Should Lawyers Use GIFs in Their Social Media?
Gone are the days when you could get away with a website and wall of text. Today, the Internet is dominated by the visual as much as the textual -- and savvy lawyers know that they need to take advantage video and images, especially when it comes to social media.
But what about GIFs? Those moving images have taken over the Internet and now, thanks to a Twitter update, are even easier to get into your social media stream. But are they appropriate for lawyers?
A G-I-Whatnow?
Yesterday, Twitter rolled out a dedicated GIF button on their mobile device, making it even easier to upload and share GIFs socially.
That feeling when you hit the button too hard at the #GIFParty. Thanks for GIFing with us today! pic.twitter.com/QUsWhvtnsd
-- Twitter (@twitter) March 4, 2016
If you're not familiar with the genre, GIF stands for "graphic interchange format" and it dates all the way back to 1987's CompuServe. (Let's take a moment of silence for the world's first major online service.)
GIFs are somewhere between a photo and a video. They essentially allow you to show a series of images in a single file; though not with enough frames to be mistaken for video. (Though some are getting close.)
As bandwidth has grown, GIFs have exploded. There are entire blogs dedicated to illustrating simple things with GIFs, like "What the Public Defender?" a Tumblr blog that pairs "When you discover the ADA withheld exculpatory evidence and you call her out in open court" with a GIF of Nicki Minaj.
Let the Experts Weigh In
We can see some lawyers embracing the form, filling their tweets with DUI and divorce GIFs or just amusing images. Others, we're sure, will shy away from the casual, Millennial-centric GIF world.
But instead of saying what you should do, our intrepid social media team at FindLaw took to Twitter to ask some of the their legal social media peers.
@ABAesq - ...and what's the ABA's official position on lawyers using GIFs? pic.twitter.com/NaSHrJYjSt
-- FindLawLP (@FindLawLP) March 4, 2016
@FindLawLP That will be a pretty interesting House of Delegates resolution whichever way it goes. New chapter of the Model Rules?
-- American Bar (@ABAesq) March 4, 2016
That got the attention of the Florida Bar Association.
When will this be discussed again? And how did it come about? https://t.co/5gvHIoOcDN
-- The Florida Bar (@theflabar) March 4, 2016
Lest you worry that the ABA was getting too informal, they quickly followed up with this clarification.
@FindLawLP We hasten to add that was tweeted in jest!
-- American Bar (@ABAesq) March 4, 2016
So, dear reader, which way will you go?
Related Resources:
- Lawyer Disbarred for Tweets and Online Petitions (FindLaw's Strategist)
- 3 Social Media and Electronic Research Tips for Lawyers (FindLaw's Strategist)
- Does Your Firm Need a Social Media Manager? (FindLaw's Strategist)
- How Should Lawyers Be Using LinkedIn? (FindLaw's Strategist)