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TheDailyRec

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

theexpresspermissionofThe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columnregularlyorwhoknowofthebookIco

authoredwithCarolynElefantSocialMediaforLawyersTheNextFrontier

mightbesurprisedbythisassertionYoushouldntbe

Iveneversaidthatsocialmediaisamagic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been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FiandachFiandachinRochesterNewYorkvice

presidentofbusinessdevelopmentandcommunityrelationsatMyCaseinccom

weeklycolumnistforTheDailyRecordandpublisherofthreelegalblogs

NB

hardworkexperienceanddevelopingexpertiseinyourchosenareas

ofpractice

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

potentialclientsbreaking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understanditandstayabreast

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

terminewhetherinteractingonsocialmediamakessense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Thesedrawbacksincludepotentialethicalpitfallsandthe

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

usersForsomelawyersthistimecouldbebeerspentonothertasks

andsocialmediaisatimesuckplainandsimple

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

afterinvestingallthattimeyoumayverywellndthatyouvegained

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

standablyfrustrated

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

mediaUnfortunatelytheresnocutanddrydenitiveanswer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alreadyhaveasteadystreamofbusiness

howstrongyourprofessionalnetworkisyourgeographicregionyour

areasofpracticeandyourcomfortlevelwithonlinetechnologies

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

cialmediacampaign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methodsandsocialmediawouldntbeagoodtimeinvestment

foryou

Likewiseifyouliveinaruralareaandfocusoncriminaldefense

youmayndthatusingsocialmediatoobtainnewclients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

geographiclocationusingcertainsocialnetworkssuchasTwierHow-

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