Law Firm Social Media Marketing Common Mistakes & Conclusion

• This will conclude everything you have read in this guide.
• Learn about how Array Digital’s social media team can take your law firm to the next level.

Social media platforms are not just for teens within nothing better to do. They are ideal marketing strategy resources that help you reach your target audience. The biggest platforms that create the most potential to create new clients for law firms are Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Your Facebook marketing strategy

Do more than just create social media accounts for your law firm and attorneys on Facebook. You also want to use it to build up your brand reputation. You can do that by:

• Building a strong profile that showcases your law firm’s services and advantages.
• Build posts around the legal services and practice area news that people are likely to be interested in
• Create posts that help prospective clients get to know you
• Engage — respond to those that interact with your posts on your Facebook page

Facebook is nearly a must for law firms because of the quality of potential clients found here. In short, millions of people use Facebook not just to document what they did that day but to gather information, learn, ask for referrals for the legal help they need, and even reach out directly to law firms that have a profile page with information that helps them.

Create a branded Facebook page for your law firm. Add content to it that is on-brand that targets what your audience needs, including information about legal services, encouragement to reach out for a consultation, and supportive insights, including details about what you’re doing for others like them.

Your Instagram marketing strategy

Instagram is a viable social media platform for the legal industry if you use it properly. It’s an excellent way to showcase the following:

• Behind-the-scenes types of content
• Host contests or polls
• Establish and build on your brand image
• Share valuable content in small, digestible bites

Be creative in using Instagram as a law firm. Find the niche or specific format that works for your audience. For example, you may want to use it as a way to answer some of the most common questions you receive. Break down the barriers that hold people back from requesting help, for example, on a valuable topic.

Also, use it as a way to showcase who you are. Instead of hiding behind your law firm’s logo, allow you or another prominent attorney to break through that “third wall” and offer realistic insights from someone to whom they can relate. Be sure to use hashtags to build your brand awareness on this platform and to increase engagement opportunities.

For example, if you’re a product liability attorney, use Instagram to show how defective toys caused a child to choke or how a person suffered an injury by trusting a company’s product. Creating authentic, accurate, and easy-to-understand videos showcasing valuable information helps people think, “Yes, that’s happened to me! I need to do something about it now.”

Your LinkedIn marketing strategy

As the big roller for legal professionals when it comes to creating a powerful image, LinkedIn is one of the most important social media channels for your law firm. Use it for:

• Conveying thought leadership to your target audience
• Breaking down tough areas of the law or trending news into content understood by your audience
• Building your reputation within the legal industry
• Creating backlinks that help support your content strategy
• Networking through your LinkedIn profile to connect with professional associations, other attorneys, and community leaders

Recognize that all of your social media marketing efforts come down to how well your form connections with those who follow you. You can also use other platforms, such as creating YouTube videos and launching Tweets or TikTok videos on a trending topic. Yet, if you don’t engage and do so in a constant, on-brand way, you may be missing core opportunities.

Your social media strategy should also always meet the guidelines established by the American Bar Association, or ABA, and it should always represent what you want your potential client clients to know about you and your firm.

Utilize LinkedIn as your content marketing powerhouse, but don’t overlook the value of creating relationships here. Join groups and network with others in associated fields. Use it as a way to leverage and build testimonials for your law firm while also highlighting the work you do. The combination of impactful networking alongside showcasing your success in supporting clients can help encourage people to reach out to you.

You’ll see your metrics improve over time as you create content that stands out and resonates on all of these platforms.

Several social networks allow for live streaming, which can be an interesting way to build rankings and develop your online presence. It can be helpful if you create a well-planned out strategy that focuses on providing quality information in a helpful way and it aligns with your other law firm marketing efforts.

The other factor to remember about this type of digital marketing is that it takes time to learn how to do it well. Even if you are the most charismatic personal injury lawyer in the courtroom, there’s much more to do to create video content that’s going to support your company’s marketing efforts.

Are you spending too much time finding the perfect hashtags? Perhaps your social media presence isn’t taking off like you thought it would. There are a lot of factors that go into this type of law firm marketing. While it can be very effective at helping you to build potential clients, you have to master the process. This is one of the downsides to using these tools. If social media isn’t working for you the way you thought it would, there could be some changes that you need to make to your strategy. Before you throw in the towel and decide to quit social media, make sure you are not making any of these critical mistakes.

Not having policies in place for responding to your audience

Your social media strategy is more than just posting content. You have to develop your social media presence with content, grow your social networks, and then interact with the people that connect with you. If you do the first two but not the last, you’re not going to drive the best level of traffic to your website.

Most importantly, be consistent. If you’re not consistent in what you create, how you interact, and what you offer, you’ll likely drive people away. Make sure you have policies in place for responding to those who do contact you. The best influencers make sure the tone they set — from a response to a question to their initial post — is always even.

Incorrectly using a platform

Each platform has a strength. The social media posts you place on each platform, then, need to play towards that particular platform’s strengths. Use your law firm’s social media in a way to share content that resonates with the people who are using that platform.

For example, you can share content and case studies of your law firm’s work on LinkedIn because your target audience is business professionals, company owners, and people looking for skilled attorneys. Thought leaders do well here to share content that’s engaging.

Other social platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, play to a much more relaxed environment. Your use of social media here is likely to be a bit more off-the-cuff, short-winded, valuable but easy to digest, and interesting.

