Law firm marketing on social media: policy before account
A firm needs a written social media policy before it opens an account. The person posting holds a practising certificate; the firm carries the obligation, and the two are not the same thing. 4 kinds of post cause almost all of the trouble: a live matter, a result, a client, and an opinion.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
Why does the policy come before the account?
Because the account is the easy part, and it is opened by whoever is free that afternoon.
Setting up a profile takes ten minutes and needs no approval from anybody. Deciding what a regulated practice may publish about its own work takes a conversation between the people who carry the obligation, and that conversation happens either before the first post or after the first difficult one. Only one of those orders is cheap.
The order also decides who is answering the question later. A policy written in advance is a firm decision recorded once. A policy written after a post has been screenshotted is a response to an incident, and it is being drafted by the same people who now have to deal with the incident.
A damaging admission, early. We do not draft social media policies, we do not run accounts for firms, and we do not post on anybody's behalf. We build sites and the pages that make them findable. What follows is what we see going wrong at firms we work with, and the policy itself belongs with the firm and its COLP.
Which four kinds of post cause the problems?
Four, and they are not equally risky, which is the useful part.
| Kind of post | What goes wrong | The version that usually survives |
|---|---|---|
| A live matter | Detail that identifies a party, or comment on proceedings that have not concluded | Nothing, until it has concluded, and often not then |
| A result | An outcome described in a way that reads as a promise of the same outcome | The type of work, without the number or the party |
| A client | Naming or thanking somebody who never agreed to be named | Named only with written consent, obtained before the post |
| An opinion | A personal view read as the firm's position on a subject it acts in | Clearly the individual's, on a subject the firm does not act in |
The fourth row is the one firms underestimate. The first three are recognisably about work. An opinion posted at the weekend does not feel like firm business until somebody reads the profile, sees the firm's name in it, and treats the two as one.
Where does the line sit on posting about a result?
Nearer to the firm than most people expect, and it moves with how identifiable the matter is.
A result is the most tempting thing a firm has to publish and the hardest to publish safely. Three questions decide it, and all three are answered before drafting rather than during:
- Is the matter concluded, including any appeal period, and does anybody involved still have something to lose from the post.
- Can the party be identified by anyone who knows them, which is a much lower bar than being named. A town, a date and an unusual fact can be enough.
- Did the client agree in writing to being described, knowing where it would appear and for how long it would stay there.
A post that clears all three is usually a post about the type of work rather than the outcome, which is less satisfying to write and considerably more durable. Whether any particular post is appropriate is a judgement for the firm and its COLP, not for a marketing supplier, and we would decline to make it.
Who is accountable when a member of staff posts?
Both the individual and the firm, in different ways, and confusing the two is what produces the argument afterwards.
The individual holds a practising certificate, and what they publish about their own work is attached to it. The firm carries the obligations that come with being a regulated practice, and a post that reads as the firm's is treated as the firm's regardless of who typed it. A trainee, a paralegal or a marketing assistant is not outside that; a firm that gave somebody the password gave them the firm's voice.
Three practical consequences:
- A personal account naming the firm is not a private account. The policy has to say what it may and may not do, because that is the account most posts come from.
- Scheduling is not approval. A post queued three weeks ago publishes into whatever happened yesterday, and somebody has to hold the ability to stop it.
- Deleting is not undoing. A post that has been seen has been screenshotted, so the response to a problem is a decision about what to say next, not only about what to remove.
What should a written policy actually say?
Eight things, and it fits on two sides of paper.
| Clause | The question it settles |
|---|---|
| Who may post, and on which accounts | Whether the answer is one person or everyone |
| What is never posted | Live matters, identifiable parties, unconsented clients |
| The approval route, and a deputy | What happens when the approver is in court |
| Personal accounts that name the firm | Whether they are covered, and how |
| Responding to comments and reviews | Who replies, and what is never replied to publicly |
| Consent for naming a client | That it is written, specific and obtained beforehand |
| Taking something down | Who decides, how fast, and who is told |
| Review date | That the document is looked at again on a stated date |
None of that is marketing work. It is the reason a firm can have an account at all, and it is the item most often missing when we are asked to build a site with social links on it.
