5 Reasons to Prioritize Social Media Early in Your Legal Career

Guest Post by Laura Hardgrave When it comes to investing time, resources, and energy into your legal career, you may not think of social media as an essential aspect of being an attorney, but there are two facts you need to consider. Firstly, social media is extremely simple to keep up with – especially considering its benefits in regards to client and networking outreach potential. Secondly, social media isn’t disappearing anytime soon. In fact, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other similar platforms will just become more important as our world continues to become more technologically advanced.

The popularity of social media is simply part of society’s natural evolution. As our tech advances, so do our expectations. It’s far quicker to make a LinkedIn update than it is to reach out on a contacts list and make a dozen phone calls. When technology helps make our jobs (and lives!) easier, it no longer becomes a mere option. It becomes a necessity – one that any professional can receive massive benefits from.

It’s never too late to get started with social media networking, but if you’re lucky enough to just be getting started with your legal career, now’s the perfect time to start prioritizing it. In regards to social networking, sooner is always better than later. Why, exactly? There are quite a few ways to answer that question. Here’s a list of 5 reasons to start prioritizing social media early in your legal career:

1. Your brand stays with you even as you change practices

Just like any product or company, legal professionals have a story to tell and an image to showcase. This is often referred to as a “brand” in the marketing world. No matter where you practice, your professional brand will continue to remain the same. The images, profiles, messages, and links/posts you share all travel with you as you change practices and/or choose to go into private or public sectors.

This gives you a great opportunity to make your presence known as early as possible over social media. Talk about what you do, what you believe in, and the good things you do in your career. All of this can travel wherever you end up, continuing to bring you new followers, contacts, fans, and possible new clients.

2. An established networking potential looks great

Later in your career, when you’re ready to join prestigious law organizations and climb your practice’s ranks, it will look fantastic if you already have an established network of social media contacts, followers, and past clients who you still keep in touch with. Trust is vital to the legal profession, and an established list of past clients and fans highlights the fact that you’ve spent a long time building trust within the legal community.

3. Being tech savvy is vital

People often say that the legal industry is slow to adapt to new forms of technology. This stereotype isn’t true for everyone, of course, but by fully embracing technology early in your career, you help destroy that negative stereotype. You also learn how to quickly navigate the online world, interact with potential clients, and pay attention to what goes on around you in a rapidly paced, mobile environment that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This helps you better prepare for what cool technology comes next.

4. An early start gives you time to learn what works and what doesn’t

Social media is sometimes an act of “trying to figure out what works.” Different professionals have different approaches when it comes to maximizing their time spent on social media networks, and those strategies won’t work for everyone. You need time to figure out how you best interact with people, how you gain new followers that actually stick with you, and what platforms/apps work best. Give yourself that time by starting early.

5. Social media growth happens naturally over time

One of the best things about social media is the fact that the platforms are there for us when we have time for them, but still remain active when we don’t. You can pop on for a minute after work, share an article, and that’s it. Keeping up with social media isn’t something that takes a lot of time, but growth occurs gradually as long as you interact with your community at least fairly regularly.

By starting your social media adventure early in your career, you can build up a list of followers, friends, contacts, and clients by interacting and sharing when you have time. There’s no pressure to organize lengthy lunch meetings and phone calls to keep tabs on your followers. Social media is a fantastic socialization platform for busy entrepreneurs and professionals due to that reason alone. The earlier you start, the sooner you can build your network. Now, get out there and start socializing!

Bio: Laura Hardgrave is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Legal InSites, a digital marketing agency specializing in law firms and lawyers. Legal InSites helps legal professionals gain new clients by providing expert search engine optimization (SEO), website design, content writing, and social media management services. You can visit their blog for great SEO, social media, and writing tips as well as industry news.