law firm social media marketing Archives

Social media is an invaluable marketing tool for any attorney at any size of law firm. Unfortunately, it won’t run or sustain itself. Those who want to reap the benefits of being present on social media platforms must be willing and able to put in the time and effort to experience the return. If you want to leverage social media, it’s imperative to have an editorial calendar.

What is a Law Firm Social Media Editorial Calendar?

If you use your social media without planning and forethought, you won’t get the results you’d like. Your audience doesn’t want to read about the same topic every other week or issues that may no longer apply in their situation. Instead, they want fresh topics pertinent to their questions and experiences. An editorial calendar helps you plan things out, allowing you to cover a wide variety of balanced topics relevant to your social media audience.

Creating Your Law Firm’s Social Media Editorial Calendar

Use Tools

First, you’ll want to take advantage of a basic Google Doc or Google spreadsheet to map out each month of content. This step is essential before moving onto the design phase as you need it to review, rearrange and proof your calendar. Additionally, you may want to consider using another tool that allows you to plan social media in advance by pre-loading your calendar. Buffer or Hootsuite are two viable options that many law firms and other types of businesses use.

Consider Holidays and Other Events

The best way to create an editorial calendar that works for your social media accounts starts with a brain dump. Consider your audience and what makes sense to their calendars. Think about holidays, back to school, tax season, summer vacations, the Super Bowl, preparing for winter weather, and other notable dates or seasons that might apply to your audience.

For instance, publishing content about parenting plans over winter or summer break should be timed accordingly if you practice family law. You can also tie in other dates of the year—for example, a blog about grandparent involvement in the lives of their divorce grandkids around Grandparents Day (always the first Sunday after Labor Day).

Address Applicable Common Questions and Concerns

Once the basics are covered on your editorial calendar, consider some of the most common questions or stumbling blocks your clients encounter. Aim to publish several posts throughout the month with this helpful information. If you aren’t sure what information your audience might be searching for, check out tools such as TextOptimizer, which can show you what your potential clients are googling. Use a keyword of your choosing on the “Find Content Ideas” page to find out what questions are being asked about specific areas of law that you practice.

Plug these topics into your calendar where you see fit. For example, you may want to reserve those that require more depth for when your schedule is more open, providing you with more time to focus on your content. Save easier topics for busier weeks.

Add Relatable Details

Remember to add details that make you or your firm seem human and relatable. To do this, you can include things like:

Behind the scenes office photos
Pictures of you at speaking events
Anything else business-related that shows there’s a personality and team behind your law firm

These are all great ways to cultivate a connection with your audience and prospective clients. You want them to see you as a human who is compassionate and approachable, not just a robot behind a screen somewhere. Keep in mind when publishing content that many readers are searching for an attorney or law firm to represent them. They want someone who is personable and relatable. They aren’t searching for just anyone who is knowledgeable and can get the job done.

Make Your Social Media Editorial Calendar Work for You

Never forget that this is your social media editorial calendar. You get to choose and maybe even experiment with what works for your practice and what doesn’t. With a little bit of time and effort, you could experience a significant RIO.

Article By Meranda M. Vieyra of Denver Legal Marketing

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

We hear this question all the time: “How do I promote my law firm on social media?”

The answer, as you might imagine, is “It depends”. In essence, how you market your law firm on social media depends on the services you offer, who your potential clients are, and the personality of your brand.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to law firm social media marketing. But with the right tools, you can make social media work for you as an effective marketing platform.

In this guide, we’re covering some tried and tested strategies for growing your law firm on social media, including expert tips for getting more reach, engagement, and clients.

Do Law Firms Need Social Media Marketing?

Another common question we encounter is whether law firms need social media marketing at all. We believe this question comes from the belief that social media is mainly a personalized platform that’s not suited for business – particularly, legal services.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, social media presents countless opportunities for potential and existing clients to engage with your business, read your content, ask questions, and much more.

This is why over 95% of law firms in a recent Attorney at Work survey said they use social media and why 70% use it as part of their overall marketing strategy.

So, the short answer is Yes – law firms should be investing in social media marketing in order to reach more clients and boost their online authority.

The Benefits of Social Media for Law Firms

Is your law firm on social media? If not, it’s time to consider implementing an effective social media marketing strategy.

