When you hear the term “Social Media”, what comes to your mind? Perhaps it’s teenagers making TikToks or older generations on Facebook writing long posts picking on these teenagers and how “the internet is ruining us all”. Regardless, social media is here to stay and everyone is eager to create viral content and get internet famous. But how do you leverage social media to grow your business?
Companies all around the world use social media to market their products and services, and creativity is out of bounds! When you see a funny tweet from a fast-food chain like Wendy’s or a clever copy by Slack, even if you do not use their products – their brand is on your mind. That is the power of social media.
The concept of Social Media Marketing is booming in this digital age and it is time for lawyers and law firms to get on board. Social media for lawyers may seem daunting at first. The idea of constantly tweeting, posting, sharing and maintaining an account on multiple platforms seems extremely exhausting and time-consuming especially when you have your own practice to manage too.
Times are changing. You need to stand out from a huge crowd of competitors and other industry experts and you might even have to compete with influencers, celebrities, and more. So how do you stand out?
For this, you will need a bulletproof social media strategy.
“How do law firms create social media posts?”
“How can social media get us new clients?”
The answer, and you won’t like it, is “It depends on many factors”. In essence, it is dependent on how you market your law firm on social media, dependent on the services you offer, who your potential clients are, and the success of your branding.
There is no one right approach to law firm social media marketing. But with the right tricks and techniques, you can make social media work for you as an effective marketing platform.
With a variety of platforms available, and each having its very specific characteristics and skills needed to master, it can be quite hard to know where to begin and which platform to leverage for your firm.
Not to worry, of course, we have conducted the research and done the major heavy lifting for you and in this extensive guide on social media for lawyers and law firms; you will find the answers to all the queries you have. We will cover topics such as why social media is beneficial for lawyers, what strategies to employ on each platform, the types of posts you can create and how to understand the analytics behind these posts. So let’s dive in!
Benefits of Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms
Let’s address the most common question every legal professional has when it comes to social media – “why do I need social media to promote my practice?”. Social media is a long term game with a multitude of benefits. And who doesn’t love benefits? Here are 5 main reasons why social media is the right choice for your law firm.
1. Build brand awareness
People today are practically living online. Therefore, a strong social presence helps you express your message in front of the right audience and enhance brand awareness.
2. Engage with your target audience
People primarily use social media to not only connect with their friends and relatives but also to consume content and engage with other people’s posts. This makes it a desirable platform to engage your target audience and convert them into prospects. You could use social media to provide them with informative and engaging content, as well as answer any legal queries that crop up.
3. Attract prospective clients
Social media for lawyers and law firms is extremely beneficial if you want to attract new clients. A large portion of your clientele is probably scrolling through their feed or typing their legal queries on google. How can you help them? Create bite-sized social media posts that address their concerns in the right way.
4. Establish yourself as an industry leader
One of the reasons why social media for lawyers proves to be effective in attracting prospective clients is because it helps you showcase your expertise. You can use it to share valuable information that will help you prove your credibility and win the trust of your target audience.
5. Rank higher on search Engines
While engagement on social media platforms isn’t a direct ranking factor, there is a correlation between improved social signals and higher search engine ranking. Moreover, Google continues to work to bring interesting content such as social feeds into search results, so a massive social presence may lead to you gaining more visible space on search results for your firm’s name. Additionally, a strong social media presence contributes to a significant rise in online visibility and increase in traffic.
Content to Post on Social Media for Lawyers and Law Firms
Now it is more evident than ever that social media is highly valuable for law firms, you should not miss out on this opportunity to market your services right away. Here are some of the best ways to have a headstart on using social media for lawyers.
1. Get down to basics
Like every platform, you need to first begin with acing the ABCs of social media marketing. This includes the following:
- First, you need to find the right social media platform to invest in. It is best to start out slowly by focusing on a handful of platforms that best resonate with your target audience.
- Next, you have to start by setting realistic and measurable goals. What do you aim to get out of your social media marketing strategy? Is it to increase brand visibility? Or maybe you want to attract potential clients or you just want to engage your target audience. Either way, you should always have some proper clarity in terms of what you want to target through social media marketing.
- Finally, It is best to frame a few questions when you are developing a content strategy and calendar. These questions can be along the lines of “What type of content will I create? How often will I post content?”
Having attractive visuals plays a crucial role in social media marketing as your content is more likely to stand out when compared to other content. So your social content strategy should also focus on creating visuals that will instantly appeal to and engage your prospects.
