Canadian Lawyer

you to unbutton. It's a way for law firms to say, 'We're people just like you and we're very heavily invested in our commu- nity.'" Furlong says involving staff and associates in updating the Facebook page is also a common and successful practice among large firms because "it's very rare that associates and staff have a real say in how a firm is run, or get much attention or publicity." For small firms, on the other hand, particularly those that don't primarily serve corporate clients and those with specialized niche practices, Facebook presents other opportunities. If your practice is focused on real estate, wills and estates, or personal injury, for example, you don't necessarily have a solid core of regular clients who will keep coming back to you, so you don't know who your next client is or where they will come from. Your marketing efforts must therefore be focused on where you think your potential clients might be and a lot of them are likely to be on Facebook. "It's important to be up there. More people are living in Facebook and we feel it gives us that much more visibility," says Patrick Rocca, general manager at Pace Law Firm in Toronto. The firm has two Facebook pages. One, launched about 18 months ago and devoted to its immigration practice (face- book.com/CANimmigration), has garnered a lively following among people in immigrant communities with more than 2,400 "likes" (compared to 407 who "like" the Torys page). The other is a recently launched more general page (facebook.com/ PaceLawFirm), primarily focused on the Pace personal injury practice. Rocca doesn't think this page is likely to attract such a large and enthusiastic following as personal injury is a narrower focus than immigration with less consumer-oriented material available to post. It also has no similarly large community of interest that is likely to gravitate towards the page. Nevertheless, he says, there was no question that the firm needed that Facebook presence. In a weekly video posted on the firm's immigration page, lawyer Andy Semotiuk answers questions that visitors have posted. He says this is more than a marketing tool. "It's an engagement with an audience. It's having fun with people and sharing what you know with people who need to know things." Nevertheless, he adds, it does seem to work in terms of market- ing: "People get to know me a little better. They gain a sense of confidence in my expertise. I end up getting calls from good clients who say, 'I saw you on the video on Facebook.'" But using Facebook as a marketing tool involves walking a very fine line, warns Furlong. "Facebook's not a place where people are looking to get sold to and a law firm that uses it to sell its services is in trouble," he says. "Build stronger relations with current and former clients, provide useful information, and connect with them in a more human way, then I think you're going to be more successful." Also, you can't afford to neglect a Facebook page if you choose to put one up, says Pratap of Norton Rose. "Facebook has to be engaging. It has to keep being current and speak to your audience. The worst possible thing that we could do is just create a Facebook page that is nothing more than a recycled version of our web site. That's not an effective strategy." Semotiuk describes a Facebook page as a conversation with ntitled-3 1 people who visit the site: "and if you're not updating what you're saying, you're not in the conversation and you're missing the medium." Pratap does point out, however, that many large law firms, like other businesses, may have a Facebook presence that is not of their own making, as Facebook will pull information off a Wikipedia entry and post it under the firm's name, without the firm making any contribution to the content. A quick survey of such pages gives some indication of their marketing value. It showed that 99 visitors indicated they liked the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Wikipedia entry, 39 liked the one posted for Bennett Jones LLP, and 88 liked that of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP. So what's ahead for law firms and Facebook? The short answer is nobody knows, but everyone is watching carefully to see what is evolving in social media. "We're taking it one step at a time," says Peets at Torys. "It's hard to know what the Facebook page will be to us a year down the road." Furlong quotes a comment attributed to Facebook found- er Mark Zuckerberg in the movie The Social Network. Zuckerberg was portrayed wanting to wait before attaching new services to a then fledgling Facebook because "we don't know what it is yet." Furlong says we still don't know what Facebook is and where it is going as it expands almost expo- nentially. So, he says, "Law firms will have to adjust their use of it as time goes on." 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