14 Proven Social Media Tactics Every Law Firm Should Know

In today's digital age, having a strong social media presence is crucial for any law firm. However, building a following can be challenging, especially for those new to social media marketing. In this blog post, we will share practical strategies and tips for gaining your next 1000 social media followers for your law firm, helping you to increase your online visibility and ultimately grow your business.

1 Limit your platforms

Sometimes, less can be more. While it might seem counterintuitive to scale down the number of channels you market your firm to increase your following, when you’re trying to operate too many accounts at once, you’re likely not giving any of them enough time and attention. There aren’t enough hours in the day for a busy law firm to run a comprehensive outreach campaign on every platform. However, you can attain greater engagement and higher quality leads by concentrating on a few accounts frequented by your target market.

2 Create awareness

More people would likely be interested in your firm’s social media profiles if they knew about them. Spread awareness by including links to social media profiles on your firm’s website, promotional materials, and attorney review sites. But don’t discount word of mouth – inform your clients and fellow professionals that your firm is active on social media and show them how to find you. Because you already have an existing relationship with these individuals, it’s more likely that they will want to check out your content.

3 Be proactive

Don’t wait for your audience to find you. Instead, go looking. Many social media platforms offer a myriad of opportunities to grow your network. LinkedIn and Facebook groups can be an effective way to reach potential clients, industry peers, and your local legal community. Twitter and Instagram enable firms to follow hashtags and terms related to their practice areas. Once you find others interested in your content, engage with them by liking and commenting on their posts or resharing their content to give them a reason to check out your firm’s profile. They might follow you and retain your services if they like what they see.

4 Sound like a human

Although the power of AI is now on many people’s minds, people still want to talk to other people, not machines. Social media can be the perfect way to humanize your law firm, but you must avoid sounding like a robot. Don’t be afraid to keep things somewhat casual. Try to come across as a real person (or a team comprised of real people), not just a nameless, faceless law firm. When you sound like a human, you will build trust and make users feel more comfortable reaching out to you or your firm.

5 Include visuals

No matter how important what you have to say may be, it won’t matter if no one sees it. You have to catch people’s attention with visuals. Several studies have found that visual content gets more engagement:

• Social media posts featuring images receive 650 percent more engagement than text-only posts.
• Around 65 percent of people are visual learners.
• Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared across social media.

Based on this information, you should integrate photos, graphics, and videos into your content strategy as often as possible.

6 Provide value

You must provide valuable content if you want your target audience to engage with you. Determine who you’re trying to connect with, their preferred communication style, and what legal issues they need help solving. Once you know who you’re trying to talk to, offer helpful content they’ll appreciate so that they’ll be more likely to engage with your posts and spread the word by resharing your content in their own networks.

7 Promote thought leaders and influencers

The legal industry is filled with thought leaders, some of whom might be practicing in your firm. Offering readers a chance to hear from them can generate much interest and increase your following. Influencer marketing also provides a powerful platform for law firms that want to increase their following. Credible influencers in the legal industry can significantly expand your reach, introduce you to new audiences, dramatically impact your firm’s reputation, and help you gain followers. If you notice a legal influencer with an active social media presence, engage with them and discuss how you might collaborate.

8 Mix it up

Various types of content can be helpful for different purposes, platforms, and audiences. To maximize your reach, create a social media content plan where you use each content type a few times, and then take note of what works best. Here are some suggested content types for specific platforms:

• Facebook: Reels, videos, multiple photo posts, and stories
• Instagram: Reels, videos, carousel posts, stories, interactive polls, and quizzes
• LinkedIn: Posts, newsletters, videos, multiple photo posts, polls, and event posts
• Twitter: videos/GIFs, polls, threads, retweeted tweets, and quote tweets

9 Polish your social listening skills

Social media is not just a way to have interactive conversations. In addition, it’s an opportunity to use social listening to understand your audience’s sentiments about your firm and its reputation. With social media, you can gain insights that will help you create and promote content - you can join conversations to connect with your audience, get feedback, and modify your strategies as necessary. Social listening tools can monitor interactions, discussions, and audiences.

10 Personalize your conversations

Today’s social media users are savvy and demand personalized experiences tailored to them and their interests. Research has found that people are much more likely to do business with law firms with whom they feel a personal connection. Therefore, personalizing your social media interactions and other communications with users is an excellent way to encourage a feeling of connection. So, before you reply to a commenter, conduct some research on them and use their name in your comment or mention relevant information you’ve read about them.

11 Maximize hashtags

A law firm’s social media strategy isn’t complete without a hashtag strategy. These symbols (#) have become the basis of any effective social strategy. Hashtags work on almost every social media platform and help you expand your reach to connect with people who do not follow you directly. However, not all hashtags are created equal. Many are oversaturated, have a small following, or aren’t niche enough for your practice. To avoid wasting time with ineffective hashtags, research which ones resonate with your audience, Create a comprehensive list of these hashtags, and use a mix of hashtags in each post.

12 Be part of a community

Smaller communities are increasingly important within large social networks. Whether you join LinkedIn Groups or Twitter Communities, social media communities provide many opportunities to connect with like-minded people and companies within your practice area. Look for communities related to the legal industry on the platforms where your firm is active and start actively participating. You can also start your own groups to cultivate an audience of people who share your interests.

13 Track performance

To improve your firm’s social strategy over the long term, you must constantly monitor what’s working and what isn’t by tracking and measuring your social media marketing performance over time. Use a third-party social media analytics tool or the built-in analytics feature of each social media platform to get detailed insights into your social media traffic.

14 Automate your efforts

With regard to social media engagement, when you post can be just as critical as what you post. All platforms have varying times when users are more likely to be active. To determine when to post, vary your schedule to include different parts of the day to decide whether specific times result in superior engagement. When you schedule posts so they’re ready to go at the right time, your content will naturally get more views.

With Lawmatics, you can automate the leg work of your social media marketing efforts to drive growth while staying focused on clients. Lawmatics ensures you and your staff can account for every detail about a lead or client’s journey. Plus, you’ll be able to use your CRM data to trigger the next marketing step and track and analyze the results with built-in analytics and reporting tools. Ready to learn more? Request a demo today.