LAW FIRM MARKETINGSocial Media Management for Lawyers

Get the basics right.

Like every advertising method, you should begin by looking at the fundamentals of social media marketing. This comprises:

• Selecting the right social media platform to use. Start with the platform that has maximum target audience.
• Setting practical and quantifiable objectives. What do you intend to obtain from your social media marketing activities? Do you wish to grow brand visibility? Perhaps you desire to draw new clients, or you merely need to engage with your target audience. Whatever it is, have a clear thought of what you need to accomplish with the help of social media marketing.
• Prepare a strategy for content and schedule the calendar. For example, what sort of content will you establish? How frequently will you post?

Share graphics with helpful facts and stats.

In social media, marketing visuals play a vital role as they stand out over text content. So your content tactics should concentrate on developing visuals that will instantly connect with your prospects.

You can share beneficial tips, basic legal information like acts/regulations, inspirational quotes, and industry updates with graphics that stand out. Graphics will play a huge role if you’re going to utilise image-heavy platforms such as Instagram.

Share informative YouTube videos

Informative YouTube videos are even an important component in social media marketing for lawyers. You can share details about your legal services, your law firm core values and client care, etc. Videos are more appealing than other content formats.

Nowadays, people like to consume video content instead of text content. So prepare YouTube videos to describe appropriate topics, talk about fascinating stories and talk about trending topics. You might also carry out interviews with industry thought leaders and utilise their influence to attract new viewers.

Reply to queries and comments.

Social media offers you a place to engage with your network. For example, prospective clients look for information or direction when they require legal advice; you can answer their basic questions and build rapport with them.

2019 the Sprout Social Index establishes that 47% of consumers get in touch with the companies on social media regarding service or product queries.

Build brand awareness

People spend a lot of time on social media. 2019 The Sprout Social Index establishes that 44% of consumers have stated a rise in personal social media utilisation. Therefore, a powerful social presence benefits you in getting your message to the correct audience and enhancing brand awareness.

Engage the target audience

People connect to chat with friends and relatives on social media, but they also consume content and connect with brands. So you do have an opportunity to engage with the target audience and convert them into prospects. You can utilise social media to offer them legal information and engaging content, respond to their questions, offer a solution for their legal problem.

Determine thought leadership

You can have direct communication with your target audience. Social media helps showcase your expertise. You can share your legal knowledge and instances you faced in your years of experience, demonstrating your trustworthiness, you can win the target audience’s faith.

Enhance your SEO efforts

Although social media does not directly contribute to SEO ranking, there is a connection between activities on social media and search engine ranking. Likes of your law firm website you share on social media increase brand awareness. When people share your content on social media, it generates social signals that suggest your post are helpful to your target audience. Social media platforms are a great place to distribute your content and drive traffic to your website, which improves Law Firm SEO results.

• Navigating the regulatory requirements for businesses involved in practising law and the chaotic social media place too complex to understand. Please ensure that you follow the rules and regulations while promoting your law firm on social media.
• The regulatory bodies around the world have established guidelines for the moral utilisation of social media by lawyers. For example, there are guidelines to cover topics such as privacy, talking hypothetical or anonymised cases online, etc.
• Refer to SRA or Bar Standard Board or the regulatory body rules and regulation for compliance and ethics. You are responsible for the post your law firm share online. However, within the rules, you can promote your law firm and its services and take advantage of the latest trend in legal marketing.

• Understand the rules

Ensure you understand the laws and compliance responsibilities of advertising your law firm and legal services on social media, whether personal or for your law firm. Please go through the SRA and bar regulations for compliance obligations and ethics laws, and be sure you follow them before posting or sharing anything on social media. Various countries prohibit law firms and lawyers from utilising terms such as ‘expert’ or ‘specialist’ to describe themselves.

• Recognise your goals

What are your objectives of marketing services on social media? Do you wish to generate more leads from this platform? Do you desire to build awareness in the legal community? Or do you want to have more visitors to your website?

Create practical and achievable short-term and long-term goals for social media marketing. Once you identify those goals, you can form a strategy to market your law firm and its service on social media.

• Start with small

Although it can be tempting to jump in and try out various social media platforms, that strategy might fail. It is highly likely that you will feel overwhelmed and unable to devote the appropriate time and attention to every social media account, and as a result, you might fail to meet the social media marketing goals. So, begin using only one or two social media platforms initially, and once the strategy seems working, you can expand to other platforms.

• Consider your content

Plan what sort of content you’ll be sharing to your law firm’s social media accounts. For example, whether you wish to produce fresh content to post, want to post curated content, or plan to concentrate on communicating with people through messages and comments. It could be an excellent idea to discover what your target audience expects when you plan your strategy.