You can share useful legal tips and simplify legal information and industry updates through original graphics that stand out. This is also essential if you’re going to use image-heavy platforms like Instagram. You can opt for free design platforms like Canva and Snappa for this.
Another good way to use social media for law firms is to make posts that are informational, instead of only promotional content. The more credible information you put out there, the better you’ll be able to prove your expertise.
When it comes to law firms, your potential clients won’t decide that you are the right person to resolve their concerns simply based on the promotion. They would also take into account your credibility as well as your experience before they decide to approach you. You can also leverage reputable industry blogs to post your curated content.
4. Get your Brand out there
Law firms can also utilize social media to enhance their brand image. This is highly essential for humanizing your firm and developing an emotional connection with your potential clients. This way, you’ll have the upper hand in terms of gaining their trust and loyalty.
5. Keep a check on competitors
If you are just starting out with your firm’s social media journey, you might be puzzled about what path you would want to take to ensure a strong social media presence. You don’t want to start off on the wrong foot.
One easy way to understand how to get traction on social media and gain a headstart on your strategy is to analyse your competitors. This will help prevent you from going in the wrong direction when creating a successful lay firm social media strategy.
Examine the law firms that are your competitors and have a stronghold in your area of specialization and the type of social media approach you like the most. Try to get clarity on what tactics they employ to promote their firm and the types of posts that help them gain followers.
What Are the Right Social Media Platforms for Lawyers?
So now you know what type of content you can create for social media. But what platforms should you post on? If you are trying to optimize your social media presence it is natural to ponder upon which platform is the best to focus your attention on. As an attorney, these are the social media platforms you should consider:
- YouTube
- Quora
Each of these platforms can be a good place to focus your attention depending on your goals and target audience.
1. Facebook
Having a Facebook page for legal content is a great way to appear as a legitimate authority online – who doesn’t have Facebook? One of the major benefits of making a Facebook page for your legal services is that it is search engine optimized. Hence when people search your name or law firm’s name, the Facebook page will be one of the first results to show up on Google.
Improve Your Facebook Page
Your Facebook page is always one of the first things to show up in search results when people Google your name, so you should want to properly elucidate the details about yourself or your law firm on your page. Be sure to accurately list the sections like the about info, location details, contact information, and give a concise description of your legal services as needed to uphold a professional image, show legal expertise, and generate the interest of potential clients in your services.
The benefits of Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are a well-integrated and highly useful feature on Facebook. Creating groups allows you to invite the ones who follow you to join a group where you can discuss different topics or post any content relevant to the group. This is similar to online forums that cover a wide array of topics.
Creating Facebook groups can be a pretty effective marketing strategy. Facebook groups would help you post content targeted toward specific people who follow you, and those are the ones who are mainly engaging with your content. Therefore, this will result in the group posts getting higher engagement than what you post on your main feed. Creating and managing a group can help you stay active within an online community and promote your or your firm’s services to those who will be facing legal dilemmas.
2. Instagram
Many companies, big and small are starting to use Instagram as part of their social media marketing strategy. Most lawyers aren’t using Instagram, Hence posting valuable legal content on Instagram could be a potentially untapped niche that you could explore as a law firm or attorney. Once users understand that your content provides value in an appealing and easy to understand manner, you will gain followers and these followers may even refer your practice to potential clients
- Usage of Targeted Hashtags and Location Features: Instagram can help you achieve targeted content views and build an audience with ease. By using specific hashtags related to legal topics along with Instagram’s location features, you can easily get a sense of and target the people who are interested in legal content and are looking for legal services within your local area.
- Short-form Content always works best: An important point to keep in mind when using Instagram is to make your posts simple and attractive to the viewer. Many who use Instagram would always be scrolling through their home feed of accounts they already follow. If you post content that is filled with complex words and jargon, readers will likely lose interest in your content.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that is widely used by lawyers. It’s also a great place for social media marketing for lawyers!. LinkedIn helps you build professional connections, which is why it can be especially great for legal services. The platform can help you connect with others in your industry or related industries, along with other business professionals who may need to avail of legal services for issues such as launching a startup or creating agreements.
- Make that profile stand out: LinkedIn can be used as both a social media platform and an online resume or portfolio. Optimizing your profile with your qualifications, work history, skills, and achievements can be a good way to showcase your expertise and attract new clients.
- Long-Form Content is Successful: One of the best benefits of LinkedIn marketing is the ability to create and also post long-form content similar to a blog post. This can create avenues for making informational content that lawyers may want to also show to their audience. Many other legal professionals who use LinkedIn are also more likely to read longer posts and share their insights as well.
