According to a survey, 54% of legal consumers would likely hire a lawyer that is active on social media. Surprised? A lot of lawyers are. Yes, social media may not get you the same qualified leads that you could get with SEO or PPC, but it certainly has some benefits that are worth exploring. So what are these benefits and why should law firms use social media?
Some of the reasons and benefits to use social media for lawyers include:
- Run ads for your law firm
- Increase brand awareness
- Boost your SEO campaign
- Grow your audience and referral sources
- Promote content and/or events
- Increase targeted traffic to your website
- Educate prospective clients
- Build social proof and trust
- Retarget ads and content to potential clients
There’s no doubt that using social media can benefit your law firm’s digital marketing efforts. If you’re still not convinced that this is the right for your overall strategy, in this article, I’ll explain 9 reasons why your law firm should use social media.
Additionally, I’ll explain how your law firm can benefit from a good social media marketing strategy. So, let’s get started.
1. Run ads for your law firm
As you may have noticed on your profiles, social media has evolved over time. Yes, we’re still able to see our favorite pages, family and friend’s posts, and more. But in addition to entertainment, social media platforms also provide users with advertisements for different products and services that they may want to try.
So, as you can imagine, lawyers can use social media advertising to promote their law firm and their services. But here’s the fine print that you and your partners need to think about: In most cases, social media ads don’t perform as well as PPC or other marketing activities.
Why is this?
Because just like you, people go to their social media to relax, “chill out” or take a break. Chances are that they’re not actively looking to hire a lawyer at that moment. So, if this is the case, what’s the point of having ads on social media?
Ads can help your law firm to engage, build brand awareness and lead generation (i.e. sending people to your website or webinar). And this is helpful because if you do a good job, people will remember you and contact you when they need help with a legal matter.
Now, I have to say that the success of advertising in social media can vary depending on your area of practice. But, in general, think about this as a long-haul activity, rather than marketing that will generate immediate, tangible results.
2. Build engagement and brand awareness
There’s no doubt that the time that people spend on social media is increasing. This means that you can use different channels and networks to reach and engage with your potential audience in your targeted locations.
There are different types of content that you can publish on social media and that can help potential clients to notice your brand and start engaging with you. When it comes to staying on top of your audience’s mind, social media is a cost-effective alternative to billboards and other marketing campaigns.
Additionally, posting and sharing your law firm’s content on social media makes you more personable and easier to connect with. In a digital world where most businesses promote themselves online, clients like to see that they’re dealing with real people.
So, this is a good way to start developing rapport around your brand. Think about it this way, if people know you and the services that your law firm provides, they might Google your name or law firm when they need help.
3. Boost your SEO campaign
Google likes law firms that are active on social media. In simple words, this means that if you have a law firm SEO campaign going, publishing and sharing content can send Google some signals that, in turn, can help your SEO efforts.
Let’s say that you publish a super useful DUI or personal injury resource and you promote it on social media. This strategy not only allows you to build your brand with your target audience, but it could also help you build relevant links to your content.
If your resource is shareable and gains some links, Google might see it as a valuable piece of content and it could rank higher on search results. Even if it doesn’t earn your content or site any links, overall, being active on social media sends signals that your law firm is still in business and that it’s actively engaging with people.
4. Grow your audience and referral source
When your law firm publishes engaging content on social media, people may start following your posts. This means that, in addition to the audience that you can reach by boosting your content, you can also gain new followers that want to engage with your posts.
As you can imagine, the bigger your audience the more chances you have to get leads and distribute your content to a larger group of people. And, as mentioned in previous sections, this is crucial to build your brand awareness.
If social media is part of your law firm’s marketing plan, you have to keep in mind that all of these networks have different purposes and audiences. For example, Facebook is good for engaging, growing a new audience and educating potential clients directly.
On the other hand, LinkedIn for lawyers works differently, since it’s a more professional networking platform that you can use to grow your referral sources with other professionals, business owners and lawyers. Although Facebook users can recommend your services to their friends, with LinkedIn you’ll use a strategy that helps you build referrals among your peers.
Don’t get me wrong, all social media channels can be helpful for law firms, you just need to understand what the audience is expecting to see on those platforms.
5. Promote content and/or events
As I’ve mentioned before, social media is a great opportunity for lawyers to promote the content that they’ve published on their website or other channels. Some things that you can share on your profiles are:
- Blog post.
- Webinars
- Free tools (i.e. child support calculator) and resources
- Videos
- Featured articles
- News about your engagement with the community
- Law-related news
- Case news and victories
As you can see, there’s quite a lot in terms of the types of content to post on social media. You can also use your law firm’s profiles to let people know about upcoming events that you’re going to take part in or host.
