7 Social Media Tips for Law Firms
If your law firm isn't on social media, you are simply missing out on some easy and free marketing that can be done in your downtime from anywhere.
Every platform you want to be on has an app that will work on your smartphone, which you can peruse while watching TV, riding the train, or even while using the toilet. And when you like other people's posts, comment, or make your posts on your law firm's behalf, you're actually marketing.
Below are seven tips to help you social media better.
1. Use Good Pictures
You know the saying about a picture being worth a certain number of words. The fact is, the better the picture, the more attention it will get on social. And while you can get quite a bit done for free on social media, if you can't take a good picture to save your life (even with the new iPhone's "portrait mode"), consider hiring a professional photographer every couple years to take a few hundred pictures around your office and city so that you can post them (over time) on your social feeds.
2. Avoid Walls of Text
When posting on social, avoid text posts more than a couple lines long. Even though Twitter opened up the character count, that doesn't mean people want to read everything you have to say. In addition to photos, your followers like to see info-graphics and pictures, so don't forget to add those too (as well as links to your actual website).
3. Engage
The key to social media is engaging with your audience. Click that like button on people's posts, share interesting posts, comment, and create your own content. Obviously avoid solicitation and handing out legal advice, but that doesn't mean you can't be social.
4. Be Genuine
One of the most difficult things to do on social media for businesses is to act genuine. This means that your posts should not all be thinly veiled solicitations. Social media marketing is part of a "long-game' strategy where you are trying to develop name recognition, so that when one of your followers does have a legal problem, they remember your name and contact you/your firm.
5. Be Funny
One of the best ways to get more followers and increase your engagement is through humor. Everyone on social media loves to laugh. However, tread carefully here as you don't want to crack jokes at anyone's expense and offending people on social media is rather easy. Although it would seem apparent to most, the standard advice is to stick to "dad jokes" and PG rated puns and memes.
6. Follow the Trends
While following the trends is not nearly as cool as setting the trends, you're not in the cool business. As such, following the trends can not only increase your engagement, it will show potential clients that you have your thumb on the pulse of society.
7. Get Help!
If you are completely out of your element on social media, hire an expert to guide and teach you what needs to be done on social. There are several platforms out there that will even let you plan your social media posts in advance, like Hootsuite, Sprout, TweetDeck, and Buffer.
Want information on effective marketing? Let the experts at FindLaw's Lawyer Marketing give you a hand with FindLaw Integrated Legal Marketing Solutions.
Related Resources:
- 3 Tips to Help You Reach Clients on Social Media (FindLaw's Strategist)
- 5 Social Media Tips for Law Students (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- Why Lawyers Should -- or Should Not -- Show Off Clients (FindLaw's Strategist)