Social media rules for lawyers are essential in helping you understand your obligations, rights, and ethical challenges.
Ethics and Social Media
Social media, particularly Facebook, is a brilliant tool for legal marketing and helps to keep you aware of the news. Still, its users must understand that these platforms do not offer privacy. Therefore, lawyers need to use these platforms cautiously to prevent getting into trouble from the bar.
These are the guidelines from the American Bar Association on the ethical use of Facebook and other social media:
Lawyers Have a Duty of Confidentiality
The ABA released Formal Opinion 18-480 in March 2018. Even if the information is on public record, as a lawyer, you must enforce your duty of confidentiality when posting something online, including social media and blogs.
Hypotheticals and Client Permission
As a lawyer, you must think before posting information about cases on social media, even if you change some details to protect the privacy of your clients. This is because often others can deduce the person’s identity in the hypothetical, and you can be held in violation of ABA rule 1.6 unless you have received permission from your client.
Client Conflict of interest
Several rules concern conflict of interest. For example, model Rule 1.7 is about your intentional or unintentional relationships with others online that may create a conflict of interest with one of your clients.
Formal Ethics Op. 8 and Rule 8.4 of the ABA are there to ensure you don’t have social media communications or accept them on social media, creating the impression of judicial partiality.
Client Solicitation
The ABA rules say that any communication on social media in which you discuss your services is advertising, even in a post. Therefore, social media makes it hard to determine the line between advertising and posts.
Additional Social Media Rules
ABA Formal Op. 18-480 – Avoid comments or responses on social media that may reflect the creation of an attorney-client relationship later.
Rules 4.2 and 4.3 – You may review any person’s publicly available social media content, whether you represent them or not, but need permission from the other party’s lawyer to review restricted content.
Rule 3.5 and Formal Op. 466 – When doing juror research, you can view public social media posts but are prohibited from accessing restricted content.
Rules 5.1, 5.3, and 8.4 – Lawyers may not use another person to undertake any of the things they can’t do on social media.
How to Use Facebook for Leads
Facebook’s billions of users make it a powerful social media platform that is great for promoting your law firm. Maximize your marketing efforts and use Facebook to make people aware of your credentials and experience while keeping the ABA guidelines in mind. Start the process by creating a Facebook business account.
Facebook and Networking
It is easy and free to update your Facebook page with relevant information about your law firm, including contact details and office hours, and increase client engagement and leads. Do this by communicating with clients in real-time on Messenger, sending automated messages to visitors, providing clients with automated FAQs, and setting yourself as “away” when you aren’t in the office.
Another way to network through your Facebook business page include informing your network about upcoming events, providing educational material, and presenting blogposts.
Share Your Expertise
Great ways to share information include blog posts, videos, and infographics. or blog posts with your audience through the Facebook platform, helping to establish yourself as an expert in your field, building client relations, and creating leads.
Target Audiences
The best way to target the right audiences is to collect information of those displaying an interest in your firm on Facebook. Do this by asking questions about what topics they are interested in before creating blog posts.
Facebook Ads
Law firms use Facebook ads to increase website traffic and increase their online presence. But, to have successful Facebook ads, it’s essential to keep some key points in mind.
Campaign Goals
Create clear goals for your Facebook ads campaign and measure them through key performance indicators (KPIs). The results are not immediate on Facebook, so be patient.
Targeted Audiences
If you want to create significant leads that convert, you cannot allow your ads to reach everyone. Instead, use the options on Facebook like profile information, location, job title, interests, etc., to target your ads to the right clients. Adjust your targeted information if you are not happy that the right people see them by keeping track of Facebook’s Audience Insights.
Multimedia Draws Attention
Engaging ads draw attention, so use various forms of advertising, including videos and photos. Most people watch Facebook videos with the sound off, capturing their attention by including closed captioning or subtitles. Keep videos brief to avoid people leaving before reaching your clear call to action.
Mobile-Optimized Pages
Most Facebook users are on mobile, meaning you must optimize your Facebook page for these smart devices. For example, words and subtitles must appear intact, and images must rotate properly.
Final Take
Use Facebook to connect with new clients while developing your relationship with the existing ones. Whether you use social media for professional or personal reasons, always remember these ABA rules when interacting on Facebook.
