With over 350 million people using Internet social networking site Facebook worldwide and rival Twitter attracting 20 million unique visitors each month, law firm Walker Smith Way is harnessing the new opportunities offered by social media.

Walker Smith Way is now on Twitter, allowing it to update online followers with company news, legal updates and chat on a daily basis. The company has also been using Facebook and an RSS news feed on its website to support its online presence. In addition, Walker Smith Way solicitors now have profiles on LinkedIn, an online networking tool for making business contacts.

Said Walker Smith Way’s marketing manager Elen Rowlands: “Not many law firms are tackling the issue of social media yet, but we believe that it will become a central part of our marketing strategy. People are becoming more and more reliant on the Internet as a means of communicating and it has the great advantage of being an immediate way for us to connect with anyone who is interested in us.

“Our Twitter account has been really successful – we started up in late September and we now have around 1100 followers. We’ve built some great relationships with local businesses and individuals, allowing us to keep in touch with a wider range of people.”

“Facebook has provided us with a new way to interact too – for example, last summer and autumn our Facebook trainee recruitment group was a great way for us to reach candidates and for them to find out more about the firm. It caused quite a stir, with students at the law college discussing the group and commenting on how refreshing it was to see an approachable firm, so we’re repeating the group for 2010 and again its momentum is growing quickly.”

“We wanted to keep our website fresh, so an RSS news feed means that legal updates and news stories are constantly coming through, meaning that there is a wealth of topical legal information available to our clients around the clock.”

Walker Smith Way’s new media strategy has been carefully developed with expert advice: Said Elen: “We enlisted the help of an agency, Prodo Digital Marketing, to devise and manage our social media initiative, so we have been able to take advantage of the agency’s considerable experience in this area.”

Concluded Elen: “Our online presence helps us to stand out as approachable and open and is a great way for us to pass on free legal hints and tips easily. We are starting to see the benefits already and it will be interesting to watch how the Facebook and Twitter phenomenon unfolds over the next 12 months – both networks are growing so quickly. Of course we can still be contacted by traditional means by phone or in person too – there’s still no substitute for the human touch!”

You can link up with Walker Smith Way on Twitter at twitter.com/WalkerSmithWay and on Facebook at facebook.com/walkersmithway.solicitors.