Tweet tweet, say lawyers

The legal Twitterati and LinkedIn users lead the social media field among lawyers, a report shows.

Both sites were rated highest in terms of influence and effectiveness by law firms and chambers surveyed by NLJ in association with legal PR consultancy Kysen. They were followed by Facebook and Instagram, while other platforms flagged up included Pinterest, Google+, WeChat, Snapchat and Paper.li, a content curation service.

Respondents also highlighted legal platform Juriosity, which offers a knowledge network and professional directory.

Catherine Calder, joint CEO of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers and co-chair of the Legal Practice Management Association, said: ‘It is the new shop window.

‘Previously, the news page on our website was our key platform for knowledge-sharing and announcing chambers’ developments. Now we push everything out via social media.

‘It is clear from both the engagement statistics and from anecdotal evidence that that this is how we are reaching clients and contacts.’

However, different platforms have different uses, she said. While Twitter helps law firms and chambers connect with students, pupils and legal commentators, LinkedIn is a better platform for clients, with posts ‘leading directly to new work’.

The report advises taking a strategic approach to social media, as would be the case with any other communications. For example, they should ‘think logically through who your target audiences are and what you need to be saying to them to achieve your aims’, according to Fred Banning, head of corporate communications at Pinsent Mason. Combining press coverage in the still-powerful traditional press with social media activity to push the message out works very well.

There are also risks—innocent-seeming posts can go spectacularly wrong; hastily typed out tweets can go viral. The survey found that some firms are closing their Twitter accounts or tightening up their monitoring and setting clear policies so staff are accountable.

The full report, written by journalist Grania Langdon-Down, is published by NLJ this week, and available as a PDF below.