Social Media for a Lawyer – It Doesn’t Have to Just Be #demure

One of the (many) demands on lawyers in private practice is building a book of business. There are several ways that one can do this. What is important is that whatever business development means you choose to use, you are authentic in doing so.

I am a huge proponent of leveraging social media to build your book. I was initially very skeptical about how useful social media could be in marketing my legal services to potential clients or referral sources. When the firm hired its first social media coordinator, I asked that we go for a coffee so that he could convert me. He succeeded.

I argued that posting on social media would not bring in a file. (I have since learned personally that this is not true – work can land on your desk via a post.) The social media coordinator explained to me that posting on social media was not about getting a file in the door. It was about building your brand and keeping you top of mind in the people who might need a lawyer. The more often they saw you when scrolling, the more likely they were to think of you when they or someone that they know needed legal services. This made sense to me, and I started to embrace social media in a professional context.

I started posting about things that would reinforce how I wanted people to perceive me. I wanted to be seen as knowledgeable in my area of law. So, I posted about the blogs that I wrote for the firm’s website, and about relevant cases. I wanted people to know that I was engaged in my local community – that I gave back to the community that supported me. Not long after, someone commented to me how involved I was in local causes! Our social media coordinator’s message was reinforced.

My social media mind shift over coffee occurred several years ago, and I have continued to be active on it. There are many platform options – choose the one(s) that you are most comfortable with. I used to use Twitter (now X) but chose to exit that one after its change in ownership. I used Facebook for a while, but that too has been dropped. I am now exclusively using LinkedIn and find it a useful tool for building my book of business.

You might be thinking that you do not have the time to be active on social media – you’re too busy drafting factum and reviewing endless documents for due diligence. To this I say, if you want to be a partner at a law firm, you’re going to have to make time for business development. Doing social media well does not take as much time as you think. I am a tea drinker. I steep my tea for 3 minutes before adding vanilla oat milk. I use the time it takes to boil water and steep my tea to scroll my LinkedIn feed, like or share some posts, or add one of my own. I make two cups of tea a day. That is all of 6 minutes a day that I spend on LinkedIn. Easily doable.

Important tip – you don’t have to always create your own content. You can share a post and add a comment. This counts.

Speaking of content, it doesn’t always have to be #demure. A fun and personal post occasionally will help your followers get to know you as a person. At the end of the day, business development is about building relationships.

See you on LinkedIn!

About the Author 

Alysia Christiaen is a corporate lawyer and Chief Privacy Officer at Lerners LLP, and is certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals as a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Canada. Her practice focuses on advising businesses and other organizations across Ontario on privacy issues, corporate governance, contracts and mergers & acquisitions. A focus of her practice is not-for-profit corporations. Alysia is proud to be serving as a board member for the London Health Sciences Foundation, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and as the Vice-Chair of the Parkinson’s Society Southwestern Ontario board of directors. She would describe herself as a fashionable foodie and is happy to offer recommendations for hidden gem restaurants.