Facebook Is Ubiquitous -- Perfect For Lawyer Publishing And Networking
Like it or not, lawyers need to recognize Facebook has become America’s social network. The evidence is overwhelming.
America’s use of Facebook continues to grow — big time.
The numbers from a just released comScore study are shocking.
Forget about the use of Facebook trailing off among millennials. Nearly 100% of those age 18-34 use Facebook. And they are using Facebook almost 1,200 minutes per month or over 30 minutes a day.
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No other social network comes close. Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn follow next in penetration. But none of them even reaches the 70% threshold in users and the average monthly minutes per user on these sites isn’t even close to the time people spend on Facebook.
When you get to the 35 and over age group, the results are not much different.
About 92% use Facebook. The average monthly minutes for these visitors is approximately 900. Again, about 30 minutes a day.
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Less than 50% of those over 35 use LinkedIn or Twitter. The time spent on these social networks barely gets off the bottom line.
In addition to personal and professional exchanges, Facebook has become a leading source of news and information for many Americans. It’s why advertisers are shifting monies from digital sites, including those of major news publications, to Facebook.
Knowing all of this, you’d think Facebook would be an obvious place for lawyers to share information, insight, and information. However, most lawyers look at Facebook as unprofessional, beneath where good lawyers should spend anytime.
Many are afraid to use Facebook, scared off by unknowing ethics and liability experts who have never used Facebook themselves. Other lawyers see Facebook as appropriate for sharing personal items, but not for professional engagement.
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Differentiating between personal and professional personas on Facebook makes little sense. People are who they are. And who they are, what they like, and what they think is what develops trust and friendships.
Lawyers are all over publishing online today. Facebook is a perfect place for publishing one’s blog content, or at least excerpts of it. Posting to a personal Facebook page, versus a company page for a law firm, grows a lawyer’s influence and greatly increases readership.
Facebook is more of an engagement engine than a distribution engine. The more one shares insight and information, the more people with relevant interests see the lawyer’s posts, the more engagement in likes and comments, and the greater the influence of the lawyer. People without relevant interests, such as a lawyer’s personal friends on Facebook, don’t see the professional contributions.
Rather than set one’s goals as subscribers, views, and clicks, lawyers ought to look to publishing as means of engaging people. Engagement and ensuing exchanges that lead to getting to know each other, and ultimately business.
Facebook being a good fit for business development and networking should come as no surprise to good lawyers. Business development is all about nurturing relationships with people and building a strong word of mouth reputation.
Relationships leading to business can be nurtured by serving on on civic boards, by coaching little league, by attending chamber of commerce meetings, or by going to neighborhood socials. Facebook is not any different, as it has become the town square for news, discussion, and exchange on both personal and professional matters.
Facebook has become America’s social networking place of record, a perfect place to build relationships and reputations.
Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder of LexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. Visit LexBlog.com.
LexBlog also hosts LXBN, the world’s largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe. Visit lxbn.com now.
