Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

2016: The Year Everything Changed In Social Media Marketing

By By Larry Bodine
November 01, 2016

Three megatrends culminated in online business development in 2016, requiring attorneys to change their digital marketing tactics and to re-focus on what produces results.

  1. Your next client will most likely visit you using a smartphone, not a desktop computer. New data from comScore shows that digital media time spent on mobile devices is now a whopping 68%. Desktop computers account for only one third of digital time spent. Ask yourself: What does your law firm website look like on a cell phone?
  2. On social media, Facebook is by far the most effective. Facebook is social media to consumers. Sixty-six percent of adults log onto Facebook every day, according to Social Media Explorer. Eighty percent of consumers use the Facebook smartphone app. It is also on almost half of users' smartphone home screens, according to comScore. How many likes and followers does your Facebook page have?
  3. A majority of Americans are likely to retain a lawyer who is active on social media. Fifty-four percent of consumers say they would likely retain an attorney who is active on Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In, according to research by Thomson Reuters. This is especially true for younger Americans between the ages of 18-44. When was the last time you updated your firm's Facebook page?

The New Social Order

To grasp how much things have changed online in 2016, it is useful to compare the current number of active users on the social media that most lawyers use. (Source: Smartinsights.com)

  • Facebook: 1.59 billion (by far the largest, fastest growing medium);
  • Instagram: 400 million (a Facebook property);
  • Twitter: 320 million (total of users is stagnant);
  • Snapchat: 200 million (growing rapidly); and
  • LinkedIn: 100 million (now just a resumé site with little engagement).

Did you notice that YouTube was not on the list? That's because Snapchat (the mobile app to send videos that disappear after a few seconds) has more than 10 billion daily views, which exceeds even YouTube — the original site to showcase video content.

Twitter has degraded into a firehose of content, where law firms must post around the clock to break through the noise. Twitter is not a place where consumers spend a lot of time because most tweets include a link that sends them someplace else. Twitter's best use it to try to send traffic to your website.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws Image

This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.

The Article 8 Opt In Image

The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.

Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin Image

With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.

Legal Possession: What Does It Mean? Image

Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.

The Stranger to the Deed Rule Image

In 1987, a unanimous Court of Appeals reaffirmed the vitality of the "stranger to the deed" rule, which holds that if a grantor executes a deed to a grantee purporting to create an easement in a third party, the easement is invalid. Daniello v. Wagner, decided by the Second Department on November 29th, makes it clear that not all grantors (or their lawyers) have received the Court of Appeals' message, suggesting that the rule needs re-examination.