Post by Gustavo Rocha, lawyer and consultant in management, IT and quality for law firms. He’s the author of Gestão.Adv.br (content in Portuguese only):

There are over 192 millions Internet domains registered on the Internet, until 2009.

What does this mean? To put it simply: your brand depends on you. There’s no turning back: Internet, social networks, contacts, connections, businesses.

When it comes to Internet domains, lots of people register the “.com.br” and the “.com” even if it is one and the same law firm. Two different law firms that have the same name have different Internet domains, i.e. one is “.com.br” and the other “.adv.br”.

It is a basic need to register their practice with the same name on the most common domains in the business area. The online brand management can not be overlooked.

Adding to this, it is important to keep you ears and eyes open to what’s being said about you, over the web.
Keeping up with your “online name” can prove to be an excellent path for new contacts, to check the degree of your clients satisfaction thus leaving a subconscious trail of your brand on those surfing the web.

How come? If I Google my name and find that there few references to it, I may start writing more and being more active in social networks and online groups and chats concerning my area of activity, i,e. make my online presence more noticeable. By doing that and always having some sort of online signature on my emails with my contacts, name, practice name, etc,  I’ll be broadning my brand.

Sharing and participating on online debates, will provide for others to better know of my work and to quote me in future references.

The more virtual contacts I get online the more they can turn into live ones, not to mention the ever growing of my brand.

So, don’t just read this, take action. Try this:

• Verify your present domain(s).
• Register your practice in all others that are most common in your business area.
• Be active in social networks. Interact.

Be online and keep at it. Your brand may depend on it!