Here are many ways law firms can benefit from social media marketing:

Boost Brand Awareness

A 2019 Sprout Social survey found that 44% of consumers have increased their social media usage, meaning there are more people on these platforms than ever before. Social media presents an array of opportunities for law firms to reach a wider audience, build brand awareness, and get in front of potential clients.

Engage New and Existing Followers

If you have any social media following at all, you should be engaging with these followers on a regular basis to build brand loyalty and grow your referral network. If you stay top-of-mind with your followers, you’re more likely to attract new clients. Further, you’re able to boost engagement, answer questions, and provide valuable content to your followers.

Improve Your SEO

Studies show that there is a correlation between improved social media signals and increased search engine rankings. Since search engine optimization (SEO) is an important component of any effective law firm marketing strategy, implementing social media marketing could have an impact in terms of improving your rankings and traffic.

Attract New Clients

A 2018 study by the American Bar Association found that 35% of law firms that use social media marketing have gained new clients as a result of their efforts. With the right strategy, your firm can use social media to attract new clients organically and/or through paid efforts. What would more clients mean for your law firm?

Build Brand Authority

Trust is one of the most important factors people consider when choosing a law firm. With social media marketing, you can establish thought leadership by showcasing your expertise, sharing valuable content, and engaging your followers. This will help you stand out from other firms and win trust with your audience.

Social Media Marketing Strategies for Law Firms

In the last couple of years, when looking at internet marketing for lawyers, social media has exploded as an effective marketing tool for businesses across a wide range of industries. Social media has gone beyond selfies and memes to become a powerful tool for helping businesses reach more customers online.

Law firms should be leveraging social media to engage followers, boost engagement, improve brand authority, and attract new clients.

Below, we share a few strategies for today’s top social platforms to help firms accomplish these goals and see lucrative results.

Facebook Marketing

With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms by far. However, many lawyers are left scratching their heads when they fail to see results from their Facebook marketing efforts.

This is because WHAT you post is far more important than how often you post or even how many followers you have. The key is to post the right content for the right audience at the right time to nurture engagement, drive clicks, and attract clients.

Increase Organic Reach

Video content represents over 74% of all online traffic and is one of the leading drivers of organic reach on Facebook. To get more eyes on your content, consider creating video content for your law firm. This content can be oriented around common questions your followers have or provide valuable “how to” information for navigating the legal process.

Diversify Your Content

Questions, images, and videos have been proven to be more engaging than other types of content, but you should be mixing up your content to see what works best for your audience. Facebook provides valuable insights into how often users are interacting with your content, so over time you can post more content your particular audience is interested in.

Utilize Facebook Live Video

Facebook users spend three times as much time watching Live videos compared to traditional video. If you’re not camera shy, Facebook Live videos can help you increase your organic reach and boost engagement. You’ll have the opportunity to interact with your followers in real time, answer questions, and point them to valuable resources to help them with their legal issues.

LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms for law firms, particularly for those in the B2B space. If your firm provides legal services to businesses, you definitely need to be on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn gets a bad rap for being a “stuffy” platform, but this has changed drastically over recent years. Today, LinkedIn is a great platform for sharing valuable content, interacting with peers, building thought leadership, and winning over new clients.

Optimize Your Profile

LinkedIn’s search function works similarly to a search engine in that if a user is searching for a law firm or legal services, LinkedIn will direct them to the page that profiles the most relevant information and has the closest degree of Connections. With this in mind, law firms can use LinkedIn SEO to optimize their pages for search and attract more Connections and, hopefully, clients.

Ask for Recommendations

Ask your peers and previous clients to provide you with Recommendations on LinkedIn. These are similar to what would be considered reviews on other profiles. And don’t be afraid to ask opposing counsel or co-counsel to recommend you; what could be better than being called a worthy opponent?

Publish Relevant Content

While engaging with others’ content is part of the deal with LinkedIn marketing, you should also be posting your own content on a regular basis. This should consist of standard posts, images, videos, and LinkedIn articles. Be sure to cover topics that are relevant to your audience and then respond to all questions/comments in the Comments section.

Instagram Marketing

Millennials are now the largest generation in the workplace and make up the majority of users on social media. So before you diss being on yet another social media platform, consider the audience you are trying to reach and the platforms they are using to engage with businesses like yours.

