By Lauren Kirkwood
The Daily Record Newswire
BALTIMORE — For attorneys, social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter present a unique set of advantages, offering opportunities for networking, a way to establish and promote their credibility and create valuable connections that might lead to new business.
Decisions about where and whether to engage with potential clients online vary from law firm to law firm, since lawyers must carefully consider ethical obligations and cybersecurity concerns. But because social media platforms are often the first place consumers look to for solutions, several attorneys said they’ve become a crucial resource for lawyers as well.
“I think the main advantage is you get to meet new people — look at the word ‘social,’” said Scott MacMullan, an Annapolis solo practitioner. “A lot of times, people treat it as a bulletin board, and I don’t think that’s the best way to use social media. Use it as a way to engage with different people, whether it’s other attorneys or whether it’s with non-attorneys. It’s a way to start a dialogue and develop a relationship with people where you can then take it offline.”
Bryan Lawson, marketing director at Maple Lawn-based Offit Kurman P.A., said the law firm’s push to establish a presence on social media began with the realization that the platforms could serve as a “low-cost branding opportunity,” as well as a way to more effectively distribute blog posts, articles and other content that attorneys at the firm were creating.
“People will see your name and associate you with something, whether it’s a particular practice area or a topic,” he said.
It’s been a little more difficult to encourage attorneys to promote their personal brands by using social media to develop relationships and then take those relationships offline, Lawson said.
“That’s the challenge we struggle with daily, to get attorneys to adopt social and develop a strategy and meet more people than they normally would just going to events,” he said.
While it’s equally important for attorneys from small and large firms to build out a space for their practice online, lawyers from more established firms often have the advantage of a broader professional network, according to Tim Bojanowski of Towson-based Zest Social Media Solutions, which provides law firms and other businesses with marketing and branding services.
Attorneys from smaller firms, on the other hand, might primarily rely on making connections through family, friends and those they’ve done business with — and that’s where social media can come into play.
“It’s not a parallel universe — social media is the exact same thing as when you walk over to the cafeteria and someone says, ‘Hey, you’re a lawyer. I’ve been having some difficulty at home and wanted to ask you a question. Would that be OK?’” Bojanowski said.
MacMullan, who also writes for The Daily Record’s Generation J.D. blog and has a podcast, said social media platforms have supplanted website homepages as the “first page” of the Internet for many people. Increasingly, visitors will get to a site through a link on Twitter or Facebook rather than directly entering the site’s URL.
“People will still go to a website, but to get someone’s back story or culture, they’ll go to social media platforms — to get their personality,” he said.
However, Bradley Shear, a Bethesda solo attorney who has written extensively about social media law, said having to adhere to a platform’s format and restrictions may not always be the ideal way to cultivate a brand.
“To me, the best platform still is the law firm website or personal website to brand yourself,” Shear said. “You have full control over it. Whenever you utilize other digital platforms, you’ve got to play by their rules.”
A common mistake attorneys make on social media is creating an account and then thinking, “My job here is done,” Bojanowski said. If a Facebook page for a law firm includes a contact form, for example, the firm is responsible for responding to inquiries sent in via the form, he said. Likewise, an attorney should not ignore questions a potential client sends in a tweet.
But that situation brings up another potential ethical dilemma, according to Shear. Protecting the privacy of an interaction with a potential client is nearly impossible on a public social media platform, he said.
“When you're having an online conversation on Twitter, it's not just the two of you — the entire world can see what’s going on,” he said. “If you’re going to have a blog, you better make sure you don’t name your clients, absent their permission and absent following all ethical guidelines. You’ve got to be careful of defamation issues, intellectual property issues.”
Even a traditionally professional social platform like LinkedIn could present problems for attorneys, Bojanowski said. On that site, professional acquaintances endorse each other for specific skills such as public speaking or project management, and those endorsements then show up under an individual’s profile.
The issue arises when LinkedIn “suggests” that an associate endorse you for a legal skill you might not possess — for example, recommending your family law litigation skills when you have no experience in that practice area. Attorneys should pay attention to their profiles to make sure all claims about their qualifications are accurate, he said.
That rule applies to all social platforms, Shear said.
“If you’re not prepared to check — to double check, triple check — your blog posts, tweets, Instagram photos, emails, anything you put in digital format, you may have an issue to deal with, whether it’s ethical issue, a PR issue, a legal issue,” he said.
Ultimately, lawyers and firms have to decide which, if any, platforms are worth investing time and resources into, Shear said.
“Risk is always in the eye of the beholder — any digital platform you utilize may kill your career or help your career,” he said. “I’ve tweeted 5,600 times — I’ve gotten zero amount of business from my tweets. … In six-and-a-half years, I’ve never had someone say, ‘Oh, I love your tweets; you’re hired.’”
Building a social media audience should not become a substitute for being present in the community, Lawson added.
Rather, MacMullan said, it should be another way of engaging meaningfully with potential clients, fellow attorneys and business professionals.
“I always say, ‘It’s social media, not robot media,’” he said. “It shouldn't be automated. You really have to have a personality behind your social media posts.”
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