Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier

• Author: Nicole Black
• Pages: 165-180



SocialMediaforLawyers

THENEXTFRONTIER

NicoleBlack*

ThefollowingeightarticleswerepreviouslypublishedinT he DailyRec

ordnewspaperinRochesterNewYorkThesearticlesarereprintedwith

theexpresspermissionofT heDailyRecord

A FO R S OM E L AW Y E R SS O C I AL M E D IA 

DOESNTMATTER

FirstpublishedAugust

Thatsright I said it Not every lawyer will benet from usi ngs ocial

mediatools

Those whoread mycolum nreg ularly orwhok nowoft hebookIco

aut hore dw ith Ca roly nE lef ant  SocialMediaforLawyersTheNextFrontier

mightbesurprisedbyth isassertionYoushouldntbe

Iveneversaidthatsocial mediaisamag icbulletthat willsolveall

yourproblemsInfactforyearsnowIvesaidjusttheoppositeonmany

occasions

Andit sneverbee nmy position that social media will make you

a beer lawyerThe only t hing that will ma ke youa beer lawyer is

* NicoleBlackisanaorneywithFia ndachFiandachinRoc hesterNewYorkvice

presidentofbusinessdevelopme ntandcommunityr elationsatMyCaseinccom

weeklycolumnis tforTheDailyRecordandpubli sherofthreelegalblogs

NB

hardwork experiencea nddevelopingexper tise inyour chosen areas

ofpractice

LikewiseIvenever claimed that using social media will result in

potentialclientsbreaki ngdownyourdoorseekingtohireyou

InsteadIvealways saidthatsocial media isaphenomenon nota

fadandforthatreasonitsimportanttou nderstanditandstayabreast

ofchangesinsocialmediaBydoingsoyoullbebeerequippedtode-

terminewhet herinteracting onsoc ialmedia makessen seforyour law

rmsneeds

And once youve learned about social media you may very well

decide that the benets of using social media ar e outweighedby t he

drawbacksThes edrawbacks include potential ethical pitfall sa ndthe

timeyou mustspend creating yourproles andinteracti ngwith other

usersForsomelawyers thist imecouldbe beerspent onotherta sks

andsocialmediaisati mesuckplainandsimple

Ifsocialmedia isnta goodt foryour practiceyoumaynd that

afterinvesti ngall thatti meyoumay verywell ndthat youvegained

nothingLawyers whond themselves in this situationwi llbe under-

standablyfrustrated

Soyou may be wondering which lawyers should be using soc ial

mediaUnfortu natelytheresnocut and drydenitivea nswerto that

questionWhetheryourpracticestandstobenetfromsocialmediade-

pends on a number of factorsi ncluding your goals howlong youve

beeninpracticewhetheryoual readyhaveasteadystreamofbusiness

howstrongyourprofessional networkisyourgeog raphicregionyour

areasofpracticeandyourcomfortlevelwithonlinetec hnologies

Eachandevery oneofthese factorswilla ecthowsuccessful aso-

cialmediaca mpaignwillbe Forexampleifyouvebeeninpracticefor

a decadea nd havea wellest ablished practice and referral base then

spendingtimeusingsocialmediatoolsmightnotbeworthwhileforyou

ifyourgoalistogainmoreclientsorexpandyourprofessionalnetwork

Youvealreadydoneagoodjobataccomplishingthesegoalsusingtrad-

itionalmet hodsand social media wouldntbea goodt imeinvestment

foryou

Likewiseif youlivein aru ralarea andfocus oncri minaldefen se

youmayndt hatusing socialmedia toobtai nnewcl ientswontwork

well since your potential clients probably arentu sing the Internet to

ndan aorneynoris there likely tobe ahuge population fromyour

geogr aphiclo catio nusi ngcer tai nsoc ialn etwork ssuc hasTwierHow-

everifoneofyourgoalsistoobtainmoremediamentionsandlocalre-