- Benefits of High Engagement Rates: LinkedIn’s algorithm is also very useful for highlighting your content on others’ feeds. Many social media platforms only show certain posts to a small group of your followers. However, with LinkedIn, this isn’t as much the case, and many of your connections are more likely to see your content. This keeps your audience more engaged with your posts and builds followers on your company page, thus generating higher traffic to your website.
4. Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging platform most useful for posting concise content or relevant industry news. Using Twitter for social media marketing is an efficient way to post content as posts are meant to be short and quick to read. Regularly posting legal updates to Twitter can be a great way for lawyers to keep their names relevant to their followers and reach new people who have an interest in legal content.
- Utilize Links on Twitter: Twitter has also been good to attach the link for your firm’s blog posts or other online content. This can be helpful if you are trying to generate traffic for your legal blog on your firm’s website.
Note: Want a complete guide on backlinking? Check out our Link-building for lawyers guide for a step by step guide.
5. YouTube
It’s no secret that online video content has been piquing the interest of many people in recent times. Now, many businesses are beginning to create YouTube content to advertise their products or services where they get to understand and engage with their consumers in a newer way. However, many lawyers still don’t leverage video content as part of their social media marketing strategy.
Use Video to Display Your Expertise
Creating professionally appealing video content can help prove that you are knowledgeable and an industry leader within your field. This can help lawyers build trust with potential clients who may be searching for an attorney for their grievances. Simplifying legal news topics that concern your niche of practice along with information about the services you offer can be one of the best ways to display your expertise and potentially convert viewers into your clients over time.
Check out our complete guide to video marketing for lawyers to find out the best videos to produce for law firms.
6. Quora
Quora is a goldmine when you think about the variety of questions people have every day. The questions range from something ridiculous like “How to boil water the right way” all the way to “what is the future of the metaverse”. However, there are a lot of legitimate legal queries present as well.
As an attorney, you can leverage this platform to your benefit and answer these legal queries in the most accurate manner. Best part? This doesn’t require excessive social media knowledge like designing posts and writing captions. Quora is a simple question-answer platform that you can use with ease.
People also upvote and share answers they find on Quora, so the higher the upvotes – the more legitimate you seem as an attorney. You can also direct these people to your firm’s website or drop your email and ask them to contact you if they wish to avail of your services. Another great benefit of Quora is that if any other person searches the exact same query like “how to file a restraining order” on Google, the question will pop up and the person will click on the question and refer to your answer as well. This is a great strategy to attract potential clients who are looking for a particular service that falls in your niche.
Social Media Marketing Tips for Lawyers
Now you know the right platforms, but how do you go about creating the right kind of content? Here are a few steps you can follow to imbibe social media best practices that will help you get the ideal results and clientele. Consider these tips as baby steps that will guide you and give you a good start with social media marketing.
Make it Simple
Always remember KISS, and no it’s about the act of kissing or the famous American rock band. The acronym stands for “Keep It Stupid Simple”. When you create or are posting social media content, it’s very crucial to keep it simple. All the people who are on social media are looking for quick, easy-to-understand content that they can see before they carry on with their work or chill. Get a grasp of your audience preference and avoid using complicated legal jargon in your content in a way that the average person might need a dictionary to get your post.
Have strong Goals
Make sure to always establish clear social media marketing targets before you start creating or posting content. Posting different types of content will lead to many possible results and will attract a variety of audiences. Having specific goals in mind will help you develop a solid foundation to work on the type of content you should put out and what audiences you want to reach.
Plan or Schedule Content
Planning is always a good quality to have, whether it is for your client work, your vacation or even your social media posts. Creating content that you want to post ahead of time can be a great way to stay consistent and will take away a lot of the stress of social media marketing. Posting content consistently is a smart way to get more views and keep your name popping up at the top of your follower’s feed when they are thinking about hiring a lawyer.
Location, Location, Location
Various social media platforms also offer location features so you can target people in a specific area as well. This will be highly beneficial if you are trying to generate leads or find potential clients within your local area.
Don’t break the law
Sounds like a no brainer for an attorney right? It is important to keep in mind that depending on the jurisdiction, lawyers may have more regulations to be mindful of in terms of what they can post or say on social media. You always have to look into the bar rules and regulations within your area for compliance responsibilities and ethics. Ensure that you have a clear idea of these regulations before you post any content as a lawyer.
What Are Social Media Analytics?
