Content Writer
The rise of social media for lawyers revolutionized the way legal professionals market their services. With a great social media strategy under their belt, lawyers have high chances of conquering the online world.
Law firms are not an exception as digital marketing continues to grow in popularity. They soon found out that social media marketing is an indispensable tool that boosts their reach, helps them communicate clearly, and increases their chances of running a profitable law firm.
In this article, we’ll explore the main benefits of social media for law firms and show you how you can leverage informative and engaging content for more conversions.
Streamline your marketing with an efficient social media strategy template.
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the practice of creating regular content that builds and engages one’s online following.
The regular use of social media marketing can improve your law firm’s marketing strategy, boost brand awareness, attract new clients, and drive website traffic.
Many law firms use social media to promote their professional services and share valuable content that can help legal consumers choose their go-to law firm with total certainty.
Why Should Lawyers Use Social Media Marketing?
Your legal services deserve to be in the spotlight. For that, you’ll have to create social media posts that add value to your professional persona and emphasize educational content.
Simply put, your social media feed should have the power to make a former client reconsider their decision. Social media is an incredibly powerful tool. Without it, it’s almost impossible to develop and improve your law firm’s brand.
Here are the top five reasons why lawyers should use social media marketing:
- Build credibility ━ Prospective clients have many expectations. Most importantly, they expect you to be an expert in your field. Don’t shy away from sharing your knowledge and experience.
- Increase visibility ━ It’s vital for you to promote your law firm services through social media. In turn, this will boost your online presence and enable you to generate qualified leads.
- Connect with colleagues ━ Choose to use social channels, such as LinkedIn, to connect with other professionals and grow your followers list. Collaborations are also a great idea, especially with colleagues who have better reach than you do.
- Stay informed ━ In order for you to have more legal consumers, you’ll need to always be aware of the latest industry news and trends. As for your competitors, social media allows you to keep an eye on what they’re doing and draw some inspiration for your next social media posts.
- Generate leads ━ Generating qualified leads is what social media is great for. All you need to do is identify the channels worth leveraging. Once you do this, create a social media strategy that fits your marketing KPIs. Become a go-to figure in the legal space and watch the leads pour in.
How to Promote Your Firm Using Social Media for Lawyers
Do you want to know something both exciting and frightening?
Your target client might be looking for your law firm’s social channels right now. A quick Google search should efficiently lead them to your social accounts. So, how are you going to seal the deal?
Here are the top 10 ways to promote your firm using social media for lawyers:
- Set your social media marketing goals
- Research your target audience
- Choose the right social media platforms
- Keep up with your competitors
- Stick to a consistent posting schedule
- Customize your social media strategy for each platform
- Respond to comments and DMs from prospective clients
- Leverage hashtags and keywords
- Diversify your content
- Monitor your social media presence
1. Set Your Social Media Marketing Goals
Prior to creating your social media strategy, you should first define your main social media marketing goals.
By doing this, you’ll easily identify the right social platforms for promoting your services. Furthermore, setting goals first and foremost enables you to build an efficient social media content strategy. Feel free to tailor it in a way that makes sense to your unique needs.
Here are the most common social media marketing goals for lawyers:
- Better visibility
- Long-lasting relationships
- Increased brand awareness
- More qualified leads
- Boosted website traffic
When in doubt, give SMART goals a try. To put it briefly, they should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
It’s also equally important for law firms to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of social media advertising efforts and campaigns.
To do this, you will need a clear set of goals that will allow you to make confident moves in the world of legal social media.
Here are some examples of specific social media goals for lawyers:
- Increase the number of Twitter followers by 25% within six months with a consistent posting schedule and by regularly interacting with your audience.
- Boost blog post views by 50% in four months by leveraging social media content marketing.
- Increase Facebook post engagement by 20% in the next 3 months through polls, quizzes, and live Q&As.
2. Research Your Target Audience
As a lawyer, you need to know more about your audience before addressing them directly. To achieve this, you’ll need to do some research and discover what makes them tick.
Here are the three steps to take when researching your target audience:
- Understand your clients ━ To start, look at the clients you’re currently working with. Then, categorize them based on age, gender, location, habits, interests, needs, etc. By doing this, you will get a clearer picture of what they might be interested in seeing from you.
- Analyze your competition━ This one’s very easy to do. Become aware of the influencers/law professionals your target audience follows and inspect the way they choose to interact with their clients. Also, be aware of the content types they’re sharing and see how well they’re performing based on their like count.
