How social media can help you establish your personal brand

In the 21st century, social media platforms have quickly become an essential method for people to communicate with others, in both personal and professional capacities. Social media is an opportunity for lawyers and law firms to quickly and easily communicate their personal brand to the market in a way that is often visually appealing and informative, and reaches a broader audience than the traditional ‘relationship marketing’ method of relying on word-of-mouth referrals from clients, colleagues or employers to market and communicate one’s personal brand. However, your content needs to be tailored to the particular social media platform on which it is published, and the audience you are likely to find one that platform.

With the range of social media platforms available today, it’s hard to know which are the most appropriate for lawyers and firms to use, but the most popular for legal professionals are:

• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the staple social media for white-collar professionals, and is best suited to expanding your professional network and contacts. Most users share their work-related updates, milestones and achievements to give insight into their careers. There are a number of ‘LinkedIn influencers’ who seek to exploit the platform’s reach of 610 million users by posting and sharing non-professional content too.
• Instagram – While perhaps not adopted as widely by professionals as LinkedIn, Instagram is popular with younger users and focuses on images and videos.  Instagram is a good option for those lawyers or firms looking to innovate how they present and deliver information through more creative avenues.
• Facebook – With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is currently the most popular social media platform and is used widely across the world in both personal and professional capacities. The option of being able to create a profile and/or a page means that users can specifically target the Facebook algorithm to display their personal brand and information in a way that aligns with their goals.

Award-winning author, speaker, business coach and family law specialist Clarissa Rayward, also known as the Happy Family Lawyer, has cited having a strong, consistent and authentic social media strategy as one of her keys to success in developing and communicating her personal brand. She says lawyers and law firms should consider the brand message they want to convey to the market before rushing into producing content on social media. You can hear more tips from the Happy Lawyer, Clarissa Rayward, about how to create an authentic personal brand by listening to Episode 40 of Hearsay.