Online law firm marketing has now gone beyond the traditional webpage and into the brave new world of social media

The last 18 months has seen an explosion in new forms of media in the mainstream: the rise of Twitter, LinkedIn and, to a lesser extent Facebook, as ways for law firms and lawyers to enhance the way their brand is portrayed across social media and online.

Given all the excitement, has this new technology delivered any real difference to the way firms market themselves? A Google search of major law firms on Facebook or Twitter reveals a somewhat conservative approach, with many firms treating these outlets as an extension of the firm’s own website, uploading snippets of information from the firm’s main webpage with no extra information or interaction.

Research provided by Gilbert + Tobin has found that law firms with Twitter accounts typically include the following things: headlines from the firm’s press releases, newsletters or blogs, news that a lawyer at the firm has appeared in a media outlet, or has received an award or designation and news about the firm successfully completing a client engagement. This information is commonly presented in the format of a headline with a link to the text.

What is not commonly found on a law firm Twitter account is any invitation for the audience to engage with the firm, in the same way that consumer-oriented businesses have done. Perhaps this is understandable, given that to do so would be to open the proverbial Pandora’s Box. “Once you open the conversation you can’t shut it off. You open yourself up to comment, and you open yourself up to criticism. You can’t backtrack from that,” says Michael Bradley, the managing partner of Marque Lawyers.
And once a Twitter account is in existence, it becomes another proverbial mouth to feed – something which requires constant resourcing. “Even to run a simple Twitter feed occupies quite a lot of time, because if you’re not doing it consistently and frequently, well then you might as well not be doing it,” says Bradley. He said the same issue arises with blogging, stating that it needs to be ‘topical’ and ‘fresh’.

Yet providing resources to feed a Twitter or Facebook account is not only limited to writing the content, which can be done by relatively junior lawyers or marketing personnel, but also allocating partner time for the supervision of content to ensure consistency of brand portrayal.

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