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Social media savvy: Does your firm have what it takes?

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//October 23, 2013//

Social media savvy: Does your firm have what it takes?

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//October 23, 2013//

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social-media-icons_swish_Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have made it easier than ever for law firms to advertise and refine their brands, and even reach new clients.

But the many options have left firms large and small wrestling with which platforms to use and how to manage them.

“It’s an exciting challenge, but sometimes overwhelming,” said Jamie Miller, owner of Miller & Miller, a five-attorney bankruptcy firm with offices in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Germantown.

The firm is struggling with where to invest its time, said attorney and marketing director Ellen Fine.

“Should we be on Facebook?” she asked. “Should we be on Twitter? What should we do? We’re kind of muddling through.”

The first step, said Emily Muehl, public relations specialist with Godfrey & Kahn SC, is to refine the firm’s message.

“Knowing who you are in the marketplace and what reputation you want to have should go hand in hand with your social media and marketing efforts,” she said.

“Planning is key,” Muehl added. “Don’t be quick to execute. Really be strategic. Take the time to be thoughtful and mindful of what you want to do. Have a good sense of what you want to accomplish.”

For Godfrey & Kahn, she said, the firm decided it wanted to add to conversations about legal issues without alienating potential clients with constant updates. The firm now publishes a labor and employment law blog, All In A Day’s Work, on its website and uses Twitter and LinkedIn to alert users to new posts, changes in legislation and other timely topics.

Muehl encouraged firms to have similar purpose for each post, no matter the social media platform.

“Make sure your message is relevant,” she said. “We might not post every day if we don’t feel like we have something to share.”

Keith Stachowiak, a partner at Murphy & Prachthauser SC in Milwaukee, agreed and advised against posting content simply to spark Web hits.

“It used to be that people concentrated on keywords, like ‘auto accident,’” he said, “and you’d use those words to maximize search engine optimization. We started out that way, and I think it was a mistake. We’ve still got some pages that rely on that, and I’m reluctant to change them. “But my suggestion would be to look for things that people want to learn about, want to know about and correct myths that are out there.”

Weighing the options

If defining a message is the first step, deciding how to deliver it should be a close second, Muehl advised.

She and her marketing colleague at Godfrey & Kahn, Susan Steberl, rely on Twitter and LinkedIn partly because they allow for a more strategic way to target the firm’s audience.

“Our clients do not usually pick us out of a phone book. They pick us based on experience and referrals,” Steberl said. “That’s why LinkedIn is probably the best platform for our firm.”

Miller said he believes in casting a wider net.

“I’m generally an advocate of using whatever marketing resources that we can,” he said. “Our website is our main online platform, but we have a Twitter account. We have a Facebook account. We have a firm LinkedIn account. We’re on Google+ and we do a blog.”

The key to embracing a variety of social network comes down to accessibility, Miller said.

“Whether they find us on Twitter or Facebook or Google+ or pay-per-click,” he said, “I want to make sure they can find us.”

Outsourcing vs. in-house

At first, Miller said, he took an all-hands-on-deck approach to blogging, asking staff and the firm’s five attorneys to post bi-weekly or monthly.

“People did do it, but like everything else it kind of fell off,” he said. “It wasn’t a priority.”

The firm now contracts with online service provider FindLaw to supply two monthly blog posts, but has kept other social media efforts in-house, most recently using a summer intern to coordinate a social media campaign.

At Murphy & Prachthauser, which has six attorneys, Stachowiak is the sole blogger. Another employee handles Facebook and Twitter posts. In both cases, he said, personal interest and a reluctance to give up control drove those assignments.

“We want to be able to write our own articles and decide what’s important,” he said. “I don’t think any outside firm is going to be able to do that. I wouldn’t trust them to do that.”

Know the tipping point

Miller said he realized it was time to hire help when online content management began distracting him from other work.

Firm size can dictate the division of labor, said Steberl, who advised looking within the firm rather than farming out work, when possible.

“I find it very important that (an online content manager) has some skin in the game,” she said, “because ultimately what is a reflection for one is a reflection for all.”

Whether or not the person heading up social media manager should also be an attorney is another question — one that many firms, including Miller’s, have yet to answer.

Miller said he opted for an attorney after the marketing specialist he hired struggled with legal concepts. But, he and Fine admitted, many attorneys lack the background to be truly effective social media managers.

“The challenge is to find someone who is both,” Fine said. “And that’s a hard person to find.”

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