Social networking: Lessons from using social media to establish a NewLaw firm

At a recent pitch, the client stated that they would not instruct a law firm that was not active on social media. The client was a technology company, so, for them, any business which was not on social media was not forward-thinking enough. It may seem like a ruthless approach, but I can appreciate the rationale.

How can you be efficient, effective and commercial if you do not have a comprehensive handle on what your market is doing and how it operates? And, in an age in which news is most likely to first break on Twitter, how can you get a handle on your industry without a presence on the right social media channels?

Most statistics show that the top-100 law firms are the most active when it comes to social media. Interestingly, large UK law firms have been found to be significantly more effective than their US counterparts in leveraging social media.¹ Law firms in the 101 to 200 rankings have been slower to get involved, with a few exceptions of course. Generally, though, most lawyers are not actively involved
in social media and law firms are slow
to encourage people to use it.

This lack of engagement with social media is often due to excessive risk management. Law firms worry about the personal brand of the lawyer versus the corporate brand and how to balance both. But, it is manageable.

On a general level, law firms need to ensure their lawyers are clear on the organisation's vision and brand guidelines. In social media, both should be treated differently - your lawyer's voice should be on brand, but it should also be their individual voice. If law firms do not encourage and empower their lawyers to use social media in this way, they are essentially asking their team
to market with one hand tied behind
their backs.²

It should go without saying that training and communication are essential to managing the legal risks.³ Lawyers need to know how to use the social media tools themselves, as well as the protocols, etiquette and ethical issues.⁴

Once this groundwork is in place, lawyers often still need to be encouraged to become active on social media. Many lawyers - including managing partners - remain silent consumers of content instead of active participants.⁵ But, these reservations must be overcome.

Embracing social media is often not easy for lawyers. We find it hard to write in abbreviation, let alone to condense our views to 140 characters! We are also conservative by nature. The idea that our opinions can be cut and pasted and sent out to a global audience makes us nervous, as does the fact that tweets and comments can quickly escalate online, creating a permanent public record of often offhand remarks.

We like talking within the confined walls of 'Chatham House Rules'. We like having control and knowing who we are talking to and the exact quotes that are being shared in our names. We are trained to minimise risk. The problem is, the world has moved on and our market has moved on along with it.

As lawyers, we like to sit back, think and assess. With that in mind, think about these key questions: How can you be more effective and efficient with your marketing and business development efforts? What are your competitors doing and what is your market looking for? How can you be more effective and efficient with your marketing and BD?

Social networking

There are two key aspects to networking: the first is making contact; the second is maintaining it.

1. Making contact

Making new contacts at events is hard. It is difficult enough to make a new connection by simply swapping cards. The amount of 'new' contacts you can make is fairly limited. How many people can you have meaningful conversations with during a mid-conference networking session? Maybe 10 people? How many networking events do you attend per year - maybe five? This means your new contact base per year is 50 at most, as many industry events tend to attract the same types of people. And, once we know people at an event, we tend to speak to them rather than using all of our time making new connections.

Even if you make 50 new contacts per year, how many turn into real leads and clients? The conversion rate from new contact to tangible business opportunity can take up to two years and requires a sustained campaign of relationship building until the right opportunity presents itself.

You need a substantial sales pipeline with lots of irons in the fire. To grow your network and to connect with more people, you need to cast the net wide. The only way to do that is either by attending endless networking events (which is time consuming and expensive) or by using social media. Networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter give you access to a global database of contacts and enable you to control and expand your network on an entirely virtual basis.

2. Maintaining contact

The second aspect is maintaining contact and developing the relationship. Law firms have historically done this by meeting for coffees or lunches, inviting contacts and clients to seminars and sending out newsletters and updates. However, such methods are becoming less effective as clients have less
time and many are located outside
a city centre.

When it comes to newsletters, the amount of information readily available to contacts and clients via online channels is overwhelming, with the result that many are now not interested in quarterly newsletters - they have already read online information on the key changes.

Again, social media is the most effective way to keep in touch with your contacts and clients. It is timely, constant and an easy forum to share information, engage with people and maintain relationships. It is
virtual and can be used from your desk, at home or whilst on the go, on a 24/7 basis.

I appreciate the idea that we should not make or maintain relationships solely via social media; we still need to make time for face-to-face meetings where possible.⁶ But, social media plays a large part in how we connect and stay connected. In the same way that emails have taken over from posting letters and using fax machines, we need to take the next step in our evolution. Social media is the modern way to market your business and stay connected.