What does social media return compared with search?
We hold no measurement of what social media returns, so this page does not offer one. We do hold what the searches cost.
That asymmetry is worth stating plainly rather than filling with a plausible number. Measured 3 August 2026 across 20 UK cities:
| City | Practice area | Searches/mo | Cost per click |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester | Family and divorce | 1,200 | £25.88 |
| Birmingham | Residential conveyancing | 1,760 | £14.36 |
| London | Immigration | 2,900 | £18.75 |
100 Manchester clicks at £25.88 is £2,588 — arithmetic on a measured click price, not a forecast of anything, and the dataset treats family and divorce as one category rather than divorce alone. A firm can put that figure beside the hours a social account consumes and reach its own conclusion.
One measured figure does bear on the comparison. AI Overviews appear on 39 of 54 money searches in this market and on 863 of 1,235 keywords across the full set, measured 3 August 2026. Search is where somebody with a problem goes looking; a social account is where people who already know the firm keep noticing it. They are different jobs and the second one is much harder to price.
Which of these suppliers publishes a price?
Three of the four named below, from the 40 read on 3 August 2026.
| Supplier | Published a price |
|---|---|
| legal-marketing.co.uk | No |
| clio.com | Yes |
| lexisnexis.co.uk | Yes |
| magnifylab.com | Yes |
⚠ We record whether a price appeared on the page, not what it was. The figures our tooling collected mixed genuine fees with case values and sentence fragments, and attributing one to a named business would publish something unverified about a competitor.
Across all 40: 12 published a price, 5 showed a range rather than a figure, 8 claimed a guarantee of some kind, and 1 stated that work carried no minimum term. 15 of the 62 questions buyers ask on these searches are price questions. Nothing in our benchmark records whether any of them will write a social policy, and a supplier that offers to is offering something a firm's own COLP has to sign anyway.
Before you shortlist anyone
We read 40 legal-marketing suppliers in full in August 2026 — including several on this page. Twelve published a price. One offered work with no minimum term.
The free report gives you the full count, named, so you can repeat it rather than take ours. It also shows how many people search for your practice areas in your town, and what those clicks cost to buy at Google's own prices.
Get the report — five questions, about two minutes →
No call required. Our own prices are on that page.
Where should I read next?
If the question is who to buy from rather than what to publish: marketing agency for legal firms, lawyer marketing agency and legal marketing agency.
On the channels that do carry measurable demand: law firm seo agency and, for the site itself, law firm website design company.
Frequently asked questions
Does a law firm need a social media policy before opening an account?
Yes, and before rather than after is the whole point: a policy written in advance is one firm decision recorded once, while a policy written after a difficult post is drafted by the same people now dealing with the post.
Can a solicitor post about a case they have won?
Only with care, and often not at all: the matter needs to have concluded, the party must not be identifiable to anyone who knows them, and the client must have agreed in writing beforehand. Most posts that clear all three describe the type of work rather than the outcome.
Who is responsible if a member of staff posts something inappropriate?
Both the individual, whose practising certificate is attached to what they publish about their own work, and the firm, because a post that reads as the firm's is treated as the firm's regardless of who typed it.
Does a personal account count if it names the firm?
For policy purposes, yes. It is the account most posts actually come from, so the document has to say what a personal profile naming the firm may and may not do rather than leaving it unaddressed.
What should a law firm social media policy contain?
Eight items: who may post, what is never posted, the approval route and a deputy, how personal accounts naming the firm are treated, who responds to comments and reviews, how client consent is obtained, who can take something down and how fast, and a review date.
Is social media worth more than search for a law firm?
We hold no measurement of what social media returns, so we do not claim one. We do hold what search costs: in Manchester, 1,200 people a month search for a family and divorce solicitor at around £25.88 a click, measured 3 August 2026.
Do you write social media policies or run accounts?
No. We do not draft policies, run accounts or post on a firm's behalf, and the policy belongs with the firm and its COLP. We build the site and the pages that make it findable.