Businesses across Leicestershire are catching on to the importance of using new media to get their messages across.

Where the likes of the Daily Mail and Guardian websites and shops and banks such as Amazon, First Direct and GoCompare.com have gone, they are now following.

Law firms, fashion designers and venues are all seeing the opportunities being made available by new technology.

The websites for big law firms such as Harvey Ingram, and Bray and Bray, make it easy to find out about their services, while free Facebook and Twitter accounts get their messages – and advertising – into the public domain.

Douglas Wemyss might not have the big presence of its competitors – it has 15 staff in offices in Friar Lane, Leicester, and a new Legal Shop in Evington Road – but its ideas on new media are as grand as any.

Partner Sameer Karim became the senior partner in 2008 and, at just 32 years old, is full of bright ideas. With big name retailers such as Tesco and WHSmith expected to enter the market for legal advice later this year, he said lawyers need to start thinking about promoting themselves.

He said: "Over the last 12 months we've realised that having a high street presence and a presence with other professionals is only one element of being a successful business.

"There has now got to be an element of online presence.

"Law firms are quite averse to change and often don't look at online marketing as the way forward – but we think over the next five years it will take the lion's share of how people evaluate professional services.

"Twelve months ago we employed a webmaster and internet specialist. He is just a one-man band but specialises in search engine optimisation (which puts your business at the top of the list when someone does a search) and social media networking.

"I got to know him through my own networking and thought 'let's give it a try'. We told him we weren't selling a product, but selling our service and our knowledge, and asked him what was the best way to communicate that.

"He immediately said we needed to get some videos done, giving educational content in a new medium – accessible to everyone who goes online.

"Now we get senior staff here to put some words together on things such as setting up a business or pre-nuptial agreements which we film and edit and upload to YouTube.

"We put 12 articles together in a very short time. In all we invested around £1,000, so it wasn't that expensive, and the end result is fantastic.

"They are now in the public domain and mean people can get free legal advice. I can't think of any other legal firm doing that.

"Everyone here has Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts, so that we can tweet about every new video. We're planning another wave of videos, and looking at doing it quarterly."

The company website, he said, is still a work in progress, but will eventually offer free advice to potential clients, with new articles every other month on the latest hot topics.

He said: "Public sector cuts are starting to affect things like legal advice bureaus so where is Joe Public going to go for advice without facing a legal bill from the outset? Through either our legal shop, YouTube or our website, that's where.

"This helps us win trust – we want to revolutionise how law firms operate, stripping away hourly rates, and formalities and any concerns a new client might have."

Sameer said the innovation they have brought into the business went some way to helping them become joint winner of the 2011 Leicestershire Law Society firm of the year title.

Another business cashing in on new media is Leicester's City Rooms – a conference, party and wedding venue.

Event manager Vicky Wilkin said social media were as good a way to promote the business as word of mouth. She has tweeted 457 times through @TheCityRooms, and the venue also has a website.

She said: "I'm one of the top 100 wedding tweeters in the UK according to one wedding website.

"There are more than 350 people who like us on Facebook and about 700 followers on Twitter.

"We've been tweeting seriously since January after talking to a marketing company. It's fantastic that we get recommended on Twitter for weddings – it's a great network tool."

The Leicester businessmen behind Zatchels – a trendy new range of leather satchels which launched on April 21 – are also banking on the internet.

They have launched a dedicated sales site at zatchels.com and are using social media, Facebook competitions, and a blog.

Dean Clarke, who runs the business with Brian Brady, said: "The website had to be clean, crisp and simply about the bags.

"People can use it to order all over the world, and we will ship to them, and we're even going to translate it into Japanese.

"We've probably spent £15-20,000 on the website and PR so far and providing we sell the bags, we will continue to spend and push."