Associate Insight: Size isn't everything as smaller law firms punch above their weight online

Research released today by the content marketing platform for professional services firms, reveals that eight of the ten most successful law firms at showcasing their expertise online and distributing it via social media fall outside of the UK's top 50.

It is evidence of the democratising impact of social media, allowing enterprising smaller firms to make their mark with potential clients, stakeholders and influencers without needing a big budget.

The analysis of the top 200 firms shows that while Irwin Mitchell holds the top spot, north-west firm Stephensons, Stephens Scown in Exeter and West London practice IBB rank second, third and fourth respectively, followed by Eversheds in fifth.

Morton Fraser comes in sixth, with Pannone seventh. Simpson Millar, BP Collins and Harper Macleod make up the remaining top ten.

Yet Passle's research shows that the entire top 200 have much progress to make, as collectively they have fewer than 360,000 Twitter followers - by contrast, the one-year-old nephew of One Direction's Niall Horan has more than 500,000 followers (@TheoHOfficial_).

Passle reached its results by ranking each firm against seven criteria and coming to an overall "Passle Score". They are: the number of "knowledge pieces" published in 2014, defined as an insight, blog, article or any other piece that demonstrates knowledge and expertise by someone at the firm (excluding news); the number of knowledge pieces per lawyer in 2014; the number of Twitter followers; the number of tweets in 2014; the number of Twitter followers per lawyer; the number of tweets per lawyer in 2014; and finally each firm's Klout score.

The entire top 200 produced 30,056 "knowledge pieces" in 2014, which amounted to just 1.96 per lawyer.

It's been proven that firms regularly producing knowledge pieces generate more traffic, and leads, than those that don't. Passle facilitates this process by providing busy experts with the tools to share their expertise with the world in a time-efficient manner.

Co-founder Tom Elgar says: "Our survey shows that it is the smaller law firms that are the most proactive in demonstrating their expertise in innovative ways. Potential clients nowadays expect more from social media than advertisements and dull announcements, but many law firms are unnecessarily reticent about going further than this.

"These top 200 firms have the best experts in the business, yet they are not demonstrating it online. People, and businesses, want to work with experts. Ghostwritten blogs fail to deliver knowledge and insight on the same level - it really has to be written by someone working in the field to attract both clients and networking opportunities.

"The common complaint, though, is that lawyers are just too busy doing their jobs to spend time on thought leadership. But there are now tools which allow them to get online with their insights quickly and easily. In an industry where many are slow to adapt and to adopt, there can be a real competitive advantage for those who embrace them now. It appears that the smaller firms are leading the charge."

To see how they benchmark against competitors on each of the seven criteria, as well as obtain their overall score and ranking, the top 200 firms can request a free report at www.rankmyfirm.com. Firms using Passle include: Henmans Freeth, Pini Franco and accountancy firm Critchleys.

For further information, please visit: https://home.passle.net