If you’re reading this, you probably work at a law firm targeting general counsel, senior legal staff, referral sources at other firms, industry contacts, and lateral recruits. They are serious people. If you are lucky, you might reach them on LinkedIn; and if they are young and tech-oriented, you have a shot at connecting with them on Twitter. But Facebook, not so much… Your audience isn’t clicking on cat videos, (as often as) it’s reading The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. It doesn’t seem to make sense to chase them on a social network that trades in likes, selfies, and pictures of your friends’ brightly-painted toes extended on loungers from their latest beach vacations.
That way of thinking may seem sound, but if Facebook has its way, it will be faulty—and costly—sooner rather than later.
This month, Facebook began testing a feature called Instant Articles. Through Instant Articles, Facebook now presents whole articles from news outlets directly within the Facebook app itself, rather than as a link. The user experience has been widely praised, from its immediate responsiveness (the “instant” in Instant Articles) to its engaging design. Meanwhile, there is much hand wringing being done by journalists over what New York magazine calls a “tectonic shift in the publishing industry,” and what The Verge calls a “turning point in the evolution of the news.”
From the legal marketer’s perspective, however, the takeaway is clear: Facebook is making itself into a one-stop-shop on the Internet. Its users already socialize there; now they can read the news there, giving them one less reason to ever leave. If Facebook continues on this path, it may become like the old AOL: the only meaningful destination on the web. If and when that’s the case, law firms will need to be there too.
If you choose to bet against Facebook’s success, you do so at your peril. Considering the platform’s incredible track record, it would be wiser to start seriously thinking about a Facebook strategy. After all, as of this month, your contacts who read The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian—three of the publishers on Instant Articles—are doing just that on Facebook.
John Hellerman, a perpetual forward thinker, is a partner and co-founder of Hellerman Baretz Communications, an award-winning corporate communications agency specializing in thought leadership, branded content development, reputation management and revenue growth for the world's leading law, consulting, health care and financial services firms. He can be reached at 202-841-8153 and at jhellerman@hellermanbaretz.com