Introduction
Should lawyers use social media? Yes, they most definitely should. It is because if and when you manage them efficiently, social networks have a lot of benefits for lawyers and law practices. They can help lawyers in presenting themself in a polished and professional manner.
Social networks help in providing a personalized touch to the law practice that formal media channels can’t. There is no denying the fact that social media have become a layer in promotional strategy for professionals in all industries and vocations of life, including and especially lawyers.
It is because of these personal connections that social media turns out to be such an effective tool for attorneys. Social media is one of the most important things lawyers use to control their online presence. When you use a law firm social media campaign effectively, your firm gets a voice, your professional reputation is amplified and it also helps in driving new business. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are some of the best social media platforms for law firms.
But how do you figure out if you are using social media in the right way? One way of doing so is by comparing your efforts to those practices that are using social media well. Hence this piece has been put together to have a glance at how the top-five lawyer practices are using social media and what you can learn from them. Let’s get started!
1. Norton Rose Fulbright:
This law practice has used social sharing to generate authentic content that tells its global brand story. They do so while still connecting with local audiences. They use Instagram to highlight more than 8,000 employees in over 50 cities with relevant and attention-grabbing hashtags.
They use Instagram to show the photography of the employees rather than pictures of the employees themselves. They effectively showcase the perspectives of their employees through lawyer social media posts on their social media platforms, including and especially Instagram.
Thought leadership is at the core of its digital marketing initiative. They have done so by providing audiences with multiple publications focused on legal issues. They have a decent following on all social media platforms with over 78,000 LinkedIn followers and over 17,000 Twitter followers.
They have successfully encouraged digital activity from their legal professionals which have helped them in positioning themselves as thought leaders in the industry.
2. DLA Piper:
This practice has thousands of lawyers in more than three dozen countries. They have been successful in educating their professionals about good social media practices and have benefitted from it, as a result. DLA piper reputation on social media networks is solid because they have put a lot of effort into studying what kind of messages work well on different platforms.
This has helped them in refining their social media strategy and expanding their social media reach. Thus, they post about CSR on Facebook and treat Twitter and LinkedIn as platforms for their content focused around thought leadership. They use Instagram to promote their workplace culture.
Their posts get decent levels of engagement for law practice and they seem to be very effective with their social media initiatives. They have more than 100,000 LinkedIn followers and over 10,000 Facebook and over 35,000 Twitter followers, which goes on to tell that they have been successful in establishing a solid media presence for their business. They make posts about lawyers on Instagram and as a result, they have close to 4000 Instagram followers.
3. Baker McKenzie:
This law practice has been pretty effective in managing its presence on Twitter. They have been active on Twitter for well over a decade. In the time span, they have significantly evolved their social media strategy and now are pretty proactive in engaging with their followers.
They focus on being authentic and informative and giving their audiences what they want. They closely inspect what their competitors are doing and how their audiences are responding to those messages. Monitoring competitor performance provides them with valuable insights, which they include in their own digital strategy.
Over the years, they have followed their plans, monitored competitor performance and engaged with their followers to establish a solid social media presence for themselves. They have close to 160,000 LinkedIn followers. That’s not all, they have more than 25,000 Twitter followers. They have figured out what lawyers should post on Facebook and as a result, they have more than 14,000 Facebook followers.
4. White & Case:
In the past couple of years, this law practice has worked very hard to improve its presence on social networks, including and especially LinkedIn. They are primarily focused on LinkedIn and seem to be doing pretty well on it because they believe that LinkedIn supports their overall digital strategy.
They use LinkedIn to establish powerful connections between their people, their thinking and their clients a which consolidates their standing as a top law firm. They use LinkedIn’s tool called Elevate to allow avenues for individual lawyers to share relevant content with their followers. They also used paid advertising to build their online reputation in certain business areas crucial for their business.
They are very effective in using video content to educate clients and attract new prospective clients. They believe that videos get higher visibility and hence focus their efforts on producing the best videos to engage their clients. They have over 63,000 twitter and 72,000 LinkedIn followers. That’s not all, they also have close to 14,000 Facebook followers.
5. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe:
They have been recognized and rewarded as one of the most innovative law firms in North America on multiple occasions. They serve clients in the global finance and technology sectors. They are pretty good with their use of interactive content. They offer all of their clients with a free tool kit of assessments and calculators on their websites.
On Facebook, they focus their efforts on building connections through videos that highlight the lives and contributions of their employees. That’s not all they use LinkedIn and Twitter to constantly post engaging things. They have over 17,000 LinkedIn followers and over 7,000 Twitter followers.
The Bottom Line
There you go. Those were the 5 examples of how law firms are using social networks for the furtherance of their business goals. Whatever strategy or approach you are planning to use, take small steps and get active only when you feel confident in what you are doing. If you are not able to manage your social networks for the desired outcome, then you hire expert brand reputation management services of an online reputation management agency.
