Pick Your Platform: Social Media For Attorneys Part 1
In the past, networking has looked like meet and greets, business card exchanges and dinner meetings.
You may be asking yourself, can networking be done virtually?
Absolutely! In the past 24 months, we’ve seen virtual networking take on a whole new life.
There is so much professional networking happening online.
Whether you are networking in person or not - online networking is a must! But it can also feel like a huge time suck if you don’t try to network online intentionally. We have three tips to help you maximize your networking success online.
First and foremost, pick your platform. What works best for your personality and your profession. You don’t need to be on every platform all of the time. And quite frankly, you shouldn’t be. Each platform has its own algorithm, which can change frequently. You are better off choosing the platform(s) that can best fit your personality and your practice area. We are going to focus on the platforms that we know the best and the platforms that we see more and more legal professionals using: LinkedIn, Instagram and Clubhouse.
We all know about LinkedIn and it is an absolute must.
LinkedIn is THE professional networking site. It can be a great place to connect with other professionals around the country. But those contacts can accumulate just like business cards in your drawer. The key to making LinkedIn a useful part of your networking plan, is to engage with your contacts.
This can come in a variety of ways.
It can look like posting valuable content, commenting on others posts, reconnecting with colleagues and asking them about their new positions. It can also look like joining or forming groups around your professional interests or organizational ties such as alumni groups, legal practice areas, regional professional groups and so much more.
Instagram
Instagram used to be just for sharing personal photos, but this platform is exploding with opportunities for legal professionals to network. Firms, individual attorneys, recruiters, and law students are producing valuable content and engaging with their audiences.
One of the aspects of Instagram that you might not be aware of are reels. Reels are short videos and are all over on instagram.
Why should you as a legal professional care about this new trend?
For certain practice areas reels are exploding attorneys’ accounts and creating exposure in a way that cannot be ignored. So many practitioners are networking and marketing their law firms using these short videos to teach potential clients and to engage with referral sources.
Some specific practice areas that we have seen benefit from this include family law, estate planning, bankruptcy, and real estate.
Clubhouse
Clubhouse is a newer social media platform that is really gaining traction in the legal community.
If you are not familiar, Clubhouse is a live audio-based social networking platform. Basically, as a user you can host a room or attend a room hosted by another user on a specific topic. The best way to summarize it is that it is like an interactive podcast. Like other social media, you can follow other users or other clubs to be alerted when a room is scheduled.
Here’s what makes Clubhouse so unique, there are no recordings. It’s all live. And because it’s live, you as an attendee have the opportunity to speak or ask questions. The host of the room determines how interactive they want their room to be.
For practicing attorneys, Clubhouse is an opportunity to expand your practice, give and find support in the legal profession, and expand your skills and knowledge. To expand your practice, you could host a room in your practice area to network with attorneys and other professionals who might refer work to you. This is a great opportunity to connect with attorneys from around the country from the comfort of your own office. No video - so no physical preparation required.
You could join rooms of similarly situated attorneys to give and receive support whatever your stage in the legal profession - whether you are a new attorney, or a senior partner. There are clubs for different practice areas, women attorneys, partners, new attorneys, first generation attorneys and so on. Check out our blog post: Join Us in Clubhouse, and podcast episode, for more on our experiences with Clubhouse.
One of the best parts of networking via social media is that you have so much control over your schedule. You can network without having to ever leave your office. And you can make connections with people across the globe.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Please keep in mind that your jurisdiction will have rules of professional conduct that you must follow. This discussion does not focus on the any such rules, including the rules from the jurisdiction where we practice. Rather this is a discussion of tips we have found helpful in our own experiences. This should not be taken as legal advice.
We make absolutely no guarantee, expressed or implied, that by following the advice you will make any money or improve current profit, as there are several factors and variables that come into play regarding any given business or career. Primarily, results will depend on the business model, the conditions of the marketplace, the experience of the individual, and situations and elements that are beyond your control. As with any business endeavor, you assume all risk related to investment and money based on your own discretion and at your own potential expense.
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