Social Media Management for Law Firms

How Does Social Media Fit Into A Law Firm’s Marketing Strategy?

Social media plays a crucial role in a law firm’s marketing strategy by providing a platform to engage with clients, showcase expertise, and build brand reputation. Through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, law firms can share valuable legal insights, industry updates, success stories, and community involvement. This not only helps in establishing credibility but also fosters trust among potential clients. Additionally, social media allows firms to target specific demographics, run targeted ad campaigns, and track engagement metrics to refine their marketing efforts. Overall, incorporating social media into a law firm’s marketing strategy can enhance visibility, attract new clients, and strengthen relationships with existing ones.

What Are The Common Components Of A Good Social Media Campaign for Attorneys?

Simply put, good social media campaigns garner heavy engagement. While engagement doesn’t always lead to an increase in intakes or retained clients, it’s certainly a proxy that you are moving in the correct direction. Campaigns that lead to increases in retained clients always have engagement. There is a very simple reason for this; posts with higher engagement rates get more eyeballs. Posts with low engagement are given no impressions, this is how the social media algorithms work.

How Do Lawyers Create Social Media Posts Or Strategies That Get Real Engagement?

Posts that get heavy engagement entice emotion. It’s that simple, if a post creates strong emotion, either positive or negative, it will get more clicks, more comments and in turn be served to more people on these platforms. While many firms are nervous to post things that they feel may get some negative comments, one thing to keep in mind is that even negative comments help get your post in front of more people. Not to mention, negative comments can always be blocked, hidden, or removed. The old adage: “Any form of publicity, good or bad, is good publicity.” While we certainly don’t agree with this statement in totality for law firms, as the PR firm that created that quote has clearly never dealt with legal ethics or reprimands from the state bar. However this is a takeaway from this type of knowledge. Post things people would care about, engage with, or comment on. 

What Goals Should Law Firms Have When It Comes To Social Media?

Social media for lawyers, it’s a hotbed topic. Will it generate cases? Does it make sense? The answer – as with many questions in marketing – is “it depends.” Thinking about going down the Social Media rabbit hole means starting with the most important question: What’s the end goal?

Goal 1: Don’t Be A “Ghost Town”

At the most basic level, social media is just another touchpoint in the consumer journey of a potential client. After they’ve visited your website and read online reviews about your firm, the next stop might very well be visiting your social media profile. In this scenario, your goal might simply be to just be “good enough”. That is, have something on your profiles to avoid it looking like a dead page, but not much beyond that.

Goal 2: Brand Visibility and Engagement

If you’re a firm that is actively running branded campaigns across traditional or digital media, it is natural to use social media as a tool to extend the frequency and reach of your branded messaging. Your social presence should be consistent with other branded material, actively post new content at a regular cadence, and engage in community discussion.

Goal 3: Direct Case Acquisition

Putting paid social to the side for the moment, which offers formats for direct response case acquisition in a straighforward way, case acquisition through social media requires a special type of lawyer/law firm. It takes a huge amount of time and – in many cases – creativity to directly generate new business from social media posting alone. Depending on your practice area(s) the type of content that “works” might vary greatly. For example, family law practices can build traction with relatively straightforward posts tackling simple FAQs while more time-sensitive matters – like car accident claims – require a completely different (and often more complex) content strategy. Only a few select firms have built case generation engines off of social media alone.

What Are The Most Active Social Media Platforms That Law Firms Should Focus on Globally?

While there are many other social media platforms, these 6 make up the vast majority of impressions in the United States in terms of what matters most for law firms. Does it really make sense for law firms to have a Pinterest board? It’s better for your firm to focus on the social media channels that make the most sense for your practice area and what can be realistically managed within your firm’s marketing budget.

Strategies for Top Social Media Platforms:

Facebook & Instagram Marketing Tactics for Lawyers:

Facebook and Instagram are a very important part of a plaintiffs law firms marketing strategy. One of the primary reasons for this is that Meta has developed one of the most effective advertising platforms due to the shear quantity of targeting data that they have on their users. While social media advertising is an extremely effective way to generate leads for mass torts or first party insurance disputes, potential clients are going to evaluate the social page as a whole before they call or fill out forms to enter your intake process.

LinkedIn Marketing Tactics for Lawyers

LinkedIn is commonly used for building out your referral network and for recruiting new talent for your firm. Your strategy on linkedin has a completely different audience than all other social platforms. On LinkedIn your audience will be primarily other attorneys (and other employees that work within the legal services vertical).

TikTok Marketing Tactics for Lawyers

TikTok has exploded in popularity over the last few years. While the audience on tiktok still skews younger than facebook or instagram the average age is rising every year and will continue to as the platform caters more and more for mass market audiences. Typically social platforms start with younger audiences and expand as they scale. Currently the largest issue lawyers face with TikTok is that legal advertising advertisements are completely against TikTok’s terms of service.

YouTube Marketing Tactics for Lawyers

Creating a successful youtube marketing strategy hasn’t been done by many law firms. The reason for this is that it requires a completely different set of skills than many other types of advertising – you are going to need a video production team to create high quality videos.

Common Organic Social Media Marketing Tactics for Law Firms

• Big Verdicts & Settlements Posts
• New Hire Posts
• Selection on Plaintiffs Steering Committee
• Holiday Posts/Cