I saw a recent poll on LinkedIn that asked about Elon Musk’s decision (after taking over Twitter) to move his workforce back to the office and whether people thought this was a good idea or not. Sadly, it did not ask whether we thought his decision to get rid of 50% of his workforce overnight whilst instilling fear into the other 50% was the right one. I thought it was an odd way to gain attention using a US billionaires’ snap decision to help raise the profile of a UK company. I expect it did gain attention, but it made me think of Twitter, Musk and I could not tell you the name of the person or the company who put out the poll.

I have been looking at social media a little more from a work perspective over the past couple of months and have gone back and forth on whether it is a good thing. Whether LinkedIn and Twitter should be a big part of a marketing strategy and whether they help firms and employees get results. There is a huge debate over how many times to post, at what time of the day, whether posting from the company and then from your own profile harms the original post and with Twitter, how do you not get caught up in all the inane, banal comments when trying to make a serious point. I am not there yet with a final opinion. I have friends and peers who post regularly with relevant content, and I have noticed that to get even a few likes can be tough. I wonder about the mental effect this has and whether the slog is worth it, or have we just created another platform to give ourselves an opportunity for self-flagellation? I am lucky – my mum has recently become versed in the way of LinkedIn. She not only likes but often comments on posts, mine, my sisters and my brother-in laws as well as numerous others we are linked to. It is often a relief to get that one comment!

I am not an expert in ether of these fields although I am a marketer. At Box Legal we create blogs and case reports to help our clients navigate their way through case law, claims and legal issues. We had a recent debate as to whether to move our case reports behind the scenes as they were attracting attention worldwide from many people including competitors. We came to the conclusion that we will keep this area front of house for anyone to use as it brings traffic to the website (thank you to our competitors for helping with that), attracts firms that are currently not on our panel but also helps those heading out on a legal path – we have a lot of Universities look at the content.

We are Number one on google for our associated words due to a team that works hard on building content, whether blogs, case reports or new policy descriptions. We have been in the marketplace now since 2004 and although our competitors are much bigger with larger teams, I wonder if they offer the same personal level of service we do. Most of my clients are in my mobile under their first name. I enjoy answering the phone to them and catching up before we discuss work and that is my aim for every new client we bring on, that we get to that point. I like people and sometimes social media helps us forget we are all human, with feelings and the same anxieties.

My advice – don’t just post if you’ve nothing to say, it may not help get you to where you want to be as a company and could make you feel worse – what is the point? Pick up the phone and chat to a client instead or look at your own website and what you can do to add new content. On the other hand, follow my mum’s rule – like the posts and comment. I should have responded to that poll; she would have and made a comment about how Musk runs his business. I just hope she is still following her same mantra and likes this one!

Thanks for reading. For more information about Box Legal or our services and products please go to www.boxlegal.co.uk