Miami Legal Business Development | Branding | Law Firm Coaching | Paula Black

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Yesterday, I gave a speech on personal branding and as part of what I do for this presentation... I googled everyone in the room. It's eye opening for the people in the audience that seldom do it. How much of that first page is YOU? This is important to know since anyone that wants to check you out will google you... so what will they find? One women in the audience found out she died last year and someone else won a coloring contest... of course that was not them. But your prospective clients can't be sure and besides do you want them to have to sift through all of that? I don't think so.

Take a moment to google yourself. Are you on the 1st page? Is the content substantive? Are you proud of it? Does it add to your credibility? If the answer is NO to any of the questions, you can do something about it. Consider writing a blog and articles on a consistent basis. This is the best way to dominate your name on google. Before I started writing articles and blogging I had 20% of the first page of google. One entry was my website and the other was Amazon where my books are sold. But now? I have 90% of the first page of google and that is out of 9.2 million entries. Yes... 9.2 million. There are a lot of Paula Blacks. And in addition, the shoe industry names their shoe styles with women's names and they often use the name Paula and you guessed it... they ALL come in black! Who can compete with women's shoes? I did! I dominate my name on the 1st page of google. Do YOU?

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*Special Friday Post

When somebody Googles your name, what will they find?  I had the privilege of speaking to the Young Lawyers Division of the Hillsborough Bar Association in Tampa, Florida yesterday... and I delivered them a bit of a wake up call.  Prior to the speech, I had Googled each of the attendees... and I had some news for them.  The good news was that 54% of them showed up on the first page.  The not-so-good news is that not many of the entries built credibility.  Many entries were outdated directories with incomplete information... some even displayed their previous employers.  The really bad news?  40% of them could not even be found on the first page of Google.  If I couldn't find them, neither could potential clients or reporters. 

So here is the exercise... open another window right this instant, and search for your name on Google. 

What did you find?  Did you find a link to your biography?  Did you find current, accurate information?  Or, like so many lawyers, did you find a combination of outdated directories and links that are not YOU? 

If you weren't pleased with what you found, then do something about it.  Why?  Think about it-- what do you do if somebody recommends that you contact a professional in another industry?  You Google them!  And that is exactly what prospective clients are going to do before they pick up the phone to call you.  It is critical that you dominate the first page with content about YOU!

So are you pleased with where you stand on Google?  If the answer is no, I have some good news for you: You can do something about it, and you can start today.  The first step is to download my free e-book, entitled "Be A Celebrity In Your Own World."  There you will find many of the same tips and proven strategies that I shared with the lawyers in Tampa.  They heard me loud and clear... and I'm sure many of them are updating directories as we speak.

Black Pearl: Set up a Google Alert for your name.  It takes less than a minute to set up, and you'll know what people are saying about you.