Which Big Law Firm Is Winning Social Media?

Which big law firm has the most effective social media practices?

That would be DLA Piper, according to a recent annual report released by Above the Law and Good2BSocial .

Over the course of several months, the popular blog and law firm marketing consultancy screened social media sites of AmLaw 100 firms and evaluated them on a number of metrics.

Brian Dalton, a co-creator of the Social Law Firm Index, said that the firms were graded by:

1)Reach.The number of unique people who could see the firm’s content, including followers on Twitter, LinkedIn and friends on Facebook.

2)Engagement.The interaction with the firm’s content via social media, including comments or likes on Facebook, RTs or mentions on Twitter and likes on LinkedIn.

3)Owned Media.An assessment of the firm’s own site, looking at the amount of non-promotional, engaging content and the frequency of updates.

Out of a 100-point Index, DLA Piper scored 97.90, about 20 points higher than Latham ,which ranked No. 2 at 77.35. Jones Day , meanwhile, placed No. 3 with a score of 75.39.

Speaking of DLA Piper’s success, Josh Epstein, the firm’s communication director, said that DLA Piper uses LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Xing (in Germany).

For context, the firm has roughly 39,000 followers on LinkedIn, more than 19,000 Twitter followers, on top of separate practice-focused and regional pages.

In an interview with Big Law Business, Dalton, the co-creator of the report, laid out observations about law firm social media practices, and offered advice for marketers and business developers.

Dalton said that despite being “extremely sophisticated organizations,” law firms get way too wrapped up in their own glory, often publishing dry and non-engaging content about their own accomplishments.

“Readers of this kind of law firm content are very savvy, and they’re going to be turned off by purely promotional or marketing stuff for the firm,” he said. “You have to provide insights and information that have inherent value, rather than promoting the firm. It seems obvious but it’s not widely embraced.”

Contact Casey Sullivan at csullivan@bna.com or follow him on Twitter at Casey_BigLaw