- Collect data ━ Use analytics to get a more precise glimpse into the interests and behavioral patterns of your target audience. Use this data to customize social media campaigns accordingly.
Having a robust understanding of your target audience enables you to create content that directly addresses their needs and preferences.
3. Choose the Right Social Media Platforms
Spreading yourself too thin across a variety of social media networks can be both overwhelming and unnecessary.
To avoid this from ever happening, pick the social media channels that are most relevant to your law firm and audience.
Here are the top three most popular social media platforms for lawyers:
- LinkedIn ━ LinkedIn is the best social media platform for professional networking. Go ahead and showcase your experience and skills as a lawyer through LinkedIn marketing. That way, you’ll expand your network of contacts and come across some prospective clients.
- Twitter ━ Twitter can boost your thought leadership, and help you stay up-to-date with the latest news and trends related to your legal practice. Besides, you can also connect with new clients.
- Facebook ━ Facebook can help you nurture your relationship with your existing clients and keep them up-to-date about recent developments or upcoming events.
Regardless of the social media platforms you decide to use, make sure that you post content regularly and use a content calendar to help you further streamline your efforts.
Boost your content creation with hundreds of post ideas, examples and Canva templates.
4. Keep Up with Your Competitors
In order for you to surpass all competition, you’ll need to do a competitive analysis on social media. Research and evaluate the social media presence of your main competitors and identify the areas that need improvement.
A competitive analysis will require you to analyze your competitors’ social media accounts. Inspect their posts, follower engagement, content strategy, and advertising campaigns. Once you start to keep up with your competitors, you’ll begin to stay ahead in the legal industry.
Make sure to regularly analyze their social media presence and take note of the types of content they share. Finally, keep an eye on how they’re engaging with their followers and think of better ways to do this yourself.
Here are three tips for researching your competitors:
- Analyze their posts ━ Examine the types of content your competitors publish and take a look at their most popular posts. Next, observe the post frequency they usually go for and note down any successful content ideas that might fit your own social media strategy.
- Examine their social media content ━ Does the content of your competitors perform well? Pinpoint the social media content that resonates with their followers and how it’s performing in terms of engagement and reach.
- See how they interact with their audience ━ When receiving new comments, are your competitors quick to offer compelling replies? If not, how would you tackle the communication aspect? Take notes and think of how your competitors could improve their customer service. Finally, apply these suggestions to your own social media strategy.
Access the template below for a streamlined social media audit process.
5. Stick to a Consistent Posting Schedule
Social media is a must-have marketing channel for lawyers who wish to improve their brand awareness, gain a competitive advantage, and generate new leads.
More so, posting regularly on social media can help lawyers speak to a wider audience. To achieve this, you’ll need to establish a posting schedule.
Here are three ways to develop a consistent posting schedule:
- Make a content plan ━ To create an effective social media presence, it is important to plan ahead by deciding what kind of content to post, when, and how often. Then, choose the frequency of your posts and choose the best times for your posts to go out. You can do this by either checking your analytics or by following the advice of social media experts.
- Create and reshare evergreen content ━ Evergreen content is necessary if you want to save up time and remind your followers about timeless information. Some examples of evergreen content are industry-related tips, client testimonials, or promotional posts about your legal services. Periodically share them to improve your search engine rankings and drive conversions.
- Take advantage of automation ━ Automating social media content creation and scheduling can help lawyers save time while still making the most of social networking platforms. It allows them to schedule posts in advance and therefore free up time for other important tasks.
Lawyers must become aware of the best social media management tools and leverage them to the max.
SocialBee is an all-in-one tool that helps you create content and schedule it in advance. In time, this will allow you to manage your time much more efficiently and streamline your workflow like never before.
Schedule and share all your social media posts with SocialBee. Manage multiple social media accounts from one tab and save hours of effort each week.
SocialBee: Your AI-powered social media management tool
6. Customize Your Social Media Strategy for Each Platform
It’s a well-known fact that each social platform must be treated differently. There are major differences to consider in terms of content types, frequency, best posting times, hashtags, and more.
Adjusting your social media strategy for each platform will not only help you reach a wider audience, but it will also allow you to better engage your target audience and increase social media interactions.
Did you know that the SocialBee app allows you to customize your posts before they get posted across various social media channels? This allows you to limit your description characters when needed or remove links that should belong to your bio instead.
