Social media should be part of every law firm’s online marketing strategy. If your law firm is not posting on social media regularly, you may not generate as much brand exposure, trust and credibility as other firms.
Why is Social Media Important?
Social media gives you the opportunity to connect with clients on a more emotional and personal level. People expect businesses to be accessible online and many will look at law firms’ social media to find out more information about the firm and their values.
Brand Awareness
The use of social media use is continuing to grow. According to Datareportal, 60% of the world’s population is now using social media and the average time spent using social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes per day. By having a strong social media presence where you create regular high-quality content, you will get your message across to the right audience and will increase your brand awareness and exposure.
Lead generation and new connections
Social media is a great way to generate new leads and connections. By having greater exposure to a wider audience you can encourage more traffic to your website and engage with current or new clients.
Establish Leadership
Having a good social media presence for law firms is essential to build a strong brand presence and establishing credibility. You can use social media to showcase your firm’s expertise and share valuable information to win the trust of your audience and establish leadership in the industry.
Improve your SEO
Although social media is not a direct ranking factor social media has the potential to drive high-quality web traffic to your website, whether that is a particular news post or a link to an expertise page, you will increase visibility, improve traffic, and generate backlinks. These signals will show Google that your content is credible and could indirectly improve your search rankings.
How to Optimise your Social Media
Post Regularly
Creating regular posts is important to stay connected with your audience and remind them of your services. The more content you create, the more opportunities there are for exposure and new leads.
Hashtags
Using relevant hashtags in your social posts is a great way to reach audiences that are interested in a particular topic. This will increase your brand exposure and discovery.
Reply to comments and messages
Responding to comments/messages and engaging with your audience on your social media posts is an important part of social media marketing. This will build a sense of community and show your audience that you are responsive to your client’s needs or concerns.
Social Listening
Social listening tools are a great way to understand what people are talking about outside of your profiles and what discussions are taking place.
You can use social media management tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social to help discover conversations going on outside your profiles and keep up to date with conversations that might be related to your law firm. These social media management tools are also a great way to stay on top of your comments and messages too.
What Should I be Posting on Social Media?
Share Visual content
Sharing images, videos and visuals is much more pleasing to the eye and grabs the audience’s attention much faster than text. Videos make information easier to digest but also help give your brand some personality. If you are struggling with video content ideas, you could complete some competitor analysis to see what videos your competitors are making and if they are being received well, this could help you understand what your potential clients would want to see from your own videos.
Canva is a good tool to use to create your own branded graphics. For example, Hogan Lovells has recently created a post on Twitter about their growth in chambers rankings by creating their own visual sharing some of the statistics with their branding. This makes the content easier to digest and is also more eye-catching compared to just having the statistics stated in the post.
Showcase knowledge and expertise
Other than just promoting your law firm, social media is a great way for your law firm to showcase its knowledge and experience in the industry. The more informative content you publish, the more credibility and trust you will build and as a result, potential clients will be more likely to want to work with your firm.
Share Insights
You can share insights from your website such as blogs, news or recent case updates to demonstrate your expertise in the industry. Make sure to use a relevant and high-quality image to attract the attention of the audience and also create an enticing caption that doesn’t just repeat what is said in the post but that will encourage users to click through to your website.
Create conversation about the latest industry news
Creating content about recent industry news will show your audience that you are current and keep up to date with legal news and important updates. You may also reach someone who is interested in contacting you for advice on the topic and generate new leads.
You can also curate content from reliable and relevant sources and other reputable industry blogs. This will provide your audience with high-value information and also opportunities to connect with industry leaders.
Share Achievements and History
Sharing content other than content promoting your services and recent news will help give your profile more personality and the opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. This could include posts about new team members, promotions, events and accreditations etc.
Final Thoughts
Social media marketing for law firms is a great way to boost your overall online marketing efforts. An excellent social media strategy will increase brand recognition, traffic, audience reach and engagement and leads.