Instagram is one such platform that’s popular with the under 35 crowd. Here are a few strategies to use to grow your firm’s Instagram account:

Avoid Stock Photos

Instagram is a great platform for engaging your followers through visual content, but this requires eye-catching imagery that speaks to your target audience. Basic stock images just won’t cut it. We recommend using professional photos and/or custom graphics that are on-brand and relate to the services your law firm offers. The goal is to stand out from the crowd.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags allow you to maximize your organic reach on Instagram. Look up hashtags that are related to your practice areas and service area. Research the hashtags your competitors are using and test the results. This can be a great way to gain followers.

Get Personal

Don’t bore your audience with run-of-the-mill content. Get personal in your posts by sharing stories, updates, insights, interviews, and more. Remember, people are more likely to hire someone they trust, so being personable and authentic will get you far. Reference events, team birthdays, anniversaries, scholarship recipients, etc. to help people connect with your firm.

Use Instagram Stories

The goal with Instagram is to get users to interact with your content and, eventually, reach out to work with you. Instagram Stories allow you to post polls, questions, gifs, and more to get people to engage and respond to your content. These can also give you more insight into what your audience is interested in and what questions they have.

Paid Social Media Advertising

By this point we have covered a variety of organic social media marketing strategies, but Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing is an option as well. This is where you can run paid ads on social media to drive clicks and leads.

PPC can be a great option to generate more results faster, assuming it works with your budget. We recommend supplementing your organic efforts with paid advertising to establish a holistic marketing strategy.

Try Your Hand at Facebook Ads

Facebook gives you the option to “promote” your business through paid ads, but this requires skill and a data-driven approach. You’ll need a thorough understanding of who your audience is and what they are interested in. Then, you can set your targeting to reach the right audience with the right type of content.

You can display ads to people who have liked your page and/or set targeting based on age, gender, location, or interests. You can then drive users to your website or inspire them to send you a message on Facebook to learn more about your services.

We never want you to be in a position where you’re blowing your budget on Facebook Ads, so if this type of marketing is new to you, it may be worth working with an expert who can maximize your results.

Utilize LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn Ads work similar to Facebook Ads and allow you to promote various types of content including posts, videos, and display ads. These ads can help you reach more users beyond what you’d be able to reach organically.

Again, the key here is to set the right targeting parameters so you reach people who would actually be interested in your services. This takes practice and a close eye to notice how your ads are performing over time. Consider working with an expert to get the most out of your LinkedIn advertising.

YouTube Marketing

YouTube may not be a true social media platform but it is one of the best channels for video marketing. Many times, you can publish your video content on YouTube and then share it across social media.

Consider implementing YouTube marketing to drive more users to your website and social media channels.

Follow YouTube SEO

YouTube has an organic search function that allows users to find videos on topics they are interested in. And you best believe people are searching YouTube for answers to their legal questions all the time. This is where you can create content that draws users in based on the keywords they are searching for.

Tools like TubeBuddy allow you to find focus keywords to target with your videos. You can use these keywords in your video titles, tags, and descriptions in order to rank in YouTube search.

Distribute Video Content Across Channels

Once you’ve published your video content on YouTube, share these videos to your other social media channels. Here are a few places you can share your video content:

LinkedIn
Facebook
Facebook Ads
LinkedIn Ads
Vimeo
Your law firm blog
Your email list
Instagram
Twitter

If you’re going to take the time to create amazing video content, why not get the best ROI possible? Share your videos across platforms for a far-reaching social media marketing strategy.

Make Social Media Work for Your Firm

Your law firm’s social media strategy doesn’t have to be yawn-worthy. In fact, there are many ways to use social media to your advantage while boosting audience engagement and driving new leads. Content marketing for law firms doesn’t have to be intimidating, it’s all about being creative and publishing content your audience is truly interested in.

Like we said at the beginning, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to law firm social media marketing. Over time, you’ll discover what works best for your firm and be able to maximize your ROI.

Do you have a social media strategy for your law firm? If not, start today.

ARTICLE BY Jason Hennessey of Hennessey Digital

For more articles on law firm marketing, visit the NLRLaw Office Management section.