If a random person on the street of any major metropolitan city in the United States of America and is pressed for their favorite lawyer joke, it may take them a few seconds to come up with one. This is of course not for a lack of trying, or because they can’t think of one, but instead, it is most likely because he or she knows so many lawyer jokes, that it is difficult to think of just one. Lawyer jokes are easy fodder for comedians because everyone and their mother hates lawyers. But why is this the case? Lawyers provide a necessary service for the community, helping people arbitrate their disputes and settle arguments without resorting to fisticuffs. They are a linchpin of any civilized society, often times much to the chagrin of their detractors. Part of the problem is that many people have had a poor experience with a lawyer in the past. A particular legal professional either represented them ineffectively, or more likely, over charged them for subpar work. Many people in the United States of America, and indeed, the world over, put lawyers in the same category as used car salesmen, pick pockets, and arsonists in the court of public opinion.
And these negative opinions are only compounded by the fact that the economy is in the toilet. This gives people less money to work with on a daily or even a monthly basis. Therefore, they simply can’t afford to get taken advantage of. They need to accurately budget for any and all legal expenses and they have to expect that the legal professional they contracted to perform legal services for them will do so in a timely and cost effective manner. Too often, this has not been the case. Therefore, many law offices are doing everything they can to can and come back from this incredibly negative perception regarding their profession. In service of this difficult, but not altogether unachievable goal is the fact that many legal offices, of all shapes and of all sizes, and in every specialty have started retaining the services of a public relations firm who will organize an effective law firm social media strategy to repair the legal profession’s reputation in the eye of the skeptical public.
So what exactly constitutes a law firm social media strategy? It involves signing law offices up for a variety of social media websites, in hopes of expanding their reach and allowing them to reach more people than ever before. This is necessary because people have to believe that any message they receive is genuine, and certainly not the production of some self serving ad agency who is only out to make a quick buck. Thus, many legal public relations firms strive to make their law firm social media strategy more user friendly, so that people will want to hear what they have to say about their clients. Many lawyers may initially put up some resistance to enrolling in a multitude of social media websites, thinking that this activity is beneath them and is mostly reserved for establishing the social lives of thirteen year old girls. But, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, many law firm social media strategies often use an element of humor to make it more palatable to the skeptic. If lawyers are willing to make fun of themselves, then maybe they are not so bad, and maybe people will be willing to give them another shot.