With so much else on your plate, we understand that social media often lands at the bottom of your infinite to-do list. But in today’s age, given the current pandemic and the increasing importance of having an updated, dynamic digital presence, having a robust social media strategy can make all the difference in the success of your firm’s marketing efforts. As an attorney, you’re paid to be an excellent communicator — but many legal professionals overlook the enormous power of social media when it comes to brand reputation and new client awareness.
Ready to increase your firm’s online presence, but don’t know where to start? Metter Media, a full-service social media agency specializing in the legal industry, provides some simple tips below.
1. Establish Thought Leadership
Thought leadership is an essential tool of differentiation and is imperative to showcase your firm’s breadth of knowledge. Social media can help solidify your firm or attorneys as an expert and authority within your industry. You don’t have to give your strategy away, but sharing tips and expert advice is one way to attract new clients.
Another method of doing this is to direct people on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to your firm’s blog on your website. Having a blog provides an opportunity to answer timely questions, provide commentary on high-level cases, or share insight on industry news. Posting thought leadership content on your social accounts is an entirely acceptable way of showing your firm is an expert in the legal industry and there to help.
2.Showcase Your Company Culture
Portraying your company culture on social media has many benefits. Company culture is a critical part of recruiting new talent and retaining your current employees. By putting it front and center on social media, you can showcase how your firm is unique from your competitors and highlight your core values. In today’s competitive job market, when the most talented employees have options, showcasing office perks, company events, and community organizations you’re affiliated with is the perfect way to set your firm apart.
Another way to showcase your company culture is to highlight your attorneys and their achievements. This will not only make your fellow employees happy but will allow you to showcase the impressive and exhaustive list of accolades that your firm has achieved… because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to brag about their wins?!
3.Highlight Your Clients
If you can, we highly recommend that you highlight your clients on social media. Featuring customers (even if you have to leave out their name) is a great way to create some buzz online and can ultimately increase revenue. The best way to do this is by sharing case results that you have won on the client’s behalf. This will not only showcase your expertise and legal insight, but it can serve a dual purpose; your clients will appreciate the feature and may also share it to their networks.
Sharing testimonials is also another successful way to highlight your client relationships. Suppose someone is looking for a lawyer and trying to choose between your law firm and your competitors. Potential clients are more apt to believe positive feedback from other clients. Therefore incorporating client testimonials and client wins is essential to your social strategy.
4.Share Industry Updates and News
Always keep your target audience in mind. What would they find helpful & engaging? TweetDeck is a great tool to monitor Twitter conversations related to your firm’s expertise and allow you to share timely news and industry updates. People are often looking for industry updates and news. When you keep your audience updated, it will further show you care about your clients and keeping up with current trends.
Regularly posting informative articles can help turn your social media pages, and therefore your firm, into a trusted resource for relevant information. We suggest keeping a list of your favorite publications for industry news as a quick way to share timely information. If it is a big case or update, consider writing a more in-depth blog as a follow-up.
5.Reach Potential Clients and Your Target Audience
Whether you are a global, national, or hyper-local law firm, it is important to find ways to engage your target audience. Social media can help you do this through hashtags, geo-location, and paid advertising. As mentioned above, TweetDeck is also an excellent resource for social listening and monitoring mentions of your firm on Twitter.
A perfect example was a recent campaign we ran for Sunstein LLP, a Boston-based law firm. Their holiday card’s arrival to client and prospect inboxes is highly anticipated, but with COVID, they needed to go above and beyond with its delivery. To further their reach, we decided to run an online paid marketing campaign to highlight both the holiday card and the local artist they selected to paint the card. Not only was this one of their most successful campaigns we had run all year, but it brought in copious amounts of traffic to their firm website. This campaign combined both their expertise in their industry and showcased their company culture, bringing in new audience members and brand awareness.
Social media is all about building a presence online and creating new relationships. Once you have your content plan in place, one of the best ways to increase your engagement and audience is to get your team involved. #MMProTip: send a weekly or monthly amplification email to your firm employees to encourage them to like, share, and comment on your posts. When your employees engage with your content, it can help extend the post’s reach to their networks and attract new clients or attorneys.
Have questions about your law firm’s social media strategy? We are now offering special rates for Mass Lawyers Weekly subscribers! If your law firm is not active on social media, you are missing an enormous opportunity to promote your firm’s brand, drive potential clients to your website, and increase brand awareness. Metter Media can help develop your legal marketing social strategy or assist you with managing your current profiles. Contact us today at info@mettermedia.com or 617-294-6295 for a free consultation.