makes them feel good about spending their money with your law firm. Not only that, they are turning to the internet for that information more than in the past. Research shows that over 80% of potential clients will think twice about hiring a lawyer if they find a bad review of them online. That means managing your online reputation is key to getting and keeping profitable clients. Here are five of our favorite online reputation management tools for lawyers.

1. Birdeye

With Birdeye, lawyers can take a more proactive approach to actually obtaining more reviews from clients. With their system, you can automatically send SMS or email review requests to your clients, making it effortless to score new reviews for your business directly on Google, Facebook and any other sites that matter to your law firm. Birdeye provides a simple way to text people which makes it easier to ask for positive reviews.

Related: The Importance of Online Reviews for Your Practice

2. Reputology

Since many law firms or legal vendors tend to be on the smaller scale, it’s important to leverage tools that support local businesses. Did you know that consumers need to read an average of 10 online reviews before they feel they can trust a local business? Reputology will alert lawyers to any online reviews from the major engines like Google, as well as Yelp and other local review platforms. Furthermore with Reputology’s phone app, you can keep track of what is being said about you and your firm on-the-go. Great for multi-location law practices, Reputology allows you to drill down into locations and discover why one area might be struggling. It also integrates with Hootsuite, so you can manage reviews from the same place you manage social media.

3. Mention

If you’ve used Google Alerts, you’ll know how nice it is to receive a daily update of your law firm mentions online. With Mention, these alerts are in real time, when you need them, and include social media, forums, blogs, news sites, reviews, and even television. All in all, Mention is a more robust, comprehensive Google Alerts. But the tool also includes some very interesting and powerful analytics. For instance, you’re able to compare your brand with competitors for factors like share of voice, sentiment, reach, and influence.

4. ReviewTrackers

Did you know that positive reviews improve your search engine visibility, while negative reviews can hinder your SEO? This tool helps you to keep track of reviews and even takes things a step further by helping you gain more positive ones. Encourage satisfied clients to review your law firm with ReviewTracker’s automation tools. Even better, ReviewTrackers aggregates your clients’ feedback and shows which aspects of your business they tend to mention the most so you can work on problem areas or increase positive activities.

5. IFTTT

This is a comprehensive tool that offers plenty of help to law firms. The basic premise is that you can set up “if this, then that” rules and then create automated tasks around them. They have a lot of integrations for reputation management, such as with Slack, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Use it to track when your law firm or lawyers get mentioned across channels. You could even set up rules such as automatically thanking Twitter and YouTube followers for sharing content. This is a great platform to explore for all of your digital marketing efforts!

Takeaway

In this digital age, protecting your online reputation really is critical. Fortunately, these five reputation management tools enable lawyers to take a proactive approach to managing their online reputation, in real-time. Among other benefits, these reputation management tools help lawyers find and then manage negative reviews before they become a problem.

If you have questions on any of the online reputation management tools for lawyers mentioned here, just ask us. We’ll be happy to help you manage one of your most important assets – your reputation.

Updated and Republished from Dec 21, 2018.