Raise the bar on lead generation, brand awareness, and client happiness. How to do social media marketing for law firms.
Michelle Martin May 30, 2023
You have the right to remain silent on social media, but you shouldn’t. Social media for law firms brings in clients, boosts your credibility, and keeps you up to date on your competitors.
In fact, 71% of lawyers are currently getting clients from social media despite 43% of firms not having a marketing budget.
That equals big opportunity for law firms willing to invest in social media. (We’ll get into more details, but the spoiler is: You don’t have to spend a ton to see big results.)
What should you post? What are the best social media platforms for lawyers? Read on for how to create a winning social media marketing strategy for law firms.
Win new clients and grow your practice with the tool that makes it easy to reach and engage with prospects on social media.
Did you know 1 in 4 people won’t hire you without a recognizable web or social media presence?
Of course, part of using social media for brand awareness is the ongoing upkeep of posting content, replying to comments, and knowing the latest social media trends. But the effort creates familiarity before someone even reaches out.
Think of social media marketing for lawyers as the same as sponsoring community events and golf tournaments. Why do you do that? To get your name out there and build a local reputation.
Social media has a built-in trust maker: Reviews. Nothing provides better social proof than reviews and testimonials from real customers. Encourage followers to review you on all platforms you have a presence on, including Google My Business and social media.
Your social media profiles are part of your customer service experience whether you think of them that way or not. 40% of your potential customers expect companies to connect on their preferred social media channels.
Almost half (47%) of consumers say timely responses to their questions will sway them to buy from one brand over another. When asked specifically about hiring a lawyer, 48% of people said response time was the most important factor — even beating out price.
Source: Most important factors when hiring an attorney according to legal consumers in the United States and Canada in 2021, Statista
Social media won’t (and shouldn’t) replace one-on-one customer service responsibilities, but it plays a crucial role in attracting prospective clients. You won’t be giving out legal advice in your DMs, but responding to inquiries is responsiveness in action, making it more likely someone will choose you (even if it’s just a standard response linking people to your website).
With Hootsuite, you can quickly and easily reply to comments and messages across all your social profiles from one place. (The same place you can also plan, schedule, and publish all your content.) Create saved replies to answer common questions, or direct people to your online appointment booking form.
Check out how it works — and how much time you’ll save — in under 2 minutes:
Social listening tells you everything you ever wanted to know about your target audience but were afraid to ask. Social listening means you (or more accurately, the apps you use) comb the web to find everything people are saying about you online.
That includes reviews on websites and forums, comments and posts on social media, and more. It means you can proactively identify and comment on posts and keep an eye on what people are saying about your competition, too.
The possibilities for social listening are endless. Keep it simple with Hootsuite Streams, where you can monitor keywords, social media accounts, and respond to mentions right from your Hootsuite dashboard.
Or, take it up a notch with Talkwalker, which automatically scans over 150 million sources to intelligently discover your top engagement opportunities. Its advanced analytics provides at-a-glance sentiment analysis, so you can tell if customers are happy or if you have a PR crisis looming on the horizon.
Did you know over three quarters of lawyers use social media for personal networking, but only half (52%) use it to generate leads? At the same time, 29% of law firms say retaining and growing business is a top challenge, and 25% want better tech for managing client relationships.
Hello, is it social media you’re looking for? (Yes.)
When it comes to leads, social networking helps in an indirect way by building brand awareness. And in a direct way with specific tools, like adding an action button on Facebook, or links in your Instagram bio.
Or, experiment with social media advertising to really ramp up leads.
Finding great employees remains a challenge in today’s labor market for almost everyone, law firms included. Over a third are currently hiring and 84% of those say it’s difficult to find talent.
Besides helping you get clients, showcasing your brand on social can make you stand out as a firm lawyers want to work at. Is it going to be the only factor in their decision of where to apply? Of course not. But the more you show the types of work you do, your atmosphere, and values, the more of a reputation you’ll earn for being a firm people want to be part of.
Yes, traditional Google SEO is still relevant for law firms as many people start with a simple search of “lawyer near me.” And yes, your social media presence does impact those results.
Google says social media isn’t a ranking factor by itself, but the key phrase is “by itself.” Posting on Facebook won’t magically make you the first in Google search results, but establishing a strong presence and getting people talking about you online can.
Your own social media content? Doesn’t really matter for SEO.
But when your followers mention you on their profiles, or heavily-indexed websites like Reddit? Google amplifies that and ranks it higher.
This is especially true since January 2023 when Google’s “helpful content update” went into effect. This looks for and boosts “people-first” content intended to help others and lowers the ranking of overly self-promotional or unhelpful content.
Plus, Google’s algorithm makes hundreds of split-second judgments on how legitimate or trustworthy a company is before ranking results. Multiple factors go into those decisions, potentially including your social media presence.
Social SEO matters, too! Separate from web search, social SEO refers to using similar practices, like keywords, to boost discovery on social platforms. For example, if I’m in Sacramento, I’m much more likely to click on this page than the others because I know for sure they have an office in my city.
The platforms you choose to focus on should reflect your target customer’s demographics as well as the skills of who will be doing your social media marketing.
Love video? Embrace Instagram Reels or TikTok.
Work with older adults? Facebook’s your best bet. (Although I’d argue every business should be on Facebook.)
Before setting up your profiles, grab our free Digital Trends report to learn why people use each network and all the demographic info you need to know.
And remember: These are only guidelines. There’s no “wrong” social media platform. There’s just right and wrong ones for you.
Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your strategy, track results, and share with your boss, teammates, and clients.
You need Facebook. It’s the world’s most used social media platform. It also happens to be the favorite social media platform for everyone ages 35-44, and men ages 25-34.
Facebook’s user metrics alone make it a great fit, since of the estimated 1 in 4 people currently experiencing a legal issue, half are Millennials.
Facebook is the perfect place to find your target audience. For a deep dive, check out this perhaps-too-complete guide to Facebook marketing strategy.
Since Instagram is a visual-first platform, lawyers who enjoy creating graphics or video content can quickly build a following. So can firms with dedicated content marketing budgets, as often creating new content requires ongoing resource investment.
Instagram is especially useful for independent lawyers or small teams where you can let your personality shine through Reels or in your captions.
Educational or entertaining content does best on Instagram, and users will decide within the first few seconds whether to keep watching. Make sure you’ve got a great hook within the first 3 seconds, and deliver value without filler.
Follow this step by step Instagram marketing strategy to succeed in 2024 and beyond.
