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Are Aussie firms using social media effectively?
Lawyers Weekly spoke with a senior digital growth strategist of a digital marketing agency, along with several firm partners, to understand whether law firms across the country are utilising social media in the best ways possible.
Jess Feyder
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Mik Magyar, senior digital growth strategist at Edge, spoke to Lawyers Weekly on the topic.
Social media apps are being used as a tool to celebrate fee-earner successes and intelligence (e.g. good client reviews, articles, awards).
“The style of law firm social media is often more ‘news announcement’ instead of ‘community engagement’, which skims over the truth of workplace culture and connection,” Mr Magyar commented.
“We are yet to see a firm really embrace it and use it for culture purposes.”
Mr Magyar explained why firms are slow in the uptake of social media.
“We find it hard to connect social media to business goals in the mind of a lot of senior partners. Objectives are usually around increasing billables,” he explained.
“With social media, it would be typically seen as a cost instead of an investment, and it’s hard to show the link between investment in organic social media and business success.”
Mr Magyar continued: “With a primarily tech-savvy Millennial audience, social media is an essential indicator of the trust that weighs in on buying behaviour and decision making.
“Firms that don’t recognise that can suffer when they make that final short list of potential places to enquire.”
“Despite this, it doesn’t have a tangible price tag attached, which means people aren’t ready to ‘pay the cost’ when it comes to the time needed for it to work,” Mr Magyar told Lawyers Weekly.
Joel Cox, partner and technology sector lead at DLA Piper, commented: “Law firms need to use social media platforms strategically.”
“We need social platforms [that] reach our next generation of graduates, who gather information in radically different ways compared to only five years ago.”
“We also represent clients who are on the forefront of technology,” he said.
“We need to understand their ecosystem and the ways their staff communicate, so access to their platforms is a necessity.
“Having visibility of disruptive technology, while protecting our systems, is a balancing act.”
Chief operating officer at Dentons, Maureen Migliazzo, told Lawyers Weekly that she believes all forms of social media offer opportunities for the legal industry, particularly for lawyers to reach potential new clients, engage with their target audience in new and creative ways, and showcase their legal expertise.
“As an industry, there is a lot more we can do to engage with interesting forms of social media, and we shouldn’t shy away from the benefits these can bring,” she said.
“With all apps, however, there are risks associated with data collection and information sharing.”
“Like with any form of media and communications, caution and safeguards need to be in place to ensure that lawyers, law firms and their clients are not compromised,” she said.
“Should firms be using social media apps?” Lawyers Weekly asked Mr Magyar.
“Law firms don’t need to be tech innovators to succeed online,” he responded.
“The purpose of social media platforms for law firms is to build trust in the market — they don’t need to make corny TikTok videos or Pinterest collages to do that.”
“LinkedIn and the Meta suite are sufficient enough for firms. Twitter is not something that is used widely in the legal sector.”
Mr Magyar continued: “Social media has a specific purpose with law firms, which isn’t to actively generate more business but to support all your other marketing efforts.”
“Progressive firms will realise that it is a part of the bigger picture when looking at a multi-channel approach and will play a big part in increasing the firm’s brand.”
