Community involvement projects -fast forward your reputation building.

Nothing will focus people's attention on you and your firm and enhance your reputation quite so well as giving the public something of value.

We all know that providing the best legal representation possible is the real key to long-term public relations, and to success, for your practice.

But building that sort of reputation takes time. There are ways to fast-forward that same positive feeling your great reputation engenders about you and your firm.

Consider a community involvement project. Sponsoring such a project can teach people who you are, link your firm to a good cause in the public mind, familiarize the media with your firm and create a positive aura for your reputation.

What do I mean by a community involvement project? Here some examples: help sponsor a Habitat for Humanity house [great idea for a Construction Law or General Practice firm]; give pro bono seminars for senior citizens [Elder Law practice]; get involved in helping at-risk kids [a Criminal Defense practice]; donate and/or install smoke detectors in needy neighborhoods [Personal Injury firm]; sponsor a "Law Day" or "Constitution Day" essay contest for a local school [any firm might use that idea].

Such a project --if handled correctly-- can pay your firm back tenfold, or a hundredfold, just in earned media. Not to mention public goodwill and plain old getting-your-name-on-the street rainmaking.

Before you run off to grab your checkbook and call the United Way, take a few minutes to think about what you want to accomplish in the context of your long term public relations goals. Who is your client base? What is your desired image and reputation?

Don't worry. You can still do great and selfless things. But you should do them in a conscious and well-planned way so that you are building your firm as you make the world a better place.

Things to consider:

Who do you want to persuade through your efforts? If you have a general practice firm you likely want to enhance your reputation in the local community. On the other hand if you have a boutique practice you will want to enhance your reputation in the industry or profession you service, or among bar members who might send you referrals.

What image do you want your firm to have in your selected community? Based on your practice area, how do you want your firm to be perceived? Pro-family? Pro-safety? Anti-piracy? Pro-immigration? For or against some other issue or problem? Choose a project that builds your reputation on that issue in your community of potential clients.

What sort of assistance is actually needed? It does little good to decide that your Family Law practice ought to become involved in providing temporary shelter for the families of kids who are undergoing life-saving medical care if there is already a Ronald McDonald House right down the street. Better to focus on an unmet need. You will be of real use and you will stand out.

What sort of project will create positive, reputation building media and public interest? Even if your practice focuses on protecting intellectual property rights you might not want to rush out and publicly support RIAA efforts to pursue high school kids and grandmothers for alleged music piracy. That stance is very unpopular with the public. Instead you might think in terms of offering to speak to high school students about the importance of I/P protections and how they protect artists and allow them to make a living providing us with things of lasting beauty.

A community involvement project must accomplish all of these goals or you are wasting your time, at best, and harming your firm in the worst case.

One community involvement project I coordinate for a state-wide organization has proven so successful that it has grown from a single event to 14 events all around the state.

Curious as to how I might judge the value of this project in 2006 I collected as many of our media hits as I could locate [press clippings, radio, TV, etc] for the purpose of figuring out how much earned media we generated. I found that as a very conservative estimate the project had generated approximately $125,000 in great, positive media coverage [feturing needy kids, balloons, local politicians, community leaders, safety, families, organization members in shirt sleeves doing good things, etc]. The event even received honors and Proclamations from city mayors and state lawmakers and local police and firefighters. All this for a nominal investment of about $5,000 in staff time and resources plus donations raised and some volunteer time from organization members.

You very likely don't need a statewide community involvement project with 14 separate events, Legislative honors and Mayoral Proclamations, over 75 volunteers and 40 different community partners that spans two months.

Good. That means your community involvement projects will be easy by comparison.