End of Year Marketing Wrap-Up – Social Media Marketing

All in all, 2014 was a busy year in the world of social media, and an even busier year for marketers trying to stay on top of all the latest developments and updates.  Facebook removed like-gating, Twitter rolled out a brand new look, and Google+ removed authorship from the SERPs.

The number of people using social media sites continued to rise, and mobile apps (namely Instagram) really started to ingrain themselves into the everyday marketing practices of brands both big and small.

If you’re an attorney though, how should you approach your 2015 marketing efforts when it comes to social media?  For starters, ask yourself the following two questions:

1. How well are you using your social media presence to help leverage new business?
2. Are you at least using it to help brand your law firm?

A few years ago, many lawyers would have answered these questions more or less the same way…

Social media isn’t an integral part of our marketing strategy, so we don’t pay much attention to it.

Nowadays, though, social media marketing IS an integral part of attorney marketing strategies.  Regardless of whether or not your law firm has been using social media for years, or you just recently started using it to market your legal brand, there are some important (and familiar) strategies to keep in mind for the upcoming year…

Keep Branding Yourself

In today’s internet, if you want to establish yourself as an authority in your respective area of law, utilizing social media sites to help brand your web presence is absolutely essential.  While this branding isn’t guaranteed to lead to new clients, it does help create a well-rounded digital footprint that will get your firm name out in front of a greater number of people than you would have been able to without it (a bigger audience CAN equal more potential clients, but there’s no guarantee).

Give Your Audience Something of Value

Nothing leads to social shares and post interactions more than well-marketed, useful content that people can find some sort of value in.  Whether you’re providing tips about filing for social security correctly, offering insight into legal rights as they pertain to accident victims, or giving advice on what to do if you’ve been charged with a crime, GIVE your fans and followers information that they can use in their everyday lives.  Remember, no one wants to hear about your firm all the time…give fans useful content and they’ll reward you by sharing this content with their own friends and followers (which can potentially lead to even more fans and followers for your brand).

Interact With Your Fans

The prestige of being an attorney shouldn’t hinder you from interacting with your social media audience.  In fact, the general consensus on attorneys and social media presence is simple – be personable!  People want to interact with brands that have personality.  If your law firm’s social media presence can be described as dry and unfriendly, people are going to take note and begin to think that your firm is uptight and not worth paying attention to.  Social media allows law firms to humanize themselves, so take full advantage of this.  If your fans comment on your posts, start a conversation with them.  If someone tweets at your law firm, respond to them.  Remember, brands that don’t seem to have real people behind their posts tend to blend into the background, while brands that interact with fans almost always stand out. (BE SOCIAL!)

In 2015, really make an effort to expand on the marketing practices that seemed to work best in 2014.  For social media, always post content that you think your fans will find useful, always be personable, and never forget to depict your law firm as a grouping of real people rather than a faceless business with a dry and boring voice.  Social media is all about connecting with people on the internet, so be sure to create a social media marketing strategy that’s worth connecting with.

If you have questions about how lawyers can best utilize social media sites in their marketing efforts, contact our office to find out what we recommend the best practices are.  Let SLS help you be more social!