Research review – adoption of social media in the legal profession in the US
Are you a professional services practice or law firm looking to explore social media to attract more clients to your practice?
One of the areas that you might start is building a company profile or hosting a special interest Group on LinkedIn to extend your visibility within the business community already networking online at LinkedIn.
I am noticing an increase in the number professional service firms attending the open programmes I am facilitating in social media marketing, so I thought I would research some statistics about the adoption of social media in the US which is a good benchmark of what we can anticipate to see in the next year or two in Ireland. Take for example the breadth of social media platforms that Deloitte in the US uses, from Facebook to as part of their recruitment process to podcasts to share their thought leadership.
Over the last number of years in Ireland, we have seen some professional services practices exploring social media and digital marketing – some of my clients have even been producing podcasts of their live events, which in turn has helped build their visibility and credibility in their sector.
What is evident is that in addition to publication of articles in journals and business media and speaking at conferences, social media is being adopted for both lead generation and positioning firms as authorities in their sector.
Amongst the legal profession, during 2010, the ‘Corporate Counsel New Media Engagement Survey’ was undertaken by Green Target, ALM Legal Intelligence and Zeughauser Group in the US, covering 164 respondents from senior people in corporate counsel roles – a summary of their finding was as follows:
• 53 percent of in-house counsel surveyed expect that their consumption of industry news and information via new media platforms will increase over the next six months to a year
• The social networking and new media tools that in-house counsel most frequently use for professional reasons are LinkedIn, blogs, and Wikipedia
• The social networking and new media tools that in-house counsel most frequently use for personal reasons are Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube
• While in-house counsel continue to rely on “traditional media” as their leading sources for business-related news and information, 43 percent cited blogs and 26 percent cited social media Web sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) among their top ‘go-to’ sources
• Half of in-house counsel agree or somewhat agree that in the future, high-profile blogs authored by law firm lawyers will influence the process by which clients hire law firms
• In contrast, only 10 percent of in-house counsel believe that a firm’s prominence on Twitter will drive business development
• While the majority of in-house counsel are not accessing content from their law firms via new media tools (Twitter feeds, blogs, Facebook pages, LinkedIn discussion groups, etc.), 51 percent said that they would engage these channels to receive relevant information from their firms
• Wikipedia ranked among the most credible sources of industry news and information (behind Martindale-Hubbell Connected and LinkedIn) however surprisingly only 13 percent of in-house lawyers have viewed the Wikipedia pages of their current and prospective outside law firms.
This research indicates that if you are in a legal firm and are looking to work with corporate clients, networking and building relationships in the real world is only part of what will influence your potential clients in the future.
What law firms or accountancy practices are you noticing are adopting social media effectively?
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Research review – adoption of social media in the legal profession in the US is an article post from: Biz Growth News. Remember to join our Facebook Page to access 5 marketing tutorials.