Social media has long been a prevalent marketing channel for consumer brands. The immense popularity of companies like Nike, Starbucks, Wendy’s, and Airbnb—coupled with their exceptional social media marketing tactics—allows for increased consumer interaction on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Today, with nearly 80 percent of Americans maintaining at least one personal social media profile, it’s essential for all establishments to have an online presence in order to do business—including law firms.
Hidden under the immense shadow that consumer brands cast, the legal industry may seem to be ignoring social media as a marketing channel. However, an increasing number of independent attorneys and law firms are taking advantage of the benefits that social media can bring to their business. In fact, data from Attorney at Work suggests that 96 percent of lawyers use social media as part of their overall marketing strategy.
Here are some of the benefits of developing a social media presence for your law firm and a few steps you can take to get started.
The Benefits of Using Social Media for Law Firms
Despite a growing number of independent attorneys and law firms partaking in social media marketing, some still struggle to implement effective social media marketing strategies that drive engagement and quality leads. This is a huge missed opportunity. An effective social media presence can help lawyers attract prospective clients and build valuable connections. While constructing a social media presence isn’t easy, the results are usually worthwhile. Some of the benefits include:
- Creating brand awareness: More and more consumers are spending time on social media, according to data from Statista indicating that over 3.6 billion people used social media worldwide in 2020, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025. Ultimately, with such a large percentage of the population using social media, creating a strong online presence is vital if you want to help get your firm’s message in front of its audience.
- Engaging your target audience: People use social media not only as a tool to connect with their friends and relatives but also as a method to consume content and engage with brands. This makes it a valuable platform to retain the interests of your target audience and turn them into prospects. You can use social media to provide them with informative and engaging content, answer their questions, or resolve their issues.
- Improving your SEO efforts: While social signals aren’t a direct ranking factor, there’s often a correlation between a developed social media presence and improved search engine ranking. As Google continues to bring in dynamic content such as social feeds into search results, having a strong social presence may lead to you controlling more visible space on search results.
Other benefits include attracting prospective clients, establishing your authority, and developing thought leadership. Social media is a means of verifying your law firm, building trust, and manufacturing clout.
Strategies Law Firms Can Implement To Improve Their Social Media Presence
If you’re convinced that your firm needs a social media presence, where do you begin? We’ve put together some tips for getting underway with social media marketing so that you get the best return on your investment. This includes the following steps:
Defining Your Target Audience
Perhaps the single most important part of planning your strategy is knowing your target audience. Everything you do, including your blog posts, will be geared towards nurturing and growing that following. The more clearly you define your audience, the better you can understand how and where to reach your best prospects. You should be as detailed as possible when considering who you’re trying to reach. Think about age, gender, profession, and marital status. No detail is too small to be considered.
Finding Out What Others Are Saying About Your Law Firm
Discover what conversations are already going on about your law firm or your lawyers online. Head over to Google and search for your brand name. Try doing the same on Facebook, Twitter, and other search engines. Each conversation or result that you find is an opportunity to influence. If no one is mentioning your law firm, try to discern why. Perhaps you’re not interesting or remarkable enough. Your forthcoming social media strategy should reflect your findings.
Claim Your Profiles and Choose a Unified Look
A good social media page starts with claiming your name on every platform. Make sure you have the same name for every social media page. This will make it easier for people to find you across different sites. In addition to a consistent name across platforms, choose a unified color scheme and tone. This will increase recognition of your brand. Make sure not to change your look too often—you’d be surprised how long it takes for users to solidify an image of your company.
Have a Routine and Stay Engaging
To build an effective social media presence, you have to implement a routine. It’s important to find a balance that suits your audience in terms of how often you post and to remain consistent once you find that sweet spot.
Likewise, share stories about the origins of your firm, its history, and its achievements to build an emotional connection. In addition to promotional content, provide valuable and credible information that can give readers the peace of mind they need to make a decision about hiring your firm.
Start Taking Action to Improve Your Online Presence
The field of law is a highly competitive industry, which means that law firms need to use all the tools at their disposal to secure new clients. Having an effective social media presence is perhaps just as important to your overarching marketing strategy as traditional approaches, SEO, and word of mouth.
At the same time, legal social media can be tricky to navigate. At Market My Market, we know how to get results and have experience building social media marketing plans for law firms large and small. See how we can provide a long-term strategy for you during a free consultation.
