It’s Time to Refresh Your Bio

Time changes. Another birthday passes. A new year. These are perfect reminders to revisit your bio to make sure it’s updated. As professional communicator, I am often asked about the best steps to communicate effectively with prospective clients. I always suggest starting with the bio.

Whether it’s for a firm’s website or LinkedIn, the bio the first place people go when they get your name from a referral. Every study of law firm websites has concluded that, beyond the home page, the lawyers’ biographical pages are the most visited pages on the site.

That’s because, with a few exceptions, people don’t hire law firms. They hire lawyers, who, after all, are human beings, and they want to know whether you are the right person to fix their business problem.

That means the bio is your first and probably your only chance to make a good impression. So you should review it a few times a year to ensure that all the information is accurate. But it’s more than just accuracy. Hopefully, you are growing and changing as a professional. You might have completed a project in the last few weeks or last few months that a prospective client would value.

It could be an article you published, a board membership, and award you received, a speaking engagement that you lined up, and so on. Your industry focus could have changed slightly in a way that some clients would appreciate. If you are a real estate attorney, you could have started drafting condominium bylaws. If you are an employment lawyer, you could have helped a company fend off claims for sexual harassment liability. If you are a cyber attorney, you could have expanded your privacy certifications. To the extent that your bio can reflect such changes, you should make those updates regularly.

Don’t fall back on your responsibly to keep your professional bio updated. You could be losing out on valuable opportunities to grow your business.