A selection of the world’s fashion designers descending on London in order to show their latest collections may not seem to be the natural focus for the legal world, but this bi-annual event is worthy of some study. Whilst you may have little or no interest in the resurgence of the 1960s trend, or the fact that stripes are huge this season, you will no doubt have seen some coverage of London Fashion Week, even if only images of the catwalk shows or gossipy headlines.

Whilst all the glitz and glamour around fashion week courts a very different kind of publicity to the legal sector, at the heart of all the gossip is a highly oiled marketing machine that consistently gets its event onto all of the front pages – at least once a day – and is all over the internet for a five-day period. Given the carnivorous nature of the front pages of our press and the enormity of the internet that’s really no mean feat. But how do the powers that be at LFW make this happen year on year with such consistency?

Embracing technology – people like new technology and they like to use new technology and if you give them the opportunity to engage with that, whilst inadvertently promoting your brand, it’s a much more enticing offer. This year fashion week used almost every type of new media out there to engage with people, from live streaming some of its shows, to posting clips using the hottest new social networking site Vine and getting models to use ‘model cam’ to provide backstage glimpses. The result was that this content was used and reused all over the web, each time driving people back to the fashion week website.

Lesson for lawyers: consider incorporating new technology to showcase achievements, results, in-house expertise and knowledge. Create a YouTube channel and post a series of video ‘how to’ guides, live-stream lectures or client training sessions, or incorporate live coverage of breaking legal news into a website feed.

Using the power of social media – LFW is the master of the hashtag. Not only was the #LFW hashtag trending throughout the duration of the event, but on many occasions the individual designers were too. LFW uses its Twitter all year round and pitches itself as a newsy magazine during the event itself, commenting on collections and linking in the designers to ensure retweets and favouriting. It maximises the fact that it often has an inside scoop to produce tweets and status updates that are informative and frequent, as well as coveted by other users for their own Twitter pages – resulting in numerous retweets. LFW also gets creative with its own unique hashtags, using more than one to cover different elements of the event, such as the #LFWTimeline tag which was used to post updates on show times.

Lesson for lawyers: don’t neglect your social media accounts – a dormant social media account is more damaging than no social media account. Keep your content fresh, relevant, interesting and retweetable and develop a ‘voice’ that you can use to engage with followers. Create your own hashtags or make use of others trending in your sector – this is a great way to gain followers.

Thinking outside the box – LFW is really just an organisation behind a fashion show, but the way it interacts with the public makes it much more than that. During fashion week itself it staged interviews with designers via its Twitter page where Twitter users could put their questions directly and see immediate answers by using the relevant hashtag (again another way to get that hashtag trending). Its website acts almost like a fashion library, providing information on all the designers and their previous collections, as well as those just shown – and the website is updated almost immediately. The site also has a section that caters to visiting editors and fashionistas, providing something of a concierge service, with pages dedicated to the best bars and restaurants in London, where to stay in the capital, as well as where to shop.

Lesson for lawyers: how can you tie together the services that you offer? Try cross selling your services by structuring your website so that clients visiting one practice area are linked to a related one in a logical ‘next steps’ kind of way.

Try to imagine what else clients would appreciate that will set your service apart from others – anticipate queries and questions with information on the website, offer a similar Twitter interview scenario for an hour a week with experienced partners – it might take up an hour of that partner’s time but the attention that this ‘free’ legal advice gets could give your profile an enormous boost. Don’t forget the importance of keeping your web content up to date – leaving out-of-date pages up will immediately put people off, whereas a regularly updated site becomes a ‘go to’ for those in the sector.

There are many ways in which these lessons can be incorporated into the legal world, whatever the context. Social media – from Twitter and Facebook to YouTube and Instagram – are key to digital marketing across all sectors now, and will continue to be in the next few years. As is always the case in our contemporary fast-moving world (even the legal world), those who are first on the bandwagon tend to see the most benefit. Whilst you don’t have to introduce a ‘partner cam’ or go as far as to get clients to provide video testimonials, subtly looking to reach ahead of the competition can reap huge rewards.

Melissa Davis, director of MD Communications