Here’s how you can customize your social media posts with SocialBee:
- Log into the SocialBee app
- Click the “Add Post” button at the very top of your screen
- Select the social media platforms you wish to post to
- Upload the photo(s)/video(s) by clicking the “Add a photo or video” button
- Type in the description
- Click the “Customize for each profile” button
- Customize the descriptions for each social channel
- Click “Save Post” once you’re finished
Create and customize your posts for every social media platform—change the word count, adjust the size of your visuals, and add different hashtags to fit the requirements of each social network.
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Learn when and how often to post various content types, from fun to educational and more.
7. Respond to Comments and DMs from Prospective Clients
Social media is all about connecting with prospective clients and guiding them down your sales funnel.
As a lawyer, you surely must recognize the importance of communication and social conversations. Use social media to respond to comments and direct messages (DMs) from your future clients. There will always be people who will have questions about the legal matters you specialize in.
We’re certain that you already know this, but responding to comments or DMs in a professional manner is mandatory at all times. To make it easier, imagine that you’re talking to each follower as you would if you were face-to-face with them, in your office.
Finally, make sure that the advice you give is always accurate and up to par as far as the current laws, regulations, and standards go. We know that offering high-quality legal representation for your prospective clients is your top priority. Social media is here to enhance that.
8. Leverage Hashtags and Keywords
To ensure success on social media for lawyers, optimal hashtag and keyword usage is instrumental.
Hashtags are a great way to join conversations on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Furthermore, you can use hashtags to categorize your content, explore the trending topics in the legal community, or advertise your legal services.
As for keywords, you should use them for social media posts, bios, and ads. They can help you rank higher in search engine results and be easily discoverable.
Did you know that you can become a hashtag pro by creating hashtag collections and having them generate automatically for you, based on the content you’d like to post? The SocialBee app does that, and so much more!
Use hashtag collections to streamline your posting schedule and make full use of SocialBee’s hashtag generator for optimal results.
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Here are some examples of popular hashtags and keywords for lawyers:
Popular Hashtags for Lawyers: | Popular Keywords for Lawyers: |
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9. Diversify Your Content Strategy
In order for you to maximize the impact of social media, you should choose to diversify your content. By doing this, you can rest assured that your content provides value to your audience without being boring or repetitive.
For example, try your best to focus on a variety of topics, from legal news to industry developments, and more. Additionally, it may be a great idea to include content about yourself, such as professional photos, blogs, or videos about your background and experience.
Here are some content ideas for lawyers:
- Share testimonials from successful clients
- Post interviews or podcasts you’ve done
- Discuss pressing social issues that are relevant to your legal expertise
- Post positive reviews from across social media
- Share relevant legal news and updates from reliable, non-paywall sources
- Post advice on how to navigate various issues within the legal system
- Highlight recent court cases that are being debated in the legal world
- Offer tips on how to choose the right lawyer and what to look for in terms of qualifications, experience, and costs
- Celebrate any anniversaries or major accomplishments that your firm has achieved
Follow the 4-1-1 Rule
The 4-1-1 rule is a great way to remember the ratio of social media content you need to create.
This guideline suggests that for every 6 social media posts you share, four should be either educational or entertaining, one should be a soft-sell promotional post about your company (e.g., a link to an article or blog on your website), and one should be a hard sell.
By choosing to follow this rule, your social media presence will stand out from the crowd while still continuing to provide value to your audience.
Here are four examples of both fun and educational posts for lawyers:
- Host a Q&A session with your followers to answer their legal questions
- Create polls, quizzes, and other posts that encourage social interaction and engagement from your followers
- Share a funny and relatable meme that touches on legal topics that many people can relate to
- Offer tips on filing taxes, understanding intellectual property laws, navigating contract negotiations, etc.
Here are three soft sell post examples for lawyers:
- Post about upcoming conferences
- Share your schedule of future seminars
- Let your followers know that you’ll be joining an interview or podcast
Here are three hard sell examples for lawyers:
- Offer a free consultation for a limited amount of time
- Post a countdown to your next sale
- Do a contest for a free consultation for a limited amount of time
10. Monitor Your Social Media Presence
Maintaining an impressive social media presence requires plenty of dedication and attention to detail. That means, you’ll need to keep a very close eye on the growth your social media posts are generating. Where there is no growth, there is no profitability.