Not providing your audience with what they want

Target the correct audience, but don’t stop there. You need to keep them engaged. To do that, be sure you’re building content that is for your specific audience. You could focus on specific areas of the law you practice and build on that content over time. A personal injury attorney who hopes to bring in truck accident victims could provide data on the laws surrounding truck drivers, the risks they face, and the impact of new demand on at-home delivery services. The key is to continue to offer them different but valuable content.

For example, if your law firm is a niche area of law but you do not continue to talk about this niche area and instead talk about law overall, it will likely bring in a different type of clientele.

As you build out your content marketing, social media posts, and even your website content, ask yourself:

• What is the person who I want to contact me looking for when they type these words into Google?
• Is this content actually going to help them with their questions and concerns?
• Will this content encourage them to request a free consultation or otherwise contact you?

If the content is too basic, boring, or just something they could find anywhere, it doesn’t belong on any of your social media profiles. Every post should communicate who your brand is and what you can do for your potential client.

Improperly using hashtags

Yes, they can be a frustrating part of the optimization of your social media posts, but they are a valuable tool. Too few, and your content might as well be irrelevant. You need enough so that the use of social media is driving more people to find you. At the same time, too many are going to crowd your law firm’s social media and make you look less professional and your content less valuable.

Though there are some differences to consider, there are a few rules to aim to follow:

• Aim for 2 or 3 hashtags per post
• Always ensure they are relevant to the topic at hand
• Refrain from getting carried away with hashtags that don’t resonate with your audience

From crafting the perfect Facebook ads that turn someone watching short videos into interested clients to building podcasts that resonate with your audience, so much so that your views share them with family, there is a lot that relies on your social media strategy. It’s where you are going to get referrals, and just like the optimization of your law firm’s website for search engine success, you need to put your best foot forward with social media to get results.

That’s why we want to help you. Take a look at the three most important factors you need to keep in mind as you complete this guide.

Array Digital specializes in law firm social media marketing

You’re not in this alone. That’s what you likely tell your law firm clients. It’s what we want you to know as well.

Array Digital specializes in Facebook and Instagram for your social media marketing strategy. Our goal is to help our clients to determine the best marketing goals for their social media efforts. That’s much more complex than just throwing a few social media posts up and hoping for the best. We’ll get to know your business, the people behind it, the specific brand you hope to create, as well as what your target audience is looking for.

Keep in mind that there’s more to this process.

If you are looking to increase your brand awareness, you should also consider search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC). We offer both of these services as well. We’ll work with you to create a budget that addresses your unique needs in each of these areas.

Also, we know that many lawyers come to us with websites that just do not resonate with who they are or the brand they wish to create. You may have spent a small fortune trying to update and make your website “work.” We can also build your firm a website or redesign the one you have to a more updated, efficient, and effective site that better reflects your needs and goals.

We help navigate the ethics of social media

Law firms are held to a much higher standard than other service companies when it comes to ethics. Google only wants to support authentic companies providing valuable, accurate information no matter the industry. Yet, for lawyers, there’s often more on the line.

That’s why we can help you successfully navigate law firm social media ethics with confidence, including:

• Clear licensing and representation
• Properly and cautiously managed advertising
• Ensuring the confidentiality of all people with which you engage
• Selecting only the best connections
• Educating your staff on the social media ethics that impact them
• Ensuring personal profiles are kept private and that you’re not oversharing

We want you to use social media tools and master the algorithm of each of these platforms. Yet, to do that, we absolutely must meet all of the requirements for these sites as set by ABA.

Use supplemental forms of social media

Alongside the social media services we offer, there are other types of social media you might want to consider using for content dissemination. This would be supplemental — not a replacement — to the content that we can offer to you through Array Digital.

We encourage you to build your brand in a way that functions for your needs. That often means utilizing other social media platforms as you see fit. We certainly would not tell you not to do so, and we are always happy to offer insights to you about using these tools.

Some of the places that a law firm might want to be on outside of what we offer include:

• TikTok: Your law firm can use TikTok. Use it to show ability, showcase inspirational videos that are valuable to you, connect with a younger audience, and offer fun videos that break down hard topics. Just be careful not to make fun of or diminish the legal experiences of some of your clients.
• Twitter: Twitter is a heavily political site, and while you can certainly use it as a component of your law firm, you’ll want to understand your target audience on this site well. That is, you’ll need to research the type of topics they are most interested in and then structure your Tweets around that. You only have a small moment of their time to capture their attention, after all.
• Podcasts: Many attorneys have podcasts. They are quite labor-intensive from the standpoint of planning and creating them. They can be valuable in building your professional individual legal presence and may help you with becoming an influencer. However, you’ll have to dedicate a significant amount of time to them and marketing them in their own right.
• Email marketing: Building a newsletter, creating an email subscription, and connecting with past clients and previous leads can be a good way to continue to remain present in a potential client’s mind after they’ve made some type of connection with you. The key here is finding a way to draw them back in to continue to offer services for them.

Utilize social media platforms and other social media tools like these based on where your clients are, what they are looking for, and the information and support they need to connect with you.

Array Digital is confident we can help you build your law firm’s social media presence in a positive direction. You just need to reach out to us to learn what we can do for you. Do that now. Contact us by calling 757-333-3021 or filling out our contact form. We’re ready to transform your online presence.