what the client should know about social media lawyer

To be competent, attorneys must be familiar enough with social media to advise their clients about its impact on their legal interests. In fact, that’s been a requirement for competence for at least a decade. Clients can, and will, eviscerate their own cases through a few careless Facebook or Twitter posts.

Full Answer

Should lawyers use social media?

Even still, social media for lawyers has many benefits, from helping you connect with potential clients to advertising your legal services. By following these best practices and creating a strategy to stick to, you can harness the power of social media for your firm. Should Lawyers Use Social Media? Want to Get In Front of Potential Clients?

How do I manage social media accounts for my law firm?

If you need help managing the social media accounts for your business, consider reaching out to an expert who can take a look at your firm and get started with building an effective social media presence. Get law firm marketing tips from experts Gyi Tsakalakis, Josh King, and Kevin O'Keefe in our free ebook.

What is the value of social media for law firms?

The value of social media for law firms is clear, but in order to get an adequate ROI, you need a plan. While your individual plan should be unique to you, your practice areas, and your audience, the following best practices can be used to get your social media on the right track.

What is the most popular social media platform for lawyers?

LinkedIn remains the most popular social media platform among lawyers in the US, according to the ABA’s 2018 Report—with more law firms using LinkedIn than every other platform, even Facebook. Why is LinkedIn the most popular form of social media for lawyers?

Why is social media important for lawyers?

Social media marketing can help lawyers build an online presence and generate leads that convert into paying clients. When using social media, it's important to remember your goals and create consistent content that is targeted towards the right audience.

What is a social media lawyer?

A social media lawyer is an attorney who has experience representing clients in internet-related cases. This practice area can overlap with other types of legal representation, such as intellectual property, business, criminal, and personal injury law.

Can lawyers talk about their cases on social media?

According to the ABA's rules on solicitation of clients, any communication discussing a lawyer's services through any media may be considered advertising—regardless of whether or not those communications were in a traditional advertising format or on a social media platform.

What conduct should lawyers and paralegals be wary of when blogging or posting to social network sites?

ABA Rule 1.6(a) states, “a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent.” This rule should be applied to all posts and blog entries that a lawyer may make on their social media accounts even if the information is public record.

What are the laws around social media?

Laws associated with social media litigation include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Communications Decency Act. Defamation and privacy lawsuits can be filed based on social media content. Social networking sites often have greater protection under the law than their users.

How social media Promote lawyers?

There are many benefits to promoting your law firm on social media....Research Your Target Client. ... Position Yourself as an Expert. ... Interact With Your Audience. ... Join Social Media Groups. ... Consider Paid Social Media Advertising. ... Record Your Social Media Process and Policies. ... Think About Social Media Tools.

Why is social media an ethical issue for lawyers?

Confidentiality Breaches Client confidentiality is a fundamental feature of the solicitor-client relationship and social media poses some unique perils, such as: Social posts celebrating successes where permission hasn't been granted by the client. Online profiles that provide project names or details.

What can lawyers talk about?

Under attorney-client privilege, lawyers are not allowed to divulge the details of anything their clients tell them in a court of law. In addition to that, The Duty of Confidentiality protects clients from having their lawyers casually discuss the private details of their case outside of court.

Can lawyers be influencers?

As Law.com's Charles Toutant reports, small but growing number of attorneys has begun offering services for social media influencers, cashing in on the fast growth in the number of big corporations paying to associate their products with a new kind of celebrity.

What are a lawyer's responsibilities in preventing the disclosure of confidential information by his or her employees?

(a) A lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation or the disclosure is permitted by paragraph (b).

How often should a law firm post on social media?

Facebook. Facebook prefers high-value, low-volume posts; in other words, high quality but not too often. Ideally, post three to seven times a week, keep posts short and captivating, and avoid promotional content.

What prevents the disclosure of confidential information as evidence?

Confidentiality agreements are another means to protect against disclosures of confidential information. Confidentiality agreements require the signer (such as an employee or vendor) not to disclose and to prevent any disclosure of confidential information.

What is the largest lawyer social media platform?

Facebook for Lawyers. Facebook is one of the largest lawyer social media platforms out there with 2.5 billion active users each month. Regardless of your niche, you can absolutely connect with your target client on Facebook.

Why is Facebook good for lawyers?

Due to the fact that the social media giant collects so much information, Facebook for lawyers is beneficial on a few different fronts from being able to share your own content to crafting laser-targeted ads.

Why do businesses use hashtags on Twitter?

Plus, Twitter hashtags make it easy for businesses to share their thoughts on relevant and trending topics, resulting in more exposure. Some businesses create their own Twitter hashtags, so they can keep up with updates from clients and colleagues that use the hashtag in their posts.

What are some tools to manage social media?

Tools exist to help you manage your social media accounts. For example, tools like Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to schedule and automate your social media posts ahead of time. You could easily block an hour each week to schedule posts eliminating the need to do so each day.

How to avoid burnout on social media?

