Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier

AuthorNicole Black
Pages165-180

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ElefantSocial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-

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