Similarly, a successful social media strategy requires great social listening skills. You’ll need to make a habit of tracking your mentions, responding to comments and messages in a timely manner, and measuring the performance of your social media campaigns.
When results are less than satisfactory, make sure to change things up a little. Optimization is key.
Here are eight social media metrics every lawyer should track:
- Number of Followers ━ This metric helps you monitor how many social media users start following you during a certain time frame and how many unfollow your accounts.
- Engagement Rate ━ This metric measures how your followers choose to engage with your content, including liking, sharing, and commenting under your posts.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) ━ The CTR metric measures the number of users who click through to your website or landing page from either a social media post or paid ad.
- Conversion Rates ━ This metric allows you to track how successful your campaigns are by showcasing the exact moment when a user is incentivized by your call-to-action, such as when making a purchase or signing up for your email list.
- Brand Sentiment ━ This metric can help you get some insight into how people are feeling about your brand. Is there a negative or positive sentiment? Mentions and hashtags can also reveal this.
- Reach ━ This metric measures the number of people who have seen your content.
- Impressions ━ This metric reveals how many times your post has been displayed on social media.
In order for you to become aware of your analytics and use them to further your social media efforts, you’re going to need a tool that is up to the task. With SocialBee, you can now track your metrics and use them in a way that informs your current social media strategy.
Monitor all your social media efforts from SocialBee and learn how to improve your performance in real time.
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3 Law Firms with A Great Social Media Marketing Strategy
In case you’re low on inspiration, these three examples of effective social media marketing strategies for lawyers should help.
Social Media Marketing Strategy Example #1
HHP Law Firm is awesome at marketing its services on Instagram.
They have a neat aesthetic, great engagement and reach on their posts, and a fun approach.
In the two examples above, the law firm decided to put an associated partner in the spotlight. They did this by exemplifying one of his hobbies, which is playing the guitar.
Not only is this unique, but it’s also a great representation of the law firm’s core values. They’re also not afraid to congratulate their team whenever promotions take place. Lastly, they use hashtags mindfully and make the most of their descriptions.
Social Media Marketing Strategy Example #2
This immigration lawyer is making waves on Facebook. Here’s how she’s doing it.
By posting Facebook Reels consistently, this law firm has managed to create a community of satisfied clients. The best part about the reels? They’re captioned. It’s been shown that captions can increase view time by 12%.
This lawyer is also providing her 16K followers with the results they wish to achieve. This is an awesome way of generating qualified leads. Did you notice that she synced her Facebook Page to her Whatsapp Business Profile? Smart move!
Social Media Marketing Strategy Example #3
This law firm is using Instagram in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible.
Notice that the color palette is always on-brand. Even the Instagram Reel captions are matching the beige undertones that the brand is going for. The videos are highly entertaining and speak in an accessible language that is relatable and ultimately engaging.
A brave move is that they are using memes to lighten up the mood of their followers. As we’ve mentioned above, alternating post types is crucial when trying to go against the grain.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How Can Social Media Help Lawyers Build Their Practice?
First off, social media helps lawyers build their practice by increasing their reach and visibility. In addition to this, it enables them to connect with potential clients and establish an instantly recognizable presence in their community. Did we mention staying up-to-date on industry trends?
2. What Are Some Common Social Media Mistakes Lawyers Make?
Unfortunately, social media is not always used efficiently by lawyers. Common social media mistakes include an incomplete profile and outdated content. The worst of the bunch? Having an aggressive attitude when responding to less-than-positive comments or negative reviews.
3. How Can Lawyers Use Social Media Ethically?
Social media is a valuable tool for lawyers who want to stay updated on legal developments and arising client needs. However, social media can also pose ethical risks if used incorrectly. For example, maintaining client confidentiality is a must at all times, followed closely by avoiding conflicts of interest and being mindful of creating robust attorney-client relationships.
Improve Your Social Media Marketing Efforts
Maintaining a remarkable presence on social media can be profitable for lawyers. It facilitates connecting with clients and developing a positive online reputation.
Once you acknowledge the marketing potential of social media, you can create better opportunities to better your practice and build relationships within your professional community. Keep your social media feeds pristine — it will pay off in the long run!
Managing your social media accounts can be a bit of a chore, especially when you’re a busy lawyer. Social media management tools are a great way to streamline your social media efforts while still providing quality content that resonates with your audience.
Start your 14-day free trial at SocialBee and learn how to share more content in less time!