• Evaluate your results

You must track and evaluate the results of your social media activities if you want to improvise and excel. First, you need to identify what is working and what is not working in your social media strategy. Are you using the right form of content? Is the messaging correct? These kinds of questions can be answered if you have data to analyse.  You might end up wasting time, money and energy if you do not investigate results and keep going in the wrong direction.

Facebook

With roughly over 2.89-billion monthly active users, this is the most famous social media platform globally, and it’s even popular among legal professionals.

Although the reach you can obtain from Facebook is exponential, you should be careful. It is possible that Facebook might not be an appropriate platform to market the legal service you provide. You want to ensure that you reach your target audience, so do the research and find out if your prospective clients are active on Facebook or not. If not, why waste efforts?

LinkedIn

Many lawyers deal with businesses and professionals; if you are one of them, LinkedIn could be a perfect social media platform. LinkedIn is developed to build professionals communities. You can make connections here, share your knowledge, offer solutions to legal problems to your prospective clients, and grab an opportunity to make strategic partners.

It will help if you have a complete and attractive profile to get the attention you require from your target audience. So here are a few points for an effective LinkedIn profile:

• Have a professional photo on your profile.
• Be persuasive. Take time to write an engaging headline, brief summary, and significant achievements.
• Stay relevant. Share information on your current practice, goals, and aspirations; so visitors to your page can learn about the lawyer you are today.

Additionally, you can create a LinkedIn page for your law firm to share what your practice offers. Of course, not everyone in your connection will be your prospective client; inviting your target audience to follow your law firm page can be a screening exercise.

• Claim Your Profiles

Claiming your law firm name on every social media platform is a good social media page strategy. Ensure you have a similar name for all the social media pages; this will help people find your law firm page across different social media websites.

• Use Brand Colours and Theme

Additionally to a consistent name across platforms, use brand colours and theme; it will help to spread awareness of your firm. Do not modify your brand look frequently; marketing takes time to mature your law firm brand.

• Increase Your Network

What is the use of having social media accounts when there is no one to see your posts? Use popular hashtags, publish engaging content, send connection requests, and grow your network. In addition, you can use paid ads to expand your network and spread awareness about your law firm and legal services. Bigger the network, the higher chance of getting the result from social media campaigns.

• Interact with Users

For a successful social media strategy, engagement is a must. It is not an easy task. It would be best if you talk to your audience swiftly and consistently. People appreciate that you give time to comment on their posts and share your knowledge. Share the human side of your law firm business. You should avoid getting into controversies, but it is recommended that you take a stand on social issues without offending anyone and with respect. Do not feed to the trolls as they can be a distraction. More engagement can drive more traffic to your page. Possibilities are, others will start engaging with you.

• Being fake: You need to be authentic to communicate your law firm’s brand efficiently. There’s no requirement to force an image that isn’t of you on social media. Remain true to yourself, stick to your law firms core values while communicating with your target audience.
• Feed the trolls: You may get comments from people who merely want to provoke. In the world of social media, we call these trolls, and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them. Just remember that there is no good in arguing or fighting online. If you require interaction, do so offline and in a civil way.
• Attempt to construct a presence on every social media platform: This is not required. Select the platforms that your prospective clients are using. As a beginner, it’s okay to begin with one channel and expand over time.
• Post content at the wrong time: Social media isn’t a short-term game. You have to be consistent to remain visible when your target audience is active on social media. Follow the latest trend of posting and consider the time when uploading any post on social media. Time plays a critical role, as it is important to know what time your target audience is active on social media.

• Increase in the Number of Followers

The simplest way to evaluate your social media marketing efforts is by checking the growth of your followers. The gain in your list is a clear indication that you are getting noticed and your law firm marketing strategy is going in the right direction.

• Reactions on your Post

Checking the audience’s reaction to your posts will help you evaluate what sort of content your audience wants to see. This way, you can aim for the content that interests your audience the most.

Likewise, you can check when anyone tags you or mentions you in a post. The more tags you have, the more users you will reach. This can help you to grows your followers and business visibility.

• Find out Reach

Campaign reach specifies the overall number of people you’ve reached outside and within your target audience. You get better online visibility when more and more audience reaches and reacts to your posts. If you have an excellent reach to your posts on social media, it indicates that your marketing campaign is performing well.

• Examine Click-Through Rate

CTR is a significant element, as it is linked with direct conversions. This assists you decide whether your marketing campaign is having compelling content and the right call to action. Higher CTR means it’s on the right path.