I got into a discussion this week with Emma Durand-Wood (@emmaewood) of Stem Legal on the value of Facebook for a lawyer’s business development efforts.

Wood, referencing a situation where her husband was looking for a niche business lawyer, blogged about where clients go when seeking a lawyer. Her point was that lawyers ought develop a presence where it matters — and I don’t disagree with that. Her husband didn’t have a referral source so felt compelled to go online to begin his search.

What I took issue with was the implication that Facebook offers little value to lawyers. In a study cited by Wood, word of mouth topped the list in importance, search engines were the first place people looked online, and Facebook offered little value in finding new clients. There were other things ranging in value to a lawyer, including a website, yellow pages and Yelp.

When word of mouth tops the list for lawyers, and I’d add relationships are right there, isn’t networking in a real and authentic way the most important thing a lawyer can do? When people spend what seems to be half their lives on online, with the majority of that time on Facebook, the most popular place for networking in the world, isn’t Facebook invaluable for building a word of mouth reputation and relationships?

Related Posts

Lawyers May Look at What Jurors Post Online, But Only if it’s Available to the Public
June 24, 2014

Courts have been dealing for a while now with jurors discussing the trials they're deciding through postings on websites...

‘Flash Sale’ Website Defeats Class Action Claim With Mandatory Arbitration Clause
May 20, 2014

Gilt implemented its membership agreement using a standard mandatory clickthrough procedure with links to the actual terms....

Social Media Request for Production That Got It Right
May 18, 2014

Requesting social media relevant to a lawsuit should be done as standard operating procedure now. However, some attorney...