The Invent Blog®

Good friend Justin Foster (branding guru/social media expert, has a great post on his blog talking about the business lessons he learned in the first five years of running his own business.  What is amazing is how many of those lessons translate directly to lawyers.  Read it.  Excellent advice.

One thing Justin (aka @brandmilitia) taught me this last year:  whether or not you realize it, you have a personal brand.  You should monitor that brand.  You should control that brand.  You should improve that brand.  You should avoid anything (including business relationships) that tarnish that brand (remember that if your personal brand is weak, you inherit the brand of those you associate with).

So…what are YOU going to do about your personal brand this year?  Some possibilities:

• hire a personal/business coa
• start blogging, even if it is microblogging via Twitter (there are 50+ IP attorneys doing just that already)
• learn to effectively use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• teach a CLE
• write an article
• volunteer more
• hire someone like Justin’s firm (Tricycle Consulting) to give you (or your firm) a brand “make over”
• read more business books
• etc.

I challenge you to make 2009 the year you fixed your brand.

Related posts:

1. Great advice for young attorneys
2. How to effectively use Twitter to build business relationships (and make friends at the same time)
3. Vanity or Self Defense: Monitoring What People Say About You Online
4. Advice Pre-VC
5. Some of the best advice you’ll ever get on the practice of law

Tags: advice, branding, business

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Business & Tech Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.