From Student to Solicitor

According to Lawyer2B in an article published last week, accountants are outperforming solicitors on social media in terms of influence, outreach, brand presence, content and frequency of postings.  You can read the whole article here.

What interests me is why law firms are failing to match their accountancy peers in terms of social media presence.  Every firm knows about social media (or have at least heard of it).  Many have some sort of social media presence but very few have implemented a successful social media strategy that maximises the potential benefits.

For a long time, professional service firms have mostly thought of social media as a secondary channel for marketing. In a number of firms, I’ve seen marketing departments ‘palming off’ the social media cause to junior and even temporary staff. Which tells me there’s still a feeling that social media isn’t considered important enough to warrant a proportional amount of time, money, or – importantly – expertise.  

From my research, it seems that a lot of firms are forgetting the “social” element of social media.  Here are my thoughts on why lawyers are failing at social media and what can be done to fix it!

1. Making excuses:  Saying “oh I tried it for a couple of weeks but we didn’t get any clients from it”.  You can’t be that naive.  Social media is not purely there to gain new clients.  It is there to drive traffic to your website, build up your brand and engagement with your audience and create connections with other referrers and business connections.  It is also a great tool for carrying out market research and keeping your finger on the pulse.  Bottom line is, if you aren’t on social media, you are going to be left behind!
2. Not showing enough personality:  The majority of accounts set up by law firms that I have seen have their firm’s logo as their avatar, a generic piece of information about their firm on their profile page and only send updates about legislation, new cases or information about their firm.  Show a bit of your personality!  Get solicitors to take it in turns by tweeting on different days and introducing themselves (e.g. “Hi it’s David here, the firm’s family lawyer.  What’s everyone up to this weekend?” or “Lisa from Private Client has just completed the London Marathon in record time!”).  For me, I believe keeping it personal is best and that means using your own face as your avatar and using your name.  Also this is SOCIAL media, and sharing a bit of your personality will make it easier for people to follow you and engage with you since they feel like they know who they are talking to after seeing your face and name.  People trust people and showing your personality is the quickest way to get followers to trust you.
3. Not interacting with followers: Statuses/tweets that finish with a question are 15% more likely to get a response than those without.  So try to finish at least some of your tweets/statuses off with a question that just begs to be answered.  Show an interest in your followers and respond to their tweets – I guarantee it will pay off!
4. Not following relevant people:  I know how people long to have a huge following, but you have to resist the urge to follow anyone and everyone -  you need to focus on following/connecting with targeted people in your niche.  If you’re an employment lawyer then follow or find users working or writing about employment law.  It makes no sense for you to follow people that aren’t even interested in the law.. right?
5. Inconsistency:  The best way to get results from your efforts on social media is to be there and be active. I recommend a status update at least every day, but preferably every couple of hours during the day.  Ideally, send a few messages in morning then a few in afternoon and then a few at night. That way you get in front of the most people throughout the day.  You don’t want to be a spammer, but you need to show activity and people will connect with you faster if they see your active daily.
6. Being boring!  Not many social media users want to know about the latest piece of legislation or history of your firm.  Too many law firms just fill their social media feed with posts like this.  Try instead thinking about what effect that particular piece of legislation will have on your readers.  E.g.  “Fathers now gain improved rights to contact with their children following new Act”.  Users do not even need to know the name of the Act, just what it means for them.
7. Not being helpful:  Do you want to know the best way to build a community on Twitter and drive traffic to your website?  Be helpful. Fix Problems.  Helping people with a problem they have will get you a follower for life.  When you help people, you automatically make yourself the “expert” in that area (or at least the expert to them).  How about hosting an “ask a solicitor” question time once a week where you encourage followers to tweet or post their legal questions.  You can answer the questions in a follow-up blog if longer answers are required.
8. Scheduling tweets/posts without following up:  Imagine this from your followers’ point of view.  They read an interesting tweet sent by your firm (that has been pre-scheduled) and respond with a comment or by asking a question.   You fail to go back to twitter to follow-up and don’t see their comment/question (and therefore don’t respond).  You have a follower who feels ignored, or worse, has an unanswered question.  You have missed an opportunity to interact and damage your brand.
9. Firms are too scared of the risks: Social media can open a firm up to possible risks including PR and HR issues. While these risks are very real, it’s essential not to let them inhibit progress. The key is to develop a sound social media policy that identifies the risks and mitigates them.  (Confused about social media policies?  Check out Canopy Law’s useful article here.)

