Lawyer Branding- Social Media Marketing

This post is a continuation of my conversation with a lawyer friend, who asked me how to brand a law firm. Their firm is not the ambulance chaser type, and wanted to know if it requires massive investment to brand their service in the marketplace. 

The question was quite contrary to what I experienced talking to someone in the LPO business two years ago.  If you mention the word "marketing" to attorney, it conjures up a large and disparate range of reactions. For attorneys, it is associated with activities considered unpleasant by many such as selling, television advertising or direct mail.

To many people working within the legal industry, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, marketing appears to be a relatively new function. It is not. Marketing has always existed in law firms; it is the way law firms are marketed that has changed.   Many legal service buyers will say “hire the lawyer, not the law firm”—so the actual plan for your firm is to “brand” each lawyer.

Social media platform provides lawyers’ to connect with their clients flexibly; this is by adding a human dimension to a purely online relationship. For example, clients can familiarize themselves with their lawyer on Facebook, and see how he looks like, by viewing his educational videos on YouTube, or get a sense of his interests, by following his Twitter stream. As more interaction is conducted online, social media will play a vital role in developing full-fledged, trusted relationships between lawyers and their clients.

Social media help lawyers do what they have always done best, that is to educate the public and empower clients. In 1977, United States Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Bates vs.State Bar of Arizona, US 350 (1977), holding that bar regulations prohibiting lawyer advertising violate the First Amendment. Bates opened the door for a lawyer advertising that the public see today on Yellow Pages and television commercials.

On the contrary, how lawyers generated business before Bates? According to my research- they found clients by doing charitable work that led to referrals, speaking at events, and being active in the local community group or religious organizations. In short, lawyers educated clients, and built relationships, and relied on word-of-mouth recommendations- the same activities that social media allow us to accomplish on a broader scale, with smaller investment of time and resources. 

The places to promote your service are listservs, Twitter, and Facebook, where you can stay in touch with your clients and find new sources of work. Julie Tower Pierce, author of Staying at Home, Staying in the law, advocates using social media as a tool to connect people. LinkedIn is another form to get leads on the job and potential clients. This platform provides lawyer with flexibility and more control. It is just the matter of choice.