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Reputations are Easy to Harm on the Internet

Web Education:

what clients say

Got my first case from [my site] yesterday. ...I'm really into this. It's fun.

Alvin Wolff
St. Louis, Missouri Accident Lawyer

I’ve worked with Tom over the last 5 1/2 years and believe he is the only webmaster around who truly “gets it” and understands the most up-to-date, effective and ethical marketing methods for attorneys.
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New York Medical Malpractice Attorney

Magic bullet, no; essential pillar of an integrated marketing strategy, yes. Having a Top Rank website is worth it.
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Newfoundland and Labrador Personal Injury Attorney
Canada

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Foster Web Marketing offers practical internet services and solutions for law firms all over the United States. We help attorneys successfully use the internet to market their services by using design and content methods that are specifically geared to raise their search engine profiles. We handle web hosting, web design, web video marketing, search engine optimization, social networking marketing and online reputation management. If you are interested in using the internet to increase the business of your firm, contact Foster Web Marketing for a site consultation today.

There is good news and bad news about the internet. The good news is that anyone can get out there and opine on pretty much anything that they want to. The bad news is that anyone can get out there and opine on pretty much anything that they want to.

It is very much a double edged sword, you see. There are websites devoted to anything that you can possibly think of, and each particular person, place or thing has a website dedicated to extolling the virtues and another website ripping it to pieces.

One crystal clear example of this phenomenon would be Bill O’Reilly. If you go to www.billoreilly.com you will see his official website, in which you can read about his shows on television and the radio and buy his products. But if you go to Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly, International, you will find a man who has set up a fairly successful cottage industry dedicated to contradicting everything Bill O’Reilly says. This site sells anti-Bill O’Reilly t-shirts, coffee cups and books, and it also has a long list of statements by Bill O’Reilly that are deconstructed and ridiculed.

Granted, the anti Bill O’Reilly site is a pretty extreme example of what someone can go through to express their disapproval. Most people won’t set up entire web sites or print t-shirts or bumper stickers. But take a few minutes and look at how easy it is to leave your own mark on the internet without setting up a site. You can leave comments on any news story. You can leave comments on any web video. You can start a blog on any topic you want and dedicate a few minutes each day to trashing whatever you want.

As a high profile media personality, Bill O’Reilly makes a fairly easy target. But bear in mind that there are no rules keeping someone from starting a site about anything that they happen to disapprove of. And that includes you and your practice.

There are a seemingly infinite number of variables in the legal profession. Any case has to factor in the individual skill of the attorneys, the evidence involved, which judge is presiding over the case, the honesty of the clients, the sentiment of the jury, or any number of factors which could determine a favorable or not so favorable verdict, judgment or settlement. As a result of the sheer unpredictability of the legal profession, no reputable attorney would guarantee success for their clients.

Emotions run very high in almost any personal injury case, and if the end result is an unsuccessful verdict, the consequences can be long reaching for the client involved. And now, thanks to the internet, the consequences can be long reaching for you.

Researching the successes and failures of an attorney is much easier now than it used to, and there is nothing stopping a disappointed client from disparaging your efforts far and wide. It is now officially very easy for your reputation to be dragged through the mud.

At Foster Web Marketing, we have the ability to monitor how your firm is presented online, and rather than chase down and contradict every negative statement, we make it a point to be solidly in control of how your firm and reputation is portrayed. We do this by outweighing the negatives with positive blog posts, news items, content, and we also emphasize the successes of your firm.

Don’t allow the easy accessibility of the internet to become a negative factor for your firm. Contact Foster Web Marketing for a consultation today.