71 percent of U.S. Web Users are on Facebook : Opportunity for lawyers if done right

There’s little question that Facebook is becoming a ‘central nervous system’ for Internet exchange much like AOL was in the ’90’s.

Just over 71 percent of U.S. web users have Facebook accounts per an iStrategyLabs‘ infographic rendering of Facebook demographics.

Though the college age group may have seen the greatest growth on Facebook last year, look at the below numbers to see just how big the jump was for the demographic group law firms are looking to connect with.

• 24.8% of Facebook users are age 25-34, a 29.7% increase in the last year
• 29% of Facebook users are age 35-54, a 32.3% increase in the last year
• 9.5% of Facebook users are age 55+, a 58.9% increase in the last year

The greatest percentage growth is taking place in the older age groups. These folks are leading organizations and creating wealth in this country — and the world. These are the very people lawyers are looking to represent.

Just because your clients and prospective clients are flocking to Facebook does not mean your law firm should run out and start a Facebook page. It does not mean you as a lawyer should start automatically running each of your blog posts and Tweets onto your Facebook profile/newsfeed.

Facebook is about relationships and engaging people in a social environment. Lawyers are equipped to do this sort of networking, they’ve done it for years. Heck, it’s the stuff traditional client development is made of.

Facebook is an opportunity only for those lawyers and law firms who are willing to take the time to learn what Facebook is all about and how it can be best used by them.

When I started using AOL to market myself as a practicing lawyer in 1996, I used AOL like those gravitating to AOL were using it. As a community. As a place to exchange information and knowledge through message boards, chats, and the like.

I didn’t know how AOL worked for client development. There was no book on it. If anyone would have called themselves an expert on marketing/client development on AOL, they would have been laughed at.

I watched. I observed. I tried things having no certainty that what I was doing was the correct way of behaving. I learned.

It ended up that I built relationships with AOL members. People shared with other AOL members, and people offline, the information I shared on AOL. I established trust with the people I directly exchanged information with and with others who observed my exchanges on message boards and in chats.

Through this behavior on AOL I further enhanced my reputation as an authority in my area of practice. I got work within my state and from other areas of the country.

I did not use AOL as way to get my name in front of people, distribute content, or to build a brand. I used AOL the way others were using AOL.

I expect it’s going to be the same for Facebook. Use it the way others are using Facebook, not the way you as a law firm would like to or heard you ought to.

And that’s okay — individual relationships, the stuff at the heart of client development in the law, appear to be what works on Facebook.