Aside from being the largest social media network in the world today, Facebook serves as a huge marketing and advertising platform for millions of businesses around the world. Many lawyers and law firms have taken advantage of this for their own marketing purposes, while many have not.
Many lawyers and firms simply don’t know how to effectively use Facebook to promote their services and areas of practice. While it can be used strictly for advertising goals such as generating new clients and leads quickly, this article will discuss how legal practices can use their Facebook business pages to post relevant and meaningful content.
This will significantly aid in promoting their firm, build brand awareness and grow a following that will generate new cases and business for their firms over time. Below are seven different types of content that law firms and solo practitioners can share on their Facebook business page (or even personal profiles).
1. Articles and Tips based on Areas of Law You Practice
A benefit to using Facebook as a marketing tool for lawyers, is the ability to build authority in your local market over time. One way to do this is by sharing content related to the areas of practice you not only want to promote, but what you want to be known for and associated with in building brand awareness.
You don’t have to be publishing all the time. Rather, one of the easier ways to post is by curating content that you think would be useful to your target audience. By being helpful and sharing content that has been vetted by a lawyer, you’re offering value to an audience that is dealing with those specific, similar or related issues that the article discusses. Articles can be from legal specific blogs, news and journalist organizations. The important thing isn’t the source as much as whether you (a practitioner) find it to be accurate and of value to your followers.
2. Legal Humour Posts
Part of engaging successfully on social media is by going with the flow and posting what Facebook’s users expect to see when they log on. They’re usually there because they are bored or passing the time.
Publishing legal jokes and memes is a great way to drive significantly more engagement than other types of more serious content you’re likely to post. Due to higher impressions, reach and engagements, your firm’s brand will be seen by more people.
These posts generate massive engagements compared to sharing legal articles and can drive more organic followers. Aside from this, you’ll become known as the firm that is ultimately made up of human beings. It gives your firm a personality.
3. Firm News & Events
Facebook can also serve as a public relations tool. If you’re firm is actively involved in local communities and events, then use your Facebook business page to promote events and follow-up after them. You can post event and organizational news to:
- Promote upcoming events
- Festival or Charity events that the firm is sponsoring
- Notable news about employees and staff
- Staff and Team building days and events
- Winners and Recipients of contests, scholarships or community recognition
4. Share News Articles Relevant to Law and Society
There’s a lot to be shared online in terms of articles and written content. Expand the scope of articles you share with your audience to include noteworthy pieces from local and national news outlets related to law and society.
This can include trending content such as case verdicts that have received media attention. In other instances, you can use news stories to be the firm that brings attention to a story that you believe your readers should look at. By that I mean things that will affect their lives, policies and regulations, bills being passed that haven’t received as much attention as you believe they deserve.
Shed some light on the matter. You can also use this as an opportunity to highlight critical points or points of interest. Become known as the lawyer who’s always sharing helpful content related to law, government and society. You’re looking out for society and people’s interests – among other reasons you studied law in the first place. By sharing this content, you can build an association with your followers. When they think of law or society, they think of you. That can be powerful in terms of building name recognition and top of mind advertising.
Finally, I understand that lawyers like sticking to the facts. However, you have the option to share your opinion above the share link in your post. Let your audience know what you think about the issue or the author’s take on the article. In other words, use the article to become a thought-leader.
5. Ask or Answer Questions Relevant to Your Community and the Law
Another way to engage with your local market and community on Facebook is by asking and answering questions for that community. Think beyond the common FAQs you may post on your website. Get to questions that people ask regarding legal matters you help them through.
The above is a good example of how this is done well. You’re not giving legal advice where you’re instructing or telling someone what to do in particular or general circumstances. Instead, state a definition in a way that the general public can understand it.
Here’s another example. But instead of being the talker, you become the listener and opening up a conversation to create a dialog.
This question doesn’t have anything to do with the law. Instead, the firm engages their local community with which roads and highways in the area present the largest road hazards and unsafe conditions for motorists, passengers and pedestrians. Road hazard questions aimed at the local community is one category that a personal injury and car accident lawyer can use to engage their local community with and build an association between their firm’s brand and that area of practice.
6. Share Articles from your Law Firm’s Blog
Sharing articles from your firm’s blog is a great way to distribute your firm’s content. If your firm actively publishes articles related to the areas of practice it’s focusing on promoting, then Facebook can help drive more qualified traffic to your firm’s blog posts. Focus on posting blog articles that contain the most helpful information for prospective clients. You don’t always have to post the most recent posts either. Legal articles that performed well in the past are likely to perform well again when seen by a fresh new segment of your audience.
This is the closest thing to a direct plug or pitch for your services as you should get on Facebook. However, instead of running an advertisement, you’re simply sharing a blog written by lawyers for your prospective clients (e.g. your ideal target audience).
Of the 7 techniques we discuss, using Facebook as a medium to publish your legal practice’s articles to the local market will drive the most conversions and new business as a direct result of using your Facebook page for marketing.
Even readers who don’t convert on your site immediately are still more likely to convert in the future. Attracting blog readers is a great way to build credibility, authority and therefore is more impactful for your awareness advertising. Now when the reader is likely to search for a lawyer online, they’re more likely to search specifically for your law firm by name rather than a listing of lawyers.
7. Posting Motivational and Inspirational Quotes or Videos
Facebook posts about inspirational or motivational quotes do extremely well in terms of engagement activity (likes, shares, and comments). This gets a massive amount of attention on Facebook compared to other types of content that law firms share. Below are a few samples from what actual law firms are posting on Facebook.
These really can perform well in terms of churning out impressive engagement and impression metrics, which is great for building your firm’s brand awareness.
While it’s likely the furthest thing from how a lawyer may want to promote their practice, it’s important to keep in mind that people use Facebook and social media to hang out. They aren’t there to be plugged services by law firms or other advertisers. In fact, this couldn’t be further from what they’re looking for on social media. Inspirational quotes do well for showing a personal side to the firm. Aside from getting a ton of impressions of your firm’s brand on Facebook, it performs its by humanizing your legal practice.
Conclusion
Facebook can be an extremely valuable marketing tool for law firms – when used correctly. By combining these different types of content, your firm can offer its local market and communities a diverse range of content and value via its Facebook page. It’s recommended to use a mixture of content types, rather than just several.
While the legal jokes as well as the inspirational and motivational posts may not be your ideal use of marketing resources, it can take less time to curate and share these type of posts. Furthermore, it’s good for developing a more personal, easy-going connection with your audience and delivers significant reach and engagement compared to some of the more serious content.
Finally, your blog posts is your most valuable content in terms of generating new cases directly from your Facebook marketing efforts.