ROI of social media

There are really two social networks which lawyers can and should use as core business development tools: Twitter and LinkedIn. Both are very different forums.

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network, with more than 332 million registered members, and the original virtual networking tool. It provides an easy way to make and maintain contacts on a global scale. It should be viewed as your online work contact book, along with Outlook. Once you have connected with someone on LinkedIn, you can track them throughout their career, wherever they move.

LinkedIn also shows you connections you have in common, giving you the opportunity to ask for introductions. Once you are up and running on LinkedIn, you can gain real value from sharing news and content, joining relevant groups, engaging in discussions and proactively growing your network to increase your visibility in searches. Engage in it consistently and you will start to see tangible benefits in terms of both business development opportunities and new connections.

Twitter has 284 million monthly active users. For me, Twitter has opened up a whole new world. I started to use Twitter last year and it changed the way I work and market my firm, Halebury, and myself. As with most working parents, I am time poor, but Twitter enables me to connect and stay connected with my marketplace on a constant basis, within my timeframe. It enables me to enter into more fluid conversations. Twitter is where you can become informed and shape conversations on important industry topics.

Nearly three fifths (58 per cent) of marketers who have used social media for more than three years say it has increased their business, and B2B companies that use Twitter get twice as many leads as those that do not.⁷ Yet, many lawyers do not think that social media will have a significant impact on the growth of their business. One survey found that 54 per cent of respondents think lawyers using social media for marketing is more hype than reality.⁸

If you are one of these sceptical lawyers, let me give you a real-life example. We set up Halebury without any funding or marketing budget. We wanted to attract city-trained in-house lawyers and we wanted our client base to predominately be FTSE 250 companies and SMEs. We have grown our business by more than 50 per cent over the past two years, with our main marketing activity being social media engagement.
I should also mention that we are in a very competitive, highly-funded marketplace, so this growth via social media should not be taken lightly. We have been able to push our messaging and our brand by social media and we have been able to have an impact and gain a profile in our marketplace without advertising, sponsorship or, until this year, a retained PR agency.

We have approximately 700 followers on our corporate Twitter handle and I personally have approximately 850 followers, as do other members of the team. LinkedIn estimated that, between all our team's connections on LinkedIn, we have a network of more than 9,000 connections. This might seem small compared to larger organisations, but we do not worry about the numbers; it is about the quality of contacts and being connected to the right people.

Weekly, I speak to clients, contacts and potential hires who tell me that they see us on social media and that they are impressed with what we are doing; even
if people do not 'like' your message, they are paying attention. Many general counsel and in-house lawyers are silent consumers of online content.

Maybe we at Halebury should be keeping quiet about the benefits of social media. But that is not us. We want to empower the legal industry to create
a marketplace that is dynamic and
forward thinking. Helping lawyers to be
more effective marketers is an essential part of advancing the profession. And if you are still not convinced, just remember the old maxim 'out of sight out of mind' - do not get left behind in the new wave of social networking.

Janvi Patel is a co-founder of Halebury (www.halebury.com)

References

1. See 'Exclusive: Large UK law firms "more effective" at social media than US counterparts', Manju Manglani, Managing Partner, 31 July 2014

2. See 'The end of email: Why law firms should embrace social business', Guy Alvarez and Joe Lamport, Managing Partner, Vol. 16 Issue 9, June 2014

3. See 'Troubled water: The legal risks of LinkedIn for UK law firms',
   Anna Gregory, Managing Partner, Vol. 15 Issue 8, May 2013

4. See 'Ethical quandary: The challenges of social networking for lawyers',
   John G. Browning, Managing Partner, Vol. 14 Issue 10, July/August 2012

5. See 'Social leaders: How managing partners should use Twitter', Ben Rigby and Fraser Allan, Managing Partner, Vol. 16 Issue 7, April 2014

6. See 'Legal tribe: The science behind strong client relationships',
   Bob Murray and Alicia Fortinberry,
   Managing Partner, Vol. 17 Issue 10, July/August 2015

7. See 'LinkedIn for B2B Marketing: Make It Work for You', Alicia Dodd, Business 2 Community, 15 April 2015

8. See 'Connected: A Lawyer's Guide to Social Media Marketing', Attorney
   at Work, January 2015

---