Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier
Author | Nicole Black |
Pages | 165-180 |
SocialMediaforLawyers
THENEXTFRONTIER
NicoleBlack*
ThefollowingeightarticleswerepreviouslypublishedinT he DailyRec
ordnewspaperinRochesterNewYorkThesearticlesarereprintedwith
theexpresspermissionofT heDailyRecord
A FO R S OM E L AW Y E R SS O C I AL M E D IA
DOESNTMATTER
FirstpublishedAugust
Thatsright I said it Not every lawyer will benet from usi ngs ocial
mediatools
Those whoread mycolum nreg ularly orwhok nowoft hebookIco
aut hore dw ith Ca roly nE lef ant SocialMediaforLawyersTheNextFrontier
mightbesurprisedbyth isassertionYoushouldntbe
Iveneversaidthatsocial mediaisamag icbulletthat willsolveall
yourproblemsInfactforyearsnowIvesaidjusttheoppositeonmany
occasions
Andit sneverbee nmy position that social media will make you
a beer lawyerThe only t hing that will ma ke youa beer lawyer is
* NicoleBlackisanaorneywithFia ndachFiandachinRoc hesterNewYorkvice
presidentofbusinessdevelopme ntandcommunityr elationsatMyCaseinccom
weeklycolumnis tforTheDailyRecordandpubli sherofthreelegalblogs
NB
hardwork experiencea nddevelopingexper tise inyour chosen areas
ofpractice
LikewiseIvenever claimed that using social media will result in
potentialclientsbreaki ngdownyourdoorseekingtohireyou
InsteadIvealways saidthatsocial media isaphenomenon nota
fadandforthatreasonitsimportanttou nderstanditandstayabreast
ofchangesinsocialmediaBydoingsoyoullbebeerequippedtode-
terminewhet herinteracting onsoc ialmedia makessen seforyour law
rmsneeds
And once youve learned about social media you may very well
decide that the benets of using social media ar e outweighedby t he
drawbacksThes edrawbacks include potential ethical pitfall sa ndthe
timeyou mustspend creating yourproles andinteracti ngwith other
usersForsomelawyers thist imecouldbe beerspent onotherta sks
andsocialmediaisati mesuckplainandsimple
Ifsocialmedia isnta goodt foryour practiceyoumaynd that
afterinvesti ngall thatti meyoumay verywell ndthat youvegained
nothingLawyers whond themselves in this situationwi llbe under-
standablyfrustrated
Soyou may be wondering which lawyers should be using soc ial
mediaUnfortu natelytheresnocut and drydenitivea nswerto that
questionWhetheryourpracticestandstobenetfromsocialmediade-
pends on a number of factorsi ncluding your goals howlong youve
beeninpracticewhetheryoual readyhaveasteadystreamofbusiness
howstrongyourprofessional networkisyourgeog raphicregionyour
areasofpracticeandyourcomfortlevelwithonlinetec hnologies
Eachandevery oneofthese factorswilla ecthowsuccessful aso-
cialmediaca mpaignwillbe Forexampleifyouvebeeninpracticefor
a decadea nd havea wellest ablished practice and referral base then
spendingtimeusingsocialmediatoolsmightnotbeworthwhileforyou
ifyourgoalistogainmoreclientsorexpandyourprofessionalnetwork
Youvealreadydoneagoodjobataccomplishingthesegoalsusingtrad-
itionalmet hodsand social media wouldntbea goodt imeinvestment
foryou
Likewiseif youlivein aru ralarea andfocus oncri minaldefen se
youmayndt hatusing socialmedia toobtai nnewcl ientswontwork
well since your potential clients probably arentu sing the Internet to
ndan aorneynoris there likely tobe ahuge population fromyour
geogr aphiclo catio nusi ngcer tai nsoc ialn etwork ssuc hasTwierHow-
everifoneofyourgoalsistoobtainmoremediamentionsandlocalre-
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