The Future of Social Media for Law Firms

Traditionally law firms haven’t had terribly much to do with their clients. They provided a service – sometimes excellent, sometimes not – but whatever the client’s feelings about the level of service they were limited in telling their experience to whoever they would come across in person. Social media can provide peer recommendation.

Social media – and the rise of the internet – has changed all of that for law firms looking to win private clients. Now clients can talk about their problems to a much larger audience, who are able to recommend which firm they can go to for particular advice. Firms that have left the client feeling disenfranchised can read about their own poor performance on Twitter along with many of their potential new clients – a possibly embarrassing public dressing down, and one that can be costly.

In short, social media matters so much to so many law firms, and while it may be daunting to begin with, a strong social media strategy can attract new clients and become a major asset to a firm’s marketing.

Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter all have huge followings that require a little imagination to make relevant to the business development of a law firm. Legal service providers will expand into this area, and, as the technology develops, will do so in ever more innovative ways that engage with clients and provide them with the service they want.

The Law Society also said in it's Social Media Practice Note: December 2011, "Social media are an increasingly popular and growing area. As such, it is important for the profession to keep up-to-date with developments in social media which present real opportunities if harnessed effectively".

The last word on the subject should perhaps go to the American BAR Association, who in March 2011 wrote, under the heading “It’s Too Late To Do Nothing”:

“You can’t outright reject these tools—nor should you rush to mindlessly embrace them. Rather, you need to take steps to understand how they can be used to support your lawyers, your clients, your firm and its strategic ambitions.”

So what is the future of social media marketing for law firms? Put simply, your firm can’t stay behind its desk anymore; it needs to build a strong online presence.

Tags: firms, for, law, marketing, media, online, social, strategy

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Comment by Kerry Quinn on July 25, 2012 at 17:50: Thanks for your comments. One must ask themselves - where else other than a social media networking blogsite that so happens to be (online), would one choose to post such a topic subsequent to your own website and other social media platforms? The benefits of using a site such like this in the blogosphere, is that it has organic search engine optimisation benefits such as Google indexing keyword search terms, tags, etcetera , so your blog has extending coverage and maximum publishing outreach.

I'm pleased you feel the leading paragraph is controversial - I have aimed to provoke a debate here as the truth of the matter is - in the 'main' legal services are a grudge purchase and transactional. However, one could certainly argue that there are different rules for Commercial law where it is not so much a grudge purchase and badgering clients for extra work is not so much frowned upon, although cold calling is still very much off limits!

That said; the aim of this post is to dispel the often-held myth that social networks are the exclusive domain of the younger generation to socialise with friends and that law firms if not already, should be using it as a recomendation tool. For those that are not aware of this to see this process in action, type “legal services” into Twitter now and there’s a reasonable chance that someone will be asking for a recommendation and someone providing it, while plenty will be sharing news on latest legal developments and their experiences with law providers.

Everyone knows that the best form of new business generation is word of mouth because we trust peer recommendations much more than companies’ self-promotion through traditional marketing methods. With the explosion of the internet, word of mouth has gone social. Individuals will talk to others about the quality of your services, particularly if their experience was at the high end of the satisfaction spectrum – in other words, those who felt that the legal advice and representation received was extremely positive. Social media provides the platform for these online discussions.

Comment by LM Group on July 25, 2012 at 16:38: I find it interesting that the majority of articles published stressing the importance of social media are published online, in precisely the places they are aimed at convincing their targets to visit. Of course, what has been said here about social media is very true- although I find myself questioning the opening line, rather controversial!..