Social media marketing is fantastic if you’re marketing a product that it suited to it.  For example, a clothing or makeup brand. With that said, it gets a little trickier if you’re trying to sell a service that isn’t quite so attractive or picture heavy…

So can Law Firms use it? The simple answer is, yes. Social media outlets such as  Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn provide a quick and affordable way for Law Firms to keep in touch with their clients and potential clients, as well as keeping an eye on their competitors, and up-to-date on any industry trends!

Many big Law Firms are now using social media to get a lot more exposure, giving them a great advantage over some of their competitors. You may have read our previous post about how to have an effective legal website, if you want to know how you can use social media for your law firm as well, then simply read on…

Research!

Search and find out what conversations are happening on any platforms about your law firm or the lawyers that work for you. This is a good area to start as you can use this to your advantage and hop into these conversations. You may find this very useful for upgrading the image of your firm.

Choose Your Platforms.

Firstly, you will need to choose the social media platform that you are going to invest your time in. Unless the law you deal with is something like cosmetic surgery negligence or breast surgery claims – so something that can be visual, it will probably be very difficult for you to use platforms like Instagram or Pinterest.

A good idea is to try and focus your time on twitter or linkedin for example, that will naturally end themselves well to your services. It’s a good idea to start with just one platform to start with. Have a look at what the market leaders in your sector are doing, as well as your competitors. See what they get the most interaction and ‘copy’ them!

Plan ahead.

You don’t have to have a rigid plan, but it’s a good idea to plan your content and know what your content strategy is going to be. What content might be interesting to your target audience? Think why they might want to share it. To use social media effectively, you’ll need to create content that is provocative and engaging. Consistency is key, so it’s really no good posting out 10 tweets in 2 days, and then nothing for 3 weeks. What you really need to define is what the constraints are on what you are allowed to say in public.

Get Everyone Involved!

A good idea when you’re running social media is to get as many people as possible involved. Spread the workload so that you ensure that your content gets out there! You should try to encourage everyone to get online! Try and get your team to reach out to your clients online and get them to share and engage with the posts you share.

Find Leads!

Once you are active on social media, you will hopefully see that people will begin interact with you. To gain leads online, if you’re a divorce lawyer for example,  search for people tweeting or writing about break-ups and divorces. If you reach out to them, you instantly create a potential lead! This is very easy to do and can be very successful!

Be persistent.

Your social media account won’t have thousands of followers and lots of engagement straight away. It will take you time to build a following and persistence to keep it! Don’t give up though, and social media could be massively advantageous for your law firm.