“Shy” isn’t typically an adjective used to describe attorneys. But taking your point of view into the media could feel like a daunting task. When reading your morning paper or watching cable news, do you ever wonder …. “How did that lawyer get on TV?” Maybe you want to start putting yourself or your law firm in the public light …. But how do you begin to do that?

There are actually several surefire steps you can take to get yourself noticed in the media and even on TV. Here are five tips for getting noticed and making sure you and your law firm stand out against the rest.

  • Have a media-friendly website. Post videos of past interviews or news clips front and center on your homepage. Don’t have any video to share? Invest in hiring a production team to come in and take short videos of you and your legal team describing what sets your firm apart from the competition. Then create a “media” tab on your site to house multiple videos. The first thing a TV news producer will do when considering a new guest is search for video on her or him to make sure he is a good “talker.”
  • Start blogging. One way to get yourself, or your law firm in the media is to start blogging about trials that the media is covering. This step will not only show journalists that you are positioning yourself as an “expert”, but it will also help to boost your SEO rankings — another way that reporters may notice you. When blogging, try to take a stand on your point of view. Members of the media love interviewing a lawyer with a passionate stance on a case!
  • Make sure you’re on social media. After checking out your website, the first thing a journalist will do when vetting an interview is check out your social media links, particularly Twitter. Social media is a great way to share the blog posts you’re writing with the world … just make sure to use appropriate #hashtags and @mentions to get more traction. More and more journalists are finding resources and guests via Twitter these days, so you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity!
  • Determine which media outlets you want to be in. Is your dream to be featured in the Wall Street Journal? Interviewed as a live guest on Fox News Channel? Profiled in Entrepreneur magazine? Figure out which outlet would best suit your practice and then identify the appropriate reporters at each outlet to connect with. Try to find journalists who cover legal news or trials that are in your wheelhouse.
  • Keep your pitching limited at first. Be very careful to not bombard journalists at first. It’s important to position yourself as a resource who can make their life, and reporting, easier and more comprehensive. A nice approach is to weave your legal expertise into a larger trend in the field of law, or tie it back to a current trial that’s getting media attention. You’ll likely receive more media coverage that way.

These tips may seem overwhelming and they do, certainly, require a significant amount of time. Working with a PR agency that specializes in representing lawyers in the media is always a smart avenue to pursue to help guide you through the process and make your workload a bit easier.