Social Media for Lawyers: What You Need to Know

Does your law practice have a presence on social media? If not, you could be missing out on a great channel to stay top-of-mind with your referral sources and your target market. The following is a brief overview of what you need to know about your firm’s presence on social media.

What Should You Post?

There’s a fine line between being an active participant in the world of social media and over-promoting yourself. We absolutely recommend promoting your practice by sharing resources, blog articles, videos, or even some great success stories from clients.

But we also recommend you post non-promotional content such as news stories that affect your target audience, inspirational quotes, and even jokes or humorous articles if that approach works with your brand. In fact, we’ve found that quotes and news stories often receive higher engagement rates than other posts. While these posts aren’t directly promoting your firm, they are keeping your audience engaged and continuing to develop top-of-mind awareness. 

The most important concept to remember is that your social media content should provide value to your audience. Give them a reason to keep paying attention.

What Accounts Should You Post To?

We focus on the “big four” social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Facebook and Twitter are the two biggest social networks out there, and they have become important sources of news and information for millions of users.

LinkedIn is a great place to stay top of mind with referral sources. Many of your LinkedIn connections are likely to be fellow lawyers or other businesspeople who would gladly send business your way. If you’re consistently posting on LinkedIn, you can ensure that you’re the lawyer they think of when the opportunity arises.

Google+ is Google’s social network, and the search engine giant loves when people use it. Research has shown that social media use on Google+ (along with Twitter and Facebook) has shown to provide SEO benefits in addition to the other benefits we have discussed.

Social networks like Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest are becoming increasingly popular, but their purpose and their primary demographic may not be appropriate for every law firm. However, a creative firm could certainly find a way to leverage these networks as well. 

Who Should You Target?

Your social media platforms have the potential to reach tens of thousands of followers each month. On Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, the best way to increase your reach is to increase your follower counts. There are a variety of strategies you can use to accomplish this – both paid and unpaid. We’d be glad to discuss this with you if you’d like to know more.

Facebook is different, however, because they no longer display your content to everyone who has “liked” your page. Instead, they use a complex algorithm to display content – which results in only a small percentage of your “fans” actually seeing your content. That’s why we leverage boosted posts for our clients, which guarantees a larger and more targeted reach. This strategy allows law firms to reach users who aren’t even connected to their Facebook page – based on location and demographic information. 

Interested in growing your social media presence? We’d be glad to help – contact us today to learn more.

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John Hinson

John Hinson is a Brand Manager at Spotlight Branding. He works daily to ensure that Spotlight Branding's services are delivered at the highest level. In his spare time, John plays softball and writes travel books.