I spoke recently in my capacity as Search and Social Media Marketing Manager at Moore Legal Technology on Wednesday in Inverness on the subject of the return on investment for law firms in optimising their use of social media marketing and online presence.
I introduced the subject by explaining the various components of return on investment (ROI) in a social media context. These included brand awareness and development, growth of digital assets, development of risk management capability and direct or indirect financial results.
Using examples of successes both personal and for client law firms, I elaborated on several types of social media use in the legal profession. These include blogging, which can be used to develop personal brands and the brand of the law firm, to share legal knowledge, develop current awareness and ultimately to expand online presence and generate more business online. This LawCloud blog itself, which is listed as one of the top 100 blogs on cloud computing was used as an example of how blogging can work well for firms.
Discussing Twitter as a tool to develop relationships, maintain current awareness and drive traffic to law firm websites, I illustrated examples of Twitter accounts, such as LawCloud’s Twitter account or Lawford Kidd’s Twitter account, together with analytics to measure the use of those accounts.
Lastly, LinkedIn was discussed, with particular focus on LinkedIn groups and how they can be particularly rewarding. I looked, for instance, at Warren Wander’s Cloud for Lawyers group which I set up earlier in the year, which has attracted over 500 members and which itself ranks first in Google for the term “Cloud for Lawyers”.
I concluded by suggesting that firms should focus on the benefits and value of social media use in the broader sense, with financial results, e.g. in terms of client wins, inevitably following.
The presentation can be viewed here:-
Q&A
As always, this presentation generated some useful questions and answers from the audience. This included the following:-
Q: It appeared from the slides of the presentation that a substantial amount of work each week is required to run a social media campaign. How much effort and time should be dedicated to managing social media accounts?
A: I explained that while, yes, a good deal of effort and time goes into the operation of both my own social media accounts and those of our clients’ accounts, you only get out of social media use what you put into it. Limiting time invested on your networks in LinkedIn or Twitter even to just a couple of hours per week can still yield dividends. One of the other solicitors in the room, a managing partner of a law firm, explained that he has had more business from blogging and LinkedIn use than he has had from countless networking events IRL (in real life). I elaborated further, explaining that even if investment in social media activities doesn’t immediately generate business in the short term, there are still immediate advantages to be had e.g. in developing current awareness and developing relationships. And if lawyers feel overwhelmed by managing multiple social media accounts, Moore Legal Technology offers a social media management service for law firms.
Contact me
If you’d like to discuss web presence, social media activities or legal website design further, please contact me and my colleagues at Moore Legal Technology for a no-obligation discussion on 0845 620 5664 or at enquiries@moorelegaltechnology.co.uk.
Further details of the Inverness event can be viewed on my overview of the event on the LawCloud Blog.
