Social Media: Why it matters to an IP lawyer
Social Media involvement allows you to connect with your clients, show your expertise, and demonstrate your relevance within a medium used daily by influencers and decisions makers all around the globe.
Ten years ago, lawyers could ignore the growing influence of social media. In 2015 however, social media has become so mainstream, professionally and personally, that law firms cannot afford to disregard the basic need to engage online any longer.
While it may be difficult to concretely link a new client to your firm’s involvement in social media, it undoubtedly provides a tangible way to connect with contacts and strengthen your online marketing strategy. By its very nature, social media can help build the most important element of a relationship—trust!
So, now you know it’s important, what should IP lawyers really focus their time on across all social media networks:
The standard practices of legal marketing and advertising has transformed, and, in order to remain current and relevant, law firms should engage in social media. Social media is a free way to directly connect with other consumers, it should not be an avenue left unexplored.
According to the 2014 American Bar Association Tech Report Survey, approximately 35% of the lawyers who were not using social media in 2011 have now started to engage, and this trend is continuing.
As large blue chip companies devote entire departments and significant budgets to social media, law firms must recognize the importance of developing a well-rounded brand that is strongly represented across all social media.
One of the best, but worst understood, reasons for social media involvement is that it exponentially helps the firm’s SEO strategy, i.e. search engine optimization – getting you placed higher up on google when people make a search relevant ot your business.
Google search engines will assess the number of likes on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts as a consideration to determine your site’s overall success. Further, a firm’s involvement on social media increases the number of inbound links, a distinct factor in the hierarchy of Google rankings.
Quality content should be promoted by all firms on all aspects of online marketing from websites to social media, so while we encourage active involvement, all activity should be carefully considered.
Global Law Marketing is a specialized marketing agency primarily focused on intellectual property law firms who are based all around the world. We’ve built up specialized knowledge, contacts and resources applicable only to the IP market and offer a truly unique marketing perspective.
Ten years ago, lawyers could ignore the growing influence of social media. In 2015 however, social media has become so mainstream, professionally and personally, that law firms cannot afford to disregard the basic need to engage online any longer.
While it may be difficult to concretely link a new client to your firm’s involvement in social media, it undoubtedly provides a tangible way to connect with contacts and strengthen your online marketing strategy. By its very nature, social media can help build the most important element of a relationship—trust!
So, now you know it’s important, what should IP lawyers really focus their time on across all social media networks:
- Expand your network: connect with your contacts!
- current and previous clients
- alumni connections
- association groups
- colleagues
- personal contacts
- Create quality content: prove to your contacts that you truly are an IP expert!
- Add updates to your profile linking articles of interest to the IP community, either written by you, your firm, or an external source.
- "Share" and "Like" firm updates
- Comment on LinkedIn activity
- Develop a firm-wide social media plan (click here for GLM’s social media guidelines for lawyers).
- Lawyers are more likely to be proactive and participate if they are provided with basic rules for firm wide engagement.
The standard practices of legal marketing and advertising has transformed, and, in order to remain current and relevant, law firms should engage in social media. Social media is a free way to directly connect with other consumers, it should not be an avenue left unexplored.
According to the 2014 American Bar Association Tech Report Survey, approximately 35% of the lawyers who were not using social media in 2011 have now started to engage, and this trend is continuing.
As large blue chip companies devote entire departments and significant budgets to social media, law firms must recognize the importance of developing a well-rounded brand that is strongly represented across all social media.
One of the best, but worst understood, reasons for social media involvement is that it exponentially helps the firm’s SEO strategy, i.e. search engine optimization – getting you placed higher up on google when people make a search relevant ot your business.
Google search engines will assess the number of likes on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts as a consideration to determine your site’s overall success. Further, a firm’s involvement on social media increases the number of inbound links, a distinct factor in the hierarchy of Google rankings.
Quality content should be promoted by all firms on all aspects of online marketing from websites to social media, so while we encourage active involvement, all activity should be carefully considered.
Global Law Marketing is a specialized marketing agency primarily focused on intellectual property law firms who are based all around the world. We’ve built up specialized knowledge, contacts and resources applicable only to the IP market and offer a truly unique marketing perspective.
