September and October are two of my favorite months, not the least of which is because it gives me motivation, motivation for a fresh start as if I’m starting a new school year again. 

As I’m thinking about fresh start today, I’m bringing you a Two for Tuesdays that focuses on a marketing refresh!

Tip One: Refresh Your Social Media Profiles

It happens quickly – once you’ve made the time investment to open and populate your social media profiles, you are apt to forget about them as you get busy. Even if you’re using them on a daily or weekly basis. 

Let this tip encourage you to take a quick look at them and do a refresh.

• LinkedIn: First, make sure you’ve turned your profile notifications off, or your connections will suspect that you’re looking for a new job. Then, look through your profile. Is your photo up to date? Are your job title and headline as current (and descriptive) as they could be? Have you started working more in one practice area over another, and need to have your experience reflect that? Are your recommendations years old, and you need to reach out to some new clients? Take a look at anything that might look out of date or incorrect and use this time to correct it. 

  Check any LinkedIn groups and pages that you manage as well to ensure that all information is current, and that any discussions you’ve pinned to the top level are recent ones. 

• Twitter: Do the same as above with Twitter. Ensure that the keywords you’re using in your profile accurately represent you. Check your photo, and the link that’s in your profile. Take a few moments to review some of your connections, and delete any that are no longer serving you – in fact, do that with all of your social profile connections. 
   
• Check other sites: Take a look at Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and any others you might have a profile on, and ensure that you are consistent across all the platforms and your information is up to date. 
   
• Calendar reminder: Now is also a great time to give yourself a quarterly or semi-annual calendar reminder for regular marketing refreshes – next time, you won’t have to try to remember to check your profiles, your calendar will remind you! 

Tip Two: Refresh your Bio

Law firm bios are the most highly trafficked pages on a law firm website – so it needs to be current. You’ll want to check many of the same things that you looked at for your social media profiles: 

• Photos: Is your photo a recent one, or very old? Did your colleagues recently retake pictures, but you missed out, or does the whole firm need to discuss updating their photos? Having a modern, professional photo makes worlds of difference in how engaged and relatable your profile will seem to clients and potential clients. 
   
• Bio elements: Check your practice areas – do they still reflect the areas that you’re focused on? Do you have any recent awards or certifications that should be included? Have you shifted your practice to doing more in one area than another? Are you active in local organizations that would support your practice expertise if they were listed on your website? You can work with your marketing team here, if you have one, to see what will put your best foot forward.
   
• Content marketing: Do you list recent articles on the site? Check the date of your last published piece – if it’s not from 2014, you need to upload more recent articles, write new ones, or completely remove the others. Identify what else you may be able to include – upcoming or recent speaking engagements, blog posts you’ve authored, and awards you’ve won. 

It may also be possible that the entire law firm site needs a refresh – if your firm has a marketing department, they are likely already working on this, or working with a committee on it. But if you’re at a small firm, it may be up to you to discuss it with your partners. Talk to some of your top clients about why they visit your site, and what might make it more useful to them. Make sure that you’re including all of the information about your firm that people find valuable, and consider beginning a redesign process. 

Why is this important? With any public-facing items, like a social media profile or your firm website, you are sending a message – whether intentionally or otherwise. When your profiles are out of date, have incorrect information, or incomplete information, not only are they not serving you, they are telling people that you are not detail-oriented and that you’re not proficient with technology. Those things may not be true, but that is what people are taking away from them. 

Checking in on them periodically helps to avoid that, with minimal effort – far less effort than if you do it every few years, and have to invest more time to update a larger number of things. 

So take some time today, or give yourself a calendar reminder, to jump into a refresh of your profiles and bios – then, those items can keep working FOR you instead of against you.