For example, I follow an immigration lawyer on Facebook that I really like. On top of posting useful information almost every day, she also promotes her Facebook lives or any radio or podcast collaboration that she’s involved in.
Every time that I see that she’s having an event, I try to be there because I know that she has useful and high-quality information to share. The results? Lots of people were commenting and calling to book consultations (me included).
This is the power of building your brand and using social media to promote your legal services!
6. Increase targeted traffic to your website
One of the benefits of social media for lawyers is that you can attract people to your law firm’s website. Check this:
To do this, you simply need to share links to legal resources and info published on your website. Some of these pages include blog posts, FAQ’s, in-depth practice area pages, guides on how to deal with a legal matter, etc.
A highly-effective strategy for this type of posts is to simply write an engaging introduction to the content that you want people to read. Make sure you include the corresponding link to your website.
7. Educate your prospective clients
If you practice more than one area of law, let me ask you this. Do past or current clients know all the legal services that you provide? Some law firms that we work with have told us that their clients are often unaware of the multitude of legal services they offer. And why would they if you don’t tell them about it?
This is a huge, wasted marketing opportunity. If your clients are happy with you, they’re very likely to want to work with you again in other legal matters and even refer their friends and others to your firm.
But how can they do this if they don’t know the services that you offer and the full range of your firm’s capabilities? This miscommunication can cost you some serious potential referrals.
What we tend to see is that, while it’s not always the case, law firms we work with report seeing past and current clients actively engage with the firm’s profile and posts on Social.
Sharing content on your profiles is not only a good way to build your credibility and reputation as a legal expert, but it’s also an easy way to educate your clients about the type of cases that your law firm’s handle.
8. Build social proof and trust
In our modern digital world, social proof for business is vital. In fact, a survey found that 56% of legal consumers consider reviews as a very important role in their decision to hire an attorney. So, providing this information can be key for your law firm to get clients.
One of the benefits that social media offers to lawyers is that these platforms are great so share client success stories. This can be either a video testimonial or a post where you talk about a case that you recently won or explain how you were able to help a client.
Let’s face it, people like stories and relating to them. So, taking them on a short journey where you explain how you helped a client can create a lot of engagement and brand awareness for your law firm.
Another under-utilized strategy is simply to copy and paste testimonials and Google reviews in your Facebook posts.
Pro tip: write a short and custom intro to provide some context.
Although this is a good strategy, many lawyers don’t want to share their client’s name (even though their name is already being displayed on Google). And that’s fine. If you don’t feel comfortable including names, you can simply use your client’s initials to provide some level of anonymity.
9. Retarget ads and content to potential clients
A couple years ago, Facebook became famous for its powerful (and sometimes creepy) ability to retarget ads to people. As its name suggests, retargeting ads show your law firm’s ads to people who already visited your website.
Facebook retargeting ads have nearly infinite automation options and capabilities in refining the targeting of these ads. So, it’s a great way to keep your potential clients in your funnel. For example, you can show your ads based on the specific pages that people visited on your website.
Let’s say that your law firm handles personal injury, business and family law cases. People that have visited your website’s family law pages and posts will only be shown retargeting ads and sponsored content for family law issues.
Likewise, website visitors that browsed one or multiple personal injury resources on your website, will only be shown retargeting ads for personal injury lawyers. So, in short, these types of ads allow you to become very specific and efficient with your advertising.
Should You Use Social Media for Your Law Firm?
If you understand the game, social media can be helpful for law firms, producing a positive ROI.
Now, with all of these wonderful reasons and ideas discussed, here’s my informal disclaimer to you: Social media is an add-on to the main marketing strategy we develop and implement for law firms that work with us. As a main marketing strategy, these platforms work better for some practice areas than others (i.e. immigration law).
Here are a my key takeaways of my professional opinion on social media marketing for law firms:
- Can it help you reel in more clients at a positive ROI? It certainly can.
- Will it? That Depends
- Should it be your main marketing strategy? Usually, no. However, for some law firms, it can be a “perfect fit” and their best source of new clients.
- Does it boost other marketing efforts? Yes.
- Will it be your biggest source for new business? Usually, not by a long shot.
If you want social media to be the core of your law firm marketing strategy, you need to roll your sleeves up and put yourself out there. Social media is about people, not companies. After all, it’s social. So, you’ll need to tweak your game plan to play by these rules.
As we learned in this article, social media for lawyers is a great way to build brand awareness and generate cases. But if you don’t have time to be social, it usually needs to be combined with and a complement to other marketing strategies.
If you want to know if this is the best fit for you, book a consultation today. We’re happy to help!