Social media is here to stay. To get the right social media strategy in place, each firm should identify which platforms suit their sector and then listen into the relevant conversations that are happening across those platforms. This will generate insight that can be used as a starting point for engagement strategies.

My advice to firms is that social media isn’t a quick fix – it’s a long term process requiring a well thought-out strategy. It takes persistence, time, confidence, tweaking and a positive attitude. It’s about having realistic expectations. You are not going to get results overnight. As long as you get into it with the expectation that it will take some time to develop strong relationships, you’ll be fine. And if you’re going to do social media, do it well, and do it with a can-do attitude.

If you have any questions about social media for solicitors, or you need help in getting started or keeping your profiles up to date, please do get in touch!

A new survey released by Jobvite, a company that provides applicant tracking software, shows that 92% of employers are using or planning to use social networks for recruiting this year.  This survey was taken by over 1,000 companies (source).  Whilst I think this figure would not be as high for legal recruiters (as I’m not sure that all solicitors quite understand the importance of social media), it is clear that social media is becoming more and more important in the search for that elusive training contract.

Here are my top ten tips on how to use social media to complement your training contract search:

1.  Make your profile “employer-friendly”.  

Check your profiles on all social media site and make sure that you are happy with the content.  If there is something there that you would not want an employer to see, delete it!  If you really don’t want to remove the content, you can make your profile private to prevent future employers from seeing it.  The downside of this is that you can’t use social media to promote yourself and it makes it clear to potential employers that you have something to hide.

Whilst on the subject, double-check the photos that you are tagged in or have shared on your social media profiles.  Remove any that show you in a bad light (such as drunken party photos).

2.  Your profile picture.

Choose a professional photo, preferably of you in a smart outfit or suit.  Ideally, it will be a headshot where you are smiling and standing in front of a plain background.

3.  Show your expertise.

Use your social media to show your knowledge of the law and the area that you want to specialise in.  There are a few ways of doing this:

(a)  Via blog posts;

(b)  Answering questions as an expert on LinkedIn;

(c)  In groups and conversations; and

(d) Using YouTube videos

4.  Interact with relevant people.

In every social media site, there are ways of finding and interacting with relevant people, such as law firms, qualified solicitors/barristers, lecturers and legal bloggers.  In twitter, I would add these people to a list so that you can find them quickly and easily when you want to read their updates and join conversations.  Join conversations, share information that interests you and don’t be afraid to ask questions!  It shows your passion for the law.  Networking is key to a successful law career.

5.  Research.

You can use social media to help you research law firms in readiness for applications and interviews.  On LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, you are able to follow/like solicitors and read their updates, giving you the most up-to-date information about the firm.

6.  Display your CV.

You can use LinkedIn to display your CV to potential employers.  I would include a link to your LinkedIn CV on your other profiles to help draw traffic to it.  You could also get creative and produce a video CV on YouTube and/or an infographic of your CV and experience.  This will help you to stand out from the crowd.

7.  Join Groups.

On LinkedIn and Facebook, you can find relevant groups for solicitors.  This will help you to get involved in discussions, show your expertise and raise your profile.

8.  Show your personality.

Law firms like to know that potential trainees have a life outside of the office.  This has a two-fold impact: (a) it helps you to retain a good work-life balance so that you don’t get stressed, and (b) it helps you to interact with clients.  Show off your hobbies (with the exception of anything offensive, or heavy partying!).  In particular, highlight any team-working activities and charity work.

9.  Job Searches.

On LinkedIn, there is a designated job search facility that you can follow and keep an eye on for relevant positions.  In twitter, you can follow certain hashtags to keep an eye out for opportunities.  Most social media sites have their own version of this that you can use.

10.  Bring it all together!

Make sure that all of your profiles are consistent to help you establish your brand.  You should think of yourself like a salesperson and you are the product!  Does your message stay the same throughout all of the sites?  Include links to all of your profiles on your email signature.  I see emails from job seekers almost daily and I can tell you that most don’t do this!  I would also include links to your profiles on your website and business cards.

One final note

I am not sure that law firms quite understand the importance of social media yet, although it has improved over the past few years.  As such, I would not rely solely on social media to find a training contract.  Use it to supplement your applications and to help raise your profile in the right circles.

What other tips do you have for using social media to help with your training contract search?  Please share in the comments section below!

