Social media presents several challenges for the traditional law firm.  Law firms are very conservative environments, and Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can seem like a very big risk. There is a lot of concern about the viral nature of social media; the fear is something embarrassing or negative will be shared, and it will live forever, passing from person to person.  Adrian Dayton, of Clearview Social, points out that lawyers and law firms are “Unlikely to post damaging things.  They aren’t professional athletes, posting pictures of themselves partying. When attorneys share on social media articles that they’ve written on how to solve business problems, it’s far more likely that their genius is going to live on; the permanence makes it doubly powerful.” In fact, the permanence of the internet can be a huge asset to lawyers, who can use consistent contributions to a legal blog as evidence of their expertise and knowledge on an area of law.  

Additionally, successful social media use requires a strategy—and law firms can struggle with identifying, agreeing on, and committing to a strategy. Dayton says, “Strategy is all about going all out to achieve one major aim, and many law firms are a house divided—different practice groups can have competing interests, and the firm is also a partnership, so they all have to vote to agree on things. By nature it's difficult to be strategic.” Getting everyone on board with a game plan can be difficult.  With that in mind, Dayton suggests: “Pick what you do best, pick what you have that has the best chance of bringing in substantial business, and whatever that specific area is, own that and be that online.” This involves conquering the fear of seeming self-promotional that many attorneys seem to have. He says, “Lawyers don’t want to draw attention to themselves; they are not as proud of their knowledge as they should be.”  

Also, attorneys and law firms should also be particular about how they spend their time and resources when it comes to legal blogs. Dayton suggests attorneys and firms work on discovering a specialized area that meets a need and demonstrates specialized expertise. Dayton says, “The most important thing for a legal blog is strategic fit in the marketplace.  It should offer content or an angle on an issue that’s important to a growing practice area, or in an industry that’s important to the firm strategy.”  

There can be a hesitancy to pick a specific area. Dayton says, “This takes a commitment that’s counter-intuitive for a lot of lawyers-Lawyers write their online profile like a contract, they want to include everything, so nothing is off the table.” But that can be a net negative, as it's difficult to stand out with a generalist perspective—the field is simply too crowded.  Finding a niche and blogging on it consistently is a good way forward.  Dayton says, “When you’re highly specific, you have the opportunity to dominate a market. The people that dominate a sector will never lack for business.”

Strategy and a bend towards specificity are the guiding principles for attorneys and law firms in regards to social media and legal blogs. Embracing these new tools for business development in a strategic way can be a difficult process for many law firms and attorneys, but small, strategic moves are the way to start. And starting is a good idea because the benefits can be huge. Dayton says, “The attorneys that become power users of social media have so much success, they create so much buzz for themselves and they build so many more relationships.”

Adrian Dayton, founder of Clearview Social and author of Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition and Social Media for Lawyers: LinkedIn, Blogs and Website 2.0, will be presenting at the Legal Marketing Technology conference in San Francisco October 5-6.  Dayton will be speaking with Eric Majchrzak, Chief Marketing Officer of BeachFleischman PC  on best practices in social media for law firms, encouraging law firms to use social media strategically to meet goals.