Social media use has spiked in the past two years. Has your small law firm fallen further behind?

Part one:  Getting started with social media

With a ten percent jump in global social media users in the last year alone[1] social media remains one of the most effective, easy, and affordable ways for law firms to attract new clients and employees, build market profile, boost SEO, and drive traffic to your most valuable marketing tool – your website.

However, many smaller law firms struggle to maintain healthy social media accounts. And it’s no wonder – law firms are busy places! Without a dedicated team member to manage your social media accounts, it’s easy for regular posting and engagement to fall by the wayside as other more urgent tasks take precedence.

While it can be challenging to keep your firm’s social media accounts thriving, allowing them to languish can work against your firm when savvy potential clients and discerning potential employees look to your social media, only to find outdated or sparse content.

For smaller firms that do not have an in-house marketing person, there are a few simple best practices you can employ to keep your social media accounts current and inviting.

Less is more - focus on 1-3 key platforms.

With limited resources, it’s best to focus on 1-3 social media platforms where you can excel rather than spread yourself too thin trying to be all things in all places. Newer platforms like TikTok and Snapchat are trendy but are far less likely to attract clients or talent.  In the legal industry, it’s still best to focus on more established platforms.

When choosing your platforms, consider who your target clients are and where they are spending time online. Creating a “client persona”, where you investigate the daily online habits of your typical client, can be a helpful exercise. Here are the most common social media platforms used by law firms:

·         LinkedIn – If you are only going to focus on one social media platform, it should likely be LinkedIn, especially if you are targeting B2B clients. The most popular business social network by far, LinkedIn has over 810M members worldwide. It’s a great platform to promote educational content and build trust and credibility with potential clients and referral sources over time.

Think of LinkedIn as your firm’s resume – this is where you can highlight your firm wins, awards, publications and presentations, notable cases and transactions, and events. It’s also a great place to announce new hires, current job openings, and your firm’s DEI, community, and charitable endeavors.

·         Instagram – Instagram is a great platform to demonstrate the more casual, fun, and personal side of your firm culture such as internal celebrations and activities that include your staff. It’s effective in attracting talent by giving them a broad picture of your firm’s culture. Instagram stories allow you to easily share videos and you can even invite your audience to weigh in on topical questions. You can also use Instagram to run digital ads, which is great for B2C firms.

·         Twitter – While not as popular as LinkedIn for legal professionals, Twitter is still a great platform to demonstrate your firm’s thought leadership and share “real-time” commentary from conferences and seminars and engage your community using tagging and hashtags. Make sure to connect with as many relevant organizations and associations as you can so you can build an audience.

·         Facebook – The most popular social media platform in the world, Facebook’s focus on family and friends’ news makes it less relevant for businesses and it is less likely that your target audience will find you here. Unless you have a strong B2C practice and plan to run digital ads on Facebook, it may not be worth your while.

·         YouTube – If your firm creates a lot of video content such as webinars or marketing videos, a YouTube account is a great place to give the community access to your content. While potential clients may search YouTube for their legal questions, maintaining your account with current video content can be labour intensive and so may not be the best use of your limited time.

To remain competitive, smaller law firms need to take their social media presence seriously. Limited internal resources mean that smaller firms will have to be pragmatic about how to maintain a consistent and effective online presence. This can be accomplished by assigning a firm lead, sharing the load internally, or outsourcing.  

Stay tuned for part 2 where we address social media content strategy and practical tips and tricks to make the posting and engaging process more efficient - and even fun!

Ask us anything or let us help you! Contact Johanna at Johanna@vandyke.ca

[1] https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-global-overview-report