LinkedIn is often a completely underestimated tool for job searching.  I cannot emphasis enough the importance of using it and using it well!  Here are some tips to help you get the most out of the site:

1.  Ensure that your profile is complete and up-to-date.

If it is fully completed, your profile can act as a CV which can potentially be searched by thousands of employers.  That is why it is so important to make sure that you fully complete all of the sections and put as much detail about your experience in as possible.

This profile is a chance to showcase your skills and talents and assist the right people and job opportunities to find their way to you.  It can also act as your professional profile for the whole of the web, as you can set it to be discoverable through searches in leading search engines and LinkedIn.

Make sure that the information that you fill in is up-to-date with all of your work experience and a summary that includes your experience, interests and what you are looking for.  LinkedIn believes that users with complete profiles are up to 40 times more likely to have opportunities presented to them through LinkedIn.  Isn’t that worth a bit of time and effort?

2.  Look at your connections.

Search your old work colleagues, friends, family members, previous employers, people that you have done business with, clients and people that you know and trust, and then look to add them as connections on the site.  If you have a good network of contacts, you can utilise them for recommendations and ask for introductions to people that they know who may be of use to you in your job search.

You can do this in a few ways: you can import your outlook address book, you can access your hotmail/yahoo contacts, you can search by place of work/school or you can even just search people by name or company.  Once you have got a few contacts, you will also be able to access LinkedIn’s recommendations for “people that you may know”.  Whilst this is not always accurate, it does occasionally come up with gems for me by recommending people that I have worked with/for previously that I would never have thought of by myself!

You can also invite users who are not on LinkedIn by sending them an email request to join.

3.  Get recommendations!

Once you have created this fantastic network of contacts, start email them to ask for recommendations to put on your profile.  This can be particularly useful for old colleagues, employers or clients.  Having recommendations of your work by the people that you have worked for and on behalf of can really make your profile look even more attractive to potential employers if/when they stumble across your page.

4. Search on LinkedIn Jobs

This is a part of the website that has thousands of job listings for each category.  You can search by keywords, title, company and even location.  You will find that the roles for trainee solicitor or even NQ solicitor are very limited but it is worth checking this on a weekly basis as they do pop up every now and then!

This search will be boosted by making the most of your profile and really making yourself stand out.  Getting recommendations from past employers/clients and having a strong network really helps to build your professional credibility which will in turn help you to get hired.

5. Join Groups

There are thousands of groups on LinkedIn, which cover a wide variety of topics.  Join as many of these as you can (only ones of interest of course), such as groups dedicated to young lawyers, or lawyers in your field of expertise, or law recruitment.  If you have a specialist field, such as commercial law, you may find local groups in your area dedicated to local commerce or businesses in the area.

Once you have joined these groups, join in as many discussions as you can.  Be an active participator of these groups!  By doing so, you will show people that you are an expert in your field, an active user of LinkedIn and that you are taking time out to share your opinions with them.  This will, in turn, drive more people to your profile and raise awareness of your talents online.

6.  Contact Key Individuals

If you have an “inside connection” in a firm or company that you want to work for, use them!  Send them an email and ask who would be the best person to speak to at their company, ask them for more information about what it’s like to work there and whether they think there might be any opportunities in the future.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

You can also search to find a user by companies.  It is possible to directly contact other users through inmails, or request an introduction through one of your existing contacts if you have a common connection.

Another great way to use LinkedIn is to research your recruiters or interviewers. You can learn more about their background to have an edge over the other candidates.

7.  Demonstrate Your Expertise on LinkedIn Answers

This is a great place for LinkedIn users to share business knowledge.  Here, you can ask and answer questions on a specific subject matter.

By searching for questions on your specialism and answering them, you can demonstrate your expertise and earn recognition which will help to build your credibility and drive more traffic to your profile.  The more questions that you answer and points of expertise you are awarded, the higher up your profile will appear in the list of experts.

8.  Use the JobsInsider toolbar

Once you have installed this, the toolbar searches on your web browser, so that if you are looking at a job listing on another website, you will automatically be able to see whether you have any connections at that company!  You can then contact these people to see if they can help you through informal interviews or by directly introducing you to the right people!

As you can see, LinkedIn does have many beneficial elements which can be exploited to help you with your job search.  Do any of you have experiences of LinkedIn or questions that you would like to share?  If so, please comment below.