The legal profession may seem like an interconnected network that is solely carried by internal referrals, but in reality, the sector is changing. Innovative networks of social media are proving useful in opening up the industry– allowing you to make use of them to further your career.
But how can you utilise this effectively? In partnership with Lawyer Monthly, Simply Law Jobs hears below from Rhiannon Cambrook-Woods, Founder of Zest Recruitment and Consultancy.
Make yourself known for providing intelligent content
Thought leadership is a term coined by many senior members of business – however it is not exclusive to the upper hierarchies. The ability to share blogs on WordPress sites and LinkedIn can be crucial to attract engagement. As you are the author, creative freedom belongs to you. You may find blogging and commenting on industry trends is not only good for getting your name out there, but it’s fun and keeps you commercially aware.
Interaction
Whilst the legal sector may have been criticised in the past for its nepotistic tendencies, social media has truly opened up the network. Traditionally, access to some of the key players in law would have involved a lot of events and plucking up the courage to introduce yourself. LinkedIn now offers you the benefit of a soft introduction. You can connect with inspirational figures, interact with their thought leadership posts and even drum up a conversation with a private InMail. Lawyers are busy people, and this is a perfect and efficient way to make contact.
Attracting new clients
With half a billion users and still climbing, LinkedIn has succeeded in becoming the world’s largest professional network. Today, the social media site plays a critical role in the modern business landscape; it is the digital business card that we use to identify key contacts.
The ability to attract new clients is right in front of you. Just provoking awareness of who you are, what you do and how you do it is placing you on the radar.
Social media can make you more approachable
There is a common misconception that Magic Circle and more senior lawyers are unapproachable – but lawyers are people too. You will find that many legal professionals make use of Twitter in order to share their thoughts, ultimately to be seen as more approachable.
Take for example the high-profile case of Steven Avery that has been depicted in the popular documentary Making a Murderer. Without spoiling the plot for you, following an exhaustive and seemingly impossible case Steven was assigned a new lawyer, Kathleen Zellner. Zellner uses Twitter as a platform of choice to provide updates and messages surrounding the case. She has amassed over 718,000 followers and has certainly boosted her profile in the legal sector globally. Whilst you may not be the key lawyer on a landmark case, you can certainly use Twitter to begin conversations with relevant people.
Social media belongs to the legal generation of the future
You may have heard of the next generation of workers: Millennials and Generation Z. But, did you know that by 2020 Millennials are set to make up 75 per cent of the global workforce? Social media is the way they communicate, keeping up to date with current events and placing their finger of the pulse of the sector. There are changes to legislation daily, and a good lawyer will know to check their feeds and share relevant soundbites with their networks.
There is also a significant emergence in legal influencers. They are people who combine social influencing with their legal career. It may seem impossible but there are examples of people out there who are excelling in both. For example, Eve Cornwell, a popular Instagrammer with over 57.8K followers. She juggles her lifestyle business with her up-and-coming training opportunity with Magic Circle firm, Linklaters. As well, Alicia Gardner, is a fitness competitor with over 65.1K followers. She teams a case handler position at firm, Beale & Company with daily fitness training, food prep and inspirational Instagram stories that she shares with her engaged and loyal following.
The landscape of the legal sector is vastly different to what could have ever been expected. Social media continues to dominate our feeds and boost our careers in ways we never thought possible. And, if you are still hesitant to collate your social media profiles with your legal career, consider the fact that you are putting yourself out there for specialist legal recruiters to find too. You may well be a passive candidate, but do you want to miss out on your next great opportunity because you didn’t invest a bit of time into your online persona?
