Small law firms finding a voice

Last June, an ARK Group conference on crime and legal issues in social media cautioned businesses they had "about a year" to put a social media strategy in place, or be overwhelmed by the process. Well, time is almost up.

This February, the English Supreme Court gave legal teams, journalists and members of the public permission to tweet from inside the courtroom, issuing guidelines on the use of "live text-based communications". The Law Society of England and Wales uses Twitter and blogs for members. Victoria's Law Society President has set up a Twitter account.

A report on the top 50 UK law firms last December found that 66 per cent had Twitter accounts, though many were not used proactively, some accounts even lying dormant. Critics pointed out that the use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook by individual lawyers and smaller firms provided much better indicators of effective use of social media.