After almost a decade at Irwin Mitchell, Chrissie Wolfe set up on her own in 2017, using social media to build her a successful business on the back of the connections gained through various online platforms
What made you decide that social media was a good tool to use for your career?
It all evolved from YouTube originally where I was mentoring law students who were trying to break into the sector and I ran out of hours in the day for physical mentees. I had a friend who was a YouTuber and saw the engagement and views she was getting and I thought I could do my mentoring online and be able to reach more people more effectively. I then started to use LinkedIn to communicate a similar message but in writing. The content has subsequently evolved as my career has evolved. What started off aimed at students turned into talking more about my legal career and things happening in the industry, sharing news stories and providing commentary. Gradually, every other platform has come into play. I’ve migrated my content and tailored it to each platform, so it was Twitter (now X), then it was Instagram and more recently TikTok, which is funnily enough my biggest platform now. I mainly do the student-related content on TikTok as opposed to the more B2B posts on LinkedIn.
Since becoming self-employed, I have mainly used LinkedIn and TikTok to source business. The consulting for law firms and legal businesses side has primarily come through LinkedIn, which I still find the best B2B platform, whereas I have had more enquiries about cosmetic surgery claims through TikTok as that is more of a B2C platform where individuals show up in their personal capacity.
It seems as though, in terms of your career, it has certainly been beneficial in terms of bringing in work and clients. Are there any other benefits you’ve found?
Yes, I would say that the reason I was able to leave my law firm and start my own business was really because of the online connections I had built through my platform. That pivot came during the pandemic where I grew the online brand a lot, when everyone was more present online. I started getting inquiries through LinkedIn DMs to do project-based work which I obviously couldn’t do as an employee at a large firm. It was really when those started coming in that I thought ‘Let’s try something different’. All of that came from the content I was creating on LinkedIn so, in a way, I owe the LinkedIn community at large for the pivot point in my career.
It’s also been a great source for speaking work and other collaborations; webinars, working with universities and things like that. All of that has come off the back of having a good online presence and a good online brand, so it has provided a lot of side revenue streams as well.
Have there been any negatives to having an online brand?
It’s definitely a double-edged sword. When you bring in clients through social media, that is also the place where they outlet. I’ve never had any really negative experiences, but when you have an online brand and people are very aware of it, they know that it’s an easy place to get to you if they want. I’ve experienced more trolling on TikTok, you don’t really get it on LinkedIn, which has an accountability element as you have your name and where you work in your profile. TikTok can be a completely anonymous handle, so LinkedIn is safer from that perspective.
While having a big brand attracts a lot of positive attention, as soon as you’re hitting 1,000+ likes it’s almost inevitable that you’ll find one person who has the opposite view – it’s just the law of averages, if you’re going to wander outside of your tribe, you’ll find someone who takes issue with your posts. I try to apply the mantra that if you don’t know them personally, don’t take it personally.
I think it was also more difficult when I was employed by a law firm because you’re a representative of that company and if your views are different from the company’s, or your platform is bigger than the company’s, it can create a bit of an issue. So, I’ve found it’s been easier since becoming self-employed.
Would you recommend other law professionals and students to use social media for their own careers?
Yeah, absolutely. With the level of competition that exists in the market now, the stand-out factors are increasingly on the human side. There’s now a range of businesses that are all much of a muchness and, in the legal sector, it’s almost table stakes that you know the law and can provide a service for a reasonable price in a reasonable timeframe. I think now we’re seeing people differentiate themselves through their personalities and connections; clients are looking more and more for that, and they want someone who they like to deal with. The junior generation coming through, while they may not be the primary users currently, they will be in the future and they’re searching for services through Instagram and TikTok. I do think it is important to build your online presence on those platforms as they will become the search engines of the future.
Return to our social media influencers feature ‘Social circles’.