The concept of social media analytics talks about the process of gathering and analyzing your data, reports, and metrics provided by all your law firm’s social media accounts. These analytics give you an insight into many major factors that directly impact the success of your social media marketing strategy.
With social media analytics, you can get a clear sense of and learn more about who your target audience is and what style of social media content best resonates with them, what are the platforms receiving the most traffic, the type of social content that contributes to leads, and how to improve engagement with your audience overall.
The key benefits of social media analytics are:
- Gather insights on how to create a winning social media campaign
- Work with the right experts for your law firm
- Benchmark against your competitors
- Find out more on the trending topics
Social Media Analytics for Lawyers and Law Firms
Legal professionals should put more focus on certain specific metrics and data points – this includes engagements, impressions, and leads – which primarily is important to a campaign’s overall objective. So what metrics should an attorney focus on? Here are a few examples:
- Audience reports that display your follower growth as well as analyse if there is a decrease in follower count
- Published posts reports to show the number of posts you’ve published at a particular time.
- Interactions report to showcase the number of likes, reactions and comments you have received on your posts.
- Shares analytics reports to identify the audience members who shared or reposted your post.
- An impressions report will give you the number of views your posts have received
- A sessions report displays how many web sessions took place on your website that were driven by social media. This can be improved with a powerful CTA (call to action)
How to Improve Social Media Analytics
So how to build the perfect strategy to get the ideal metrics? Here are a few steps you can take to track the right social media analytics. It is vital to track and analyse the metrics to ensure your firm’s campaign is going as planned.
To begin, always set SMART goals. By ensuring that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, it will be easier to fine-tune your strategy for success. Ask yourself what information you want from your analytics and how you plan to apply that knowledge to your future social media campaigns.
Firstly, Identify the most important metrics to prioritise and track. There are so many social media metrics you can analyse. But in order to save time, focus on the ones that have a direct impact on your goals. The metrics you have access to vary from platform to platform along with the type of tools you may be using. The most common metrics to consider primarily includes reach, engagements, impressions, likes, retweets, shares, follower growth, unique visitors etc.
Now you have to pick the social media analytics tools you’d prefer to use. There are several to choose from and you need to narrow down your choices based on what makes the most sense for your firm and practice.
Make any necessary adjustments to your social media handles and posts as per the results of the analytics. Once you’ve completed the steps above, you’ll begin to understand where you should make changes to your social media strategy.
Conclusion
Social media has now become much more than just a platform for posting and sharing memes and it has definitely evolved from the conventional idea of just staying connected with family and friends. It’s a digital medium that, when used the right way, can take your business to new heights. Pick a social media platform based on the industry you’re in and set SMART goals. Provide valuable content that your ideal clients will understand and aim to build meaningful connections. Create a social media strategy that will help you grow your business the right way.
Need assistance in marketing your services the right way? Well, we can help you with that! Valeo Legal Marketing provides SEO and Content Marketing services that generate organic leads and traffic to your website and build your brand awareness in such a way that it will help grow your business and take it to greater heights. Whether you are an independent attorney, a small or medium-sized law firm looking to get more clients: go ahead and reach out to us. Let’s chat about how we can make a difference for you!
FAQs
It is not mandatory that a lawyer has to balance their practice and their social media handles too. Don’t try to juggle too much, instead hire a social media manager. A social media manager is a person who creates content for different social media platforms and has a solid idea on how to get the right analytics and engagement for your website; ultimately getting you the clients you need.
A law firm with expertise in multiple niches has plenty of content ideas in contrast to independent attorneys and boutique law firms. The firm can maintain a schedule for creating and posting content and can pre-decide the type of content to put out in advance. Sure you can make a fun listicle on “how to apply for a US visa” but don’t let your content only be limited to immigration law. Try switching it up and make a Youtube video on “The basics of Personal Injury Law’ as well.
The answer here is: it depends! On what, you ask? Well, people are online at 3 pm and even at 3 am. There is no one right time for posting and every social media platform is different in terms of algorithms. Go forth and hit that post button when you feel it’s right.
Yes, you definitely can. However, make sure you do not copy-paste each and everything when reposting. A plethora of Hashtags work on Instagram but not on LinkedIn and Facebook. Similarly, a 10 minute YouTube video may not work on Instagram. Try to employ different strategies but let the essence of the content remain the same everywhere.
Having a strong social media team certainly has its perks. Assigning copywriters, content writers and social media marketers can boost your chances of getting higher engagement on your posts and ultimately bagging potential clients.
