Download - Social media for lawyers
Social media for lawyers
By Colin Yeo
About ColinSee about.me/colinyeo
Blogging since 2006
2,736,646 blog hits
Over 25,000 unique blog visitors per month
3,403 Twitter followers
Be generous, add value
Be aware of opportunity costs*
*i.e. don't waste your time!
What is social media?• Media that are social…
• Means of broadcasting?
• Means of sharing
• Means of engagement
Main platforms
• Blogs
Niche platforms
Why bother?
Why should one do it?
Why you?
Why should you do it?Have you got anything to say?
Can you add value?
Do you enjoy it?
Can you write well?
Are you willing to learn?
Have you got time?
Can you keep it up?
Strategy• Decide why you want to do it
• Stick to it
• Re-focus periodically
• Think long term
Distractions
Dangers
Benefits• Attract clients
• Attract attention
• Make contacts and friends
• It’s fun!
Pick your platform(s)
Twitter• Short form: 140 characters
• Micro blogging platform
• Follow and be followed
• Share links
Twitter do• Easy and simple to use
• Widely used
• Easy to be generous
• Feedback readily available
• Not too time consuming
Twitter don’t• There is a culture
• Hard to impress in 140 characters
• Hard to target pro and lay audience at same time
• Frequency difficult to judge
Facebook• Walled garden
• Can have a company page as well as a personal page
• Now has good mobile apps
Facebook like• Very widely used
• Company pages produce stats
• Powerful recommendation engine
• Key to success is ‘virality’
Facebook not like• Difficult to know how content is
consumed
• Company pages produce stats
• Powerful recommendation engine
• Not good for pro audience?
Linked In• Facebook for professionals
• Good for reaching professional audience
• Simple
• But a limited and restricted user base
Google+
TumblrHard to do well…
Tools
Platform management
Tweetdeck
Yahoo! Pipes
Stats and metrics• If serious, need to measure success - what
are you doing right or wrong?
• Integral stats like follower count, re-tweets
• Stats packages e.g. Wordpress built in, Google Analytics, Facebook
• For a blog look at unique visitors, views per visitor
Unnamed boutique immigration law firm:
Fake: 25%, inactive: 50%, good: 25%
Lessons learned
What is in a name?
UK Human Rights Blog 1 COR Blog
Nearly Legal Anthony Gold Blog
Free Movement Garden Court Blog
UK Supreme Court blog HJT Training Blog
Clear aims
• to help the editor and other contributors think through new developments and also
• to provide updates, pointers and links for the benefit of other immigration lawyers
• and for migrants researching their own position.
Authentic voice
• Not necessarily your normal one
• Humanises and engages
• Provides interest to readers
Medium• Language, grammar, sentence structure, post
length is all crucial
• Style matters
• Use of links and sources
• Internet is a visual medium
• Humour or at least humanity important
Building an audience• Write for your intended audience
• Write regularly - at least twice a week
• Comment on other people's blogs
• Be generous with your praise and links
• Improve your offering
Don't do it unless...
• You can write well and clearly
• You have time and will continue to have time
• Willingness to learn a bit about technical side
• You are a weirdo / nerd / geek / suffer OCD / all of above
What did my blog ever do for me?
• Original aims still being met
• Platform – ego and altruism
• Profile
• Cold, hard cash - some but not a lot!