Being authentic, building trust and authority as well as doing something a bit different to competitors, are all great ways to market your law firm on social media. Channels like Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin can be great places for law firms to build brand awareness and generate client enquiries.
I'll also share with you the REAL win for law firms using social media, based on a real case study.
What Are The Benefits of Social Media for Law Firms?
On average, global internet users spend 144 minutes on social media sites per day. Your law firm can take advantage by:
Creating brand awareness
There’s no harm in setting up a presence across all social media channels, but managing them all effectively can be tricky.
Contrary to what many experts might tell you, your business won't come crashing down if you don't post regularly. The danger of not managing each channel however is that you may miss a customer enquiry or someone asking you a question.
Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin are good places to start if you are looking to engage individuals or businesses.
Set up branded profiles complete with your law firm’s logo and contact details. You can also start to include things that will help add credibility such as reviews, awards and links to useful website content.
For each channel you'll want a useful, descriptive bio that explains why people should follow you. Be aware of the difference between your personal profile and your business profile. For example business profiles are specific to the business, whereas your personal profile may offer more personal opinion.
Increasing engagement
Connecting with your target audience on social media can help you turn them into prospective clients. Posting useful content and being visible creates more engagement.
Attract prospective clients
Having an online presence increases your chances of client enquiries and case opens. You’ll be fresh in their minds when it comes to decision time.
What are the downsides of social media for law firms?
Time-consuming
Spending time trying to perfect your social media presence can distract you from your primary job.
You can also spend time and money posting content and if you don’t have an audience, you have wasted your resources. Building an audience takes time and can cause frustration.
Vanity metrics
Like all marketing for law firms, your social media strategy should be aligned with your business goal; getting more relevant enquiries.
We all love the endorphin hit of more likes, shares and interactions, but if this isn’t pushing the needle on enquiries, then you need to review the impact of your efforts.
It’s easy to get engagement from friends, colleagues and business partners on social media, but getting in front of potential customers and encouraging action is a bit trickier.
Make sure you measure the right things!
Where does it sit in your marketing mix?
On a basic level, social media is easy for us to understand. We post something, people see it or don’t and engage with it or don’t.
But what if there are more effective ways to market to your audience? What if SEO for solicitors is a more effective way of targeting potential clients when they are actively looking for your services?
Be aware that social media is only a small part of the promotional aspect of your marketing mix.
UK Social Media Users
51 million facebook
30 million instagram
What social channels should law firms use?
It is the world's largest online professional network, boasting over 5 million members in the UK alone.
Many professionals and companies are taking to LinkedIn to widen their network. While it is full of “business” people, they are also people who will need personal (and business) legal advice.
You can use the platform to position yourself as a thought leader while engaging your audience and capturing the attention of potential clients interested in what you offer.
As of January 2021, there were over 51 million Facebook users in the UK. Facebook is also a platform for professionals who, away from work, will sign in on Facebook and connect with friends and family. You are looking at a large pool of potential clients.
Your law firm can use Facebook to share updates and be topical with any news that may affect them.
Facebook can also be an effective ads platform (more on that below).
Part of Facebook, Instagram also has an engaged audience of over 30 million people according to Statista.
A great platform for images and videos, you can use Instagram to showcase the personalities within your law firm.
You can send tweets while using appropriate, relevant hashtags to engage people in an online conversation on Twitter. You can spark a debate and get connected with like-minded professionals and your target audience.
#SolicitorHour is an example of a commonly used hashtag by the UK Law Society to involve everyone in their weekly online discussion. Use this hashtag to gauge what people discuss and possibly participate in the conversation to increase your brand awareness.
People often take to Twitter to resolve customer service issues.
Tik Tok
Tik Tok has more than 500 million active monthly users according to Hubspot.
You've probably heard of it and if you're of a certain age, probably avoid it! But it isn't going away any time soon.
Tik Tok helps users make and share videos using a number of tools ranging from filters to sounds. For casual users, Tik Tok offers a flood of suggestions for what to watch.
It isn't as widely used by the business industry as other social platforms and certainly not in the legal sector. But there's an opportunity. If you're prepared to create your own content, share other users content and even advertise, you could get loads more visibility at a lower cost.
Tik Tok has a younger audience than Facebook, but those youngsters will need legal services in the next few years.
How can law firms use social media
Step 1: Choose the right platforms
There’s no harm in setting up a presence across all social media channels, but managing them can be a different matter.
Contrary to what many experts might tell you, your business won't come crashing down if you don't post regularly. The danger of not managing each channel however is that you may miss a customer enquiry or someone asking you a question.
Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin are good places to start if you are looking to attract individuals or businesses.
Set up branded profiles complete with your law firm’s logo and contact details. You can also start to include things that will help add credibility such as reviews, awards and links to useful website content.
For each channel you'll want a useful, descriptive bio that explains why people should follow you. Be aware of the difference between your personal profile and your business profile. For example business profiles are specific to the business, whereas your personal profile may offer more personal oppinion.
Step 2: Set reasonable goals
What do you want to get from your social media presence? Do you want to use it to drive enquiries or can you use it as a customer service channel? For example clients may want to get quotes directly from Facebook messenger or ask a question publicly on Twitter.
Setting goals will help you determine how much time you need to put into content creation as well as who will be responsible for it.
Step 3: Content strategy
No need for massive spreadsheets for the next 6 months, but have an idea of your narratives. What type of things do you want to say and what will the impact be.
One of your social media goals is to create content that provokes and solicits a reaction.
The 80/20 rule on social media is a relevant one. Sales or client acquisition-based posts such as solicitor marketing should make up less than 20% of your activity.
You can share entertaining articles, news, and other articles related to your practice area. The 20% is where you talk about your specific services and what your law firm can do for potential clients.
Step 4: Have a working routine
Logging in, creating content, posting, monitoring... it can all be daunting. One of the simplest ways to overcome this is to work it into your daily routine.
For example, find a news story relevant to your services, get your smart phone out and type an opinion or response to the news. It could be text or a video. Don't agonise over it, just post it.
Step 5: Get staff involved
Invite colleagues, friends and family to like your social profiles. It's an easy way to start building a small audience. Staff may be encouraged to have their own personal profiles which you can use to repost any updates from your company pages.
Step 6: Throw "best practices" out the window
The only thing that's true on any social media platform is that that if you build expertise, authority and trust, you'll win.
People say that Linkedin is for business, but if posting personal things gets you more engagement and clients then they are wrong.
You can post anything, anywhere and see what happens.
The real win for law firms on social media
Social channels are just like big advertising platforms. If you advertise efficiently, you'll get more clients.
The downside to advertising is that you pay when someone engages or even views your advert.
But the upside is that you can make less content go way further and ensure you are reaching the right people.
Example: I worked with a client who was paying a "social media specialist" £500 each month to create "content". The content was posted on Instagram and Facebook to an audience of less than 100 people and then routinely liked by the content created, a few friends and family members.
Now what if the client paid £100 to create the content and invested £400 in promoting it? Suddenly the audience becomes 1000's and the engagement level not only increases, but increases from people who hadn't previously seen you.
Get started
Pick a competitor, see how they are using social media and see if you can replicate their approach or even do it better.
Once you start posting content you'll get a feel for what is working and what isn't.
To start making social media work for your law firm, get in touch.