Facebook continues to grow and is on the verge of 2 billion users – and most lawyers could care less, according to an article by Kevin O’Keefe.
- Why It’s Important for Lawyers to Be on Facebook for Business Development
Many lawyers believe that name recognition and getting attention is the name of the game for business development success. That’s a great way to start, but these days active listening and engaging in conversation with your target audience is what will truly win business. As Facebook represents a powerful avenue to connect with your audience and get them engaged with you and your firm in a personalized way, lawyers are doing themselves a disservice if they’re not using this platform. - Does Your Firm Support Your Use of Facebook for Business Development?
O’Keefe points out that most law firms establish a marketing culture where Facebook is viewed as “below their lawyers” for business development efforts. They espouse that if Facebook is to be used at all, it should only be for personal purposes and as such, some firms won’t even allow their lawyers to log into Facebook on company computers.If that’s the attitude at your firm, you need to make the case that people use social networks to communicate and interact with each other, and that Facebook is the Internet’s entry point for that communication for the vast majority of people. That fact that Facebook is approaching 2 billion users really speaks for itself and presents a huge opportunity to connect with your target audience. - Stop Holding Onto the Past
Lawyers have become accustomed to email and cellphones as a means of business development communication. Today, Facebook is arguably just as indispensable. With so many people using the platform, Facebook essentially represents a town hall discussion, with the people involved and the topics discussed framed by who you engage and what you share.
So as O’Keefe so aptly points out, “It’s time for lawyers to do themselves and the public they serve some good by actively using Facebook.”