Try to build a presence on every social media platform. You don’t need a presence on every platform. This is a surefire way to experience burnout. Choose the platforms your ideal clients use. As a beginner, it’s okay to start with one channel and build up over time.

Why do people use social media?

Interaction is one of the main reasons why people use social media. It isn’t enough to have a social media account for your firm—you must be actively interacting with your audience. Answer their questions, thank them for their client reviews, like their posts, and share their successes (within client-attorney privilege, of course).

How much time do people spend on social media?

Around 3.8 billion people currently use social media. These people spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes on social every single day. Plus, around 54% of consumers use social media to perform research prior to making a purchase.

Why a social media marketing intensive strategy is usually a bad investment for law firms

For most practice areas and jurisdictions, social media is not a big needle-mover in terms of generating new business for law firms. This is because, for a potential client to convert into revenue for a law firm, the client must have the following:

Why social media will soon become the thing that marketing agencies push on attorneys

As I write this, Facebook is thriving as a company. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and with another 2.4 million unemployed this week alone, Facebook is flirting with a $700 billion market cap.

Why is social media important for lawyers?

Social media is here to stay, for all of its benefits and downsides, which is why it’s crucial that lawyers learn how to navigate it without violating rules of conduct and ethics. From Twitter to Facebook, by following the above tips, a lawyer should be able to avoid any possible disciplinary action and infractions. These rules and guidelines are constantly evolving to keep up with technological advancements so the best thing for a law firm to do is to stay up-to-date on their state’s mandates and form office policies accordingly.

Why should lawyers be careful about who they accept as friends?

Keeping in mind those two rules, lawyers should be careful about who they accept as “friends” or contact on their social media accounts in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Lawyers have unintentionally presented a conflict of interest with their clients strictly based on social media contacts. The same line of logic applies in relation to judges and avoiding the appearance of favoritism or bias.

How to avoid ethical issues for lawyers?

If there is one tip to help avoid the biggest ethical issues for lawyers that may arise on social media, it would be to keep your personal profile private. In addition to avoiding sharing content that could be viewed as legal advice . By limiting the number of people that can find a lawyer’s profile, let alone view the content that may be shared, it lowers the risk of unintentionally violating the ABA’s rules and recommendations for ethical conduct on social media.

What does "soliciting clients" mean?

It’s important to keep in mind that this rule applies anytime a lawyer is soliciting clients which means any communication that discusses a lawyer’s services. While the line between a post and an advertisement can be hard to define, it’s best to be safe and make all appropriate disclosures to avoid potential violations.

Can a lawyer use social media?

When posting on social media, a lawyer must be careful to not use language that could form an attorney-client relationship or unintentionally provide legal advice. The best way to avoid this is by expressively using verbiage that states where the lawyer is licensed and that their content isn’t intended to form an attorney-client relationship.

Can a lawyer ask a staff member to do social media?

While discussing non-lawyer staff, it’s important to keep in mind that a lawyer cannot ask another person to do anything on social media that they aren’t allowed to do themselves based on ABA rules and guidelines. This means a lawyer may not ask their staff member to view restricted content or virtually approach a juror when performing research.

Can a lawyer be held responsible for a post?

In addition to applying the ABA’s rules and recommendations to the social media posts of lawyers, the accounts of any non-lawyer person employed or retained by the firm must also be monitored since the lawyer may be held responsible for the content they share. If a non-lawyer makes a post that is considered to be unethical, the lawyer can be held responsible for their actions so immediate action should be taken to remove the content. In addition, policies should be put into place to avoid such violations in the future.

Can you disclose the fact that you are representing a client?

The fact that you represent the client is a matter “relating to the representation” and covered by RPC 1.6. Unless the client okays it , you can’t disclose the fact you are representing him/her/it.

Is it ethical to ask happy clients to leave reviews?

It’s ethical for you to ask your happy clients to leave reviews, and to perhaps not mention the idea to others. But coaching the individual on the content could be seen as directing a misleading communication about your service. See RPC 7.1. At the close of the presentation, I mentioned “net promoter score.” The idea is to identify which of your clients are likely to recommend you to a friend or family members. There are fun tools – I use Get Five Stars – that allow you to ask your clients to rate your performance privately. If the client gives you a good rating, then they’re asked to write a public review. So you’re using the tool to screen and collect good reviews from your biggest fans.

Be aware of ABA rules in your state

Some state bars are considering social media profiles to be attorney advertising—and as such, subject to all the restrictions and professional obligations that come with that.

Be countercultural

An attorney on social media often has to counter the mindset that exists on these platforms. The general marketing approach to social networks is to feed your followers more and more content, with regular commentary on any relevant topic that comes up.

Remember the basics

The following are simple points, but as any lawyer will tell you big mistakes get made when you overlook the obvious:

Hey Nancy, What About Firm Accounts?

On your firm’s Twitter account, I would have the same answer. If one’s service provider chooses to follow him/her from its business account, that is not a bad thing, and even shows interest and an additional form of connection.

Bottom Line

Yes, I think it is perfectly fine, and even desirable, to follow clients and potential clients on social media.