Social media might be the last thing on your mind. Your day is jam-packed with court dates, new cases, and research. You don’t have time to log into Facebook, LinkedIn, and numerous other sites to make posts or respond to comments. After all, isn’t your website and advertising enough to attract new clients? Not quite.
Seventy-percent of your peers are using social media in their marketing strategies. That means you could be missing out on opportunities to engage with potential and existing clients. Depending upon the survey’s source, thirty-five to forty-nine percent of lawyers who use social media were able to gain new clients because of it.
Social media is a beast of its own, but not impossible once you find your rhythm. Don’t miss out on this easy and effective way to stay connected with current clients and reach new clients!
What’s Included in a Social Media Strategy?
A social media strategy shouldn’t overtake your overall marketing plan, but your strategy needs to be specific and complement your marketing plan’s goals. To be effective, you’ll want to create goals for your social media strategy that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and tied to a time frame.
When developing your social media strategy, think about how your social media presence can help you attract new clients and fill any gaps left by your overall marketing plan. Social media goals typically aim to develop one of the following:
- Awareness: Do potential clients from certain target segments need to be made aware of your law firm or some of its services? Are your current clients aware of all the services you offer and all the ways your firm can represent them?
- Engagement: Are clients interacting with your online content? Are they leaving comments about your blog topics and asking questions? Or is the feedback less than what you want? Try surveying them with quick polls on social media platforms like Facebook to see what topics they would find helpful or interesting.
- Conversion: Are leads taking action as a result of your online content and social media posts? Are they contacting your law firm to set up an initial consultation, requesting more information, downloading free content, or signing up for your email newsletter?
- Brand image or identity: What opinions do your current clients have about your service and law firm? Is the name of your law firm at the top of their minds when they need legal services or advice?
Include Market Research
Do you know everything you need to about your potential and current client base? Chances are you’re missing a thing or two, and that’s ok. That is why some of the most successful brands that have top end marketing do a yearly audit and persona research annually to ensure they are reaching their audience with the right messaging on the the right social media channels. Having a social media presence can provide you with insights about who’s looking for legal advice, why they’re looking, and what type of advice they’re looking for.
Social media can help you track and identify demographics and lifestyle habits. You’ll also be able to determine what type of clients are using which platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Soon you’ll be able to reach who you want with the content that will motivate them to reach out to your firm.
Another substantial factor about social media is you can conduct research on your competitors. Visit your competition’s social media pages and online content to see how people are interacting and engaging with those firms. Are those clients expressing frustrations or problems your firm can help solve better? Are there any legal topics your competition isn’t covering that you could or topics you can expand upon?
Perform Periodic Audits
Once you’ve created a few accounts and have been engaging with your client base for a while, take a look at what’s working and what’s not. Ask yourself whether certain platforms are more active than others? Are you able to attract and engage your target market on Facebook versus LinkedIn? Is the content you’re posting converting or drawing readers to your site?
Also, consider who is following your social media accounts and how your presence or social media identity compares to your competition’s. What does your competition do well? Does it make sense for you and your firm to try to duplicate it? Or is there something else you could be doing that your competition is not? Would it be better to shut down some of your social media accounts or expand to other platforms?
Experiment and Evaluate the Results
You want to execute a successful social media strategy as part of your law firm marketing plan. But sometimes finding out what works means first finding out what doesn’t. Create a social media calendar that includes:
- Content topics.
- All social media posts and the content of the posts.
- Where the posts will be placed (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram).
- Times and days the posts will be placed.
- Engagement levels with each post.
- Overall sentiment for each post. Was the post well-received, stir controversy, or did it not get much attention?
By keeping track of what you post and why over time, you’ll be able to see what your client base is responding to, what social media platforms they’re using, and what content may need to be revamped or refined to appeal to your audience. Use your social media calendar to make a schedule and plan your posts three to six months in advance.
Remember that designing and executing a well-thought-out social media strategy that needs some tweaking is better than not executing one at all. To learn more about how to develop winning marketing strategies, register for my Marketing for the Masters retreat.