Using Social Media to Market Your Law Firm

August 2017

The internet has brought businesses closer than ever before to their customers. As a law firm, you can’t afford to ignore the importance of building client relationships through the internet. Therefore, social media needs to be a priority in your marketing campaign. When used well, social media can help law firms foster long-term client relationships while also exposing your law firm to new client prospects.

Related: Social Media Ads: Why They Work

What does “using social media well” look like for a law firm? Your first step should be to establish a presence on multiple social networks. Most law firms have a LinkedIn page and nothing more. LinkedIn is a good place to start, but you should also have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. These pages will make you easier to find and reach online. Google Plus, especially, can be beneficial to your SEO.

Of course, once you have an account, you need to use it! Inactive accounts seem fake at best and unprofessional at worst, so posting with relative frequency on each network is a good idea. Using your social pages to promote your new blogs or content is a good way to start ramping up your activity. Not only will this strategy help you build and maintain a brand identity online, but it will also increase traffic to your page and might even improve your Google rankings.

However, you shouldn’t just use social media to share your blogs. Especially on Facebook and Twitter, social media users like accounts that offer a healthy mix of self-promotion and other types of posts. Obviously, you don’t want to use your business account as liberally as you might use a personal account, but you should have something in your feed that has something to say other than “read my blog post.”

It can be beneficial to follow other legal-focused accounts and see what they are posting. By sharing posts from other accounts and adding your well thought out commentary on blogs, legal news, or other things relevant to your field, you can start turning yourself into an online legal authority. Earning that clout will expand your following and build the level of trust followers have in your brand.

Perhaps the best thing you can do with social media is to listen to your customers. Consider doing a weekly AMA session (AMA stands for “Ask Me Anything”), where you encourage followers to ask questions they might have about legal matters. By interacting with your online following and addressing their inquiries, you can make yourself seem more friendly and approachable—two qualities that people are often looking for (and often have trouble finding), in a lawyer. Some of the questions you get in your AMAs might even be able to be expanded into full-length blogs on your website, thereby benefiting your content strategy.

Developing a robust social media following takes time and a lot of hard work. However, for a law firm, it’s an essential point of focus to stay relevant in modern times. You probably won’t find that all your clients are suddenly coming from Twitter, but social media will make your firm more visible online and help you develop your brand, which will only help your company succeed in the long run.