Social Media Marketing for Lawyers. Benefits and Strategies
Introduction
Social Media Law Marketing Benefits
… more benefits of social media strategies
What type of content should your law firm post on social media?
Which social media platforms are used by top law firms?
How many social media marketing channels law firms use?
Introduction
Over 3bn people use social media, that means approximately 40% of the world’s population can see posts, videos and content from law firms. Both businesses and users are looking to build connections, to share information, to message and create relationships.
Social media usage by law firms has started to increase and lawyers are changing their attitudes towards digital marketing. Based on a study performed in 2018, 74% of the law firms were present on at least one social media channel.
As legal services are becoming more competitive, lawyers must shift from a product-centric perspective to a customer-centric perspective. This shift is occurring predominantly online. We are going to explain more details about why lawyers should use social media and what social media strategies they can follow.
Social Media Law Marketing Benefits
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How to become a thought leader?
Submit articles to key journals, publications and web outlets. Use guest blogging, video marketing and e-books to create more awareness. - Increasing exposure and attracting new clients.
Research shows that those law firms using social media to promote and create awareness regarding their business are able to generate measurable business value and return on investment. A combination of content posted by marketing professionals and employees within the firm is proved to achieve better results.How law firms should use social media?
Create social media profiles for your law firm where your potential clients are active. Share content on your profile, invite people to support and interact with your firm’s profile. Use each social media platform optimally. - Sharing information regarding a firm’s services.
In a competitive environment such as the legal sector, firms want to be the first option when a client is in need of legal services. The information regarding a firm’s services should be as simple as possible. Usually the website is the most used tool for law firms to showcase their best services and engage with their clients in a timely fashion.How do you become the first option of your clients?Website design to showcase a law firm’s services. Search Engine Optimization that enables a law firm to be found when people are searching for their clients. Use of website live chat to start a conversation with their visitors in real-time. - Networking with other lawyers in the same field.
Social media platforms allow firms to build a community around their brand. They leverage the power of these platforms to attract followers, share content and engage directly with their target customers.
“According to the latest Thomas Reuters’ FindLaw survey on legal customers, 52% of people use their mobile to search for legal services online and 58% of people use search engines to do so.”
How do you market your law firm?
Select the social media channels where your target customers spend time and build a strategy to deliver your firm’s message. The posts published should have a purpose centered on the goal of increasing the number of clients. Network with other attorneys to gain valuable referrals. - Attracting more traffic to a firm’s website.
It is proven that social media helps increases the visitors to your website. A developed social media presence has a positive impact on a law firm´s online visibility and increases website traffic.How to attract more traffic?
Create easy to share content and promote it when your users are active on social media. Engage with your audience, create visual content. Implement paid social advertising strategies and improve calls to action. - Creating awareness regarding a firm´s brand.
Consumers are heavily reliant on social media recommendations for products and services. Therefore, being active on platforms where your target audience is, is essential to grow awareness of your law firm and client base. Social media offers a clear advantage for those firms who use it well, by informing their prospects with what they are doing and what they offer, with the potential to reach millions of possible customers.How your law firm can increase engagement on social media ?
Use the power of storytelling to raise awareness of what the law firm does, advertise the firm’ s unique selling point, highlight awards and accreditations the firms has achieved. - Generating loyal customers.
Law firms depend on their ability to leverage social media in order to build connections with customers. Encouraging brand loyalty means a customer is likely to pick a law firm over others because they prefer to work with a firm they relate to and whose services have a high quality.How to generate more leads?
Create a social media strategy, use your own voice to engage with customers, build a community and offer exceptional customer service. - Knowing what customers are saying about a law firm.
A firm should monitor their social media platforms to get more feedback about what their customers are saying about them. Verifying a firm’s online reputation is crucial to improve its local visibility and be recognized as an expert in their field.
68% of legal consumers consider past customers reviews as one of the most important pieces of additional information when considering an attorney. 2018 FindLaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey
How to manage your law firm´s online reputation?
Gain more reviews for your firm, conduct a survey of your past clients, analyze the reviews and promote reviews, set up Google alerts to track when someone is searching about your firm.
… more benefits of social media strategies
Being exposed to a firm’s name and its social media content, creates a sense of familiarity with a firm and its services. This helps users recognize the brand a lot faster, increasing the likelihood the customer will contact the firm.
When firms start to use social media as a marketing tool, they should start by differentiating each one of their practice areas with their unique target markets. This will help them design a communication style that matches with each one of their target market groups.
What type of content should your law firm post on social media?
To build an effective social media strategy, law firms should carefully select the information they are posting. To obtain better results, lawyers should be posting information about their practice areas, information that is relevant to their target client or that demonstrates the firm’s unique expertise.
When firms share relevant information with their costumers, customers are more likely to feel inspired by the firm’s content and promote it to friends or in conversations. Also, endorsements from other clients or colleagues can affect in a positive way a user’s attitude towards a law firm.
Which social media platforms are used by the top law firms?
According to research made on the 100 most prestigious US-based law firms regarding the use of social media channels the results are as follows:
This study analyzed specific practice areas that include: from general corporate practice, banking and financial services, securities litigation, tax, private equity, mergers and acquisitions and securities/capital markets. From the firms studied 86% of them use social media. This is a much higher percentage than the number of small to medium size law firms using social media.
83% of law firms prefer LinkedIn, a platform with over 530 million global users. LinkedIn is one of the favourite social media sites for lawyers because 61% of its users are between the ages of 30 and 64, which is the target market for most legal services.
The second most preferred social media platforms is Twitter. This platform allows law firms to easily send and receive short messages. This is helpful for people that are constantly bombarded with multiple sources of information on a daily basis.
Facebook is the third favorite social platform. Although, used by most Fortune 500 companies, this platforms is less popular within the legal profession.
With only 29% usage, YouTube is the forth favorite social media advertising tool for lawyers. YouTube offers different benefits compared with the previous platforms. Customers can see an informative video without having to read a post. YouTube enables firms to show their culture and personality through a video that results in a stronger connection with prospect clients.
Lastly, blogs and Instagram are the least used communication platforms by law firms. Although, they might have the potential to reach more users depending on their practice area and location.
How many social media marketing channels law firms use?
On average law firms use between 2-3 social media platforms. However it has been proven that the more social media channels used, the greater the increase of the firm’s reputation.
Nowadays social media allows information to circulate faster and reach more people. Firms can showcase their unique expertise, services and engage with potential customers. To take advantage of these benefits a firm should have a clear strategy in mind and develop social media guidelines for processing and posting social media communications.
We would like to hear your suggestions regarding how to build a more efficient social media marketing strategy for your law firm. Do not hesitate to schedule an appointment with one of our digital marketing experts and start increasing the number of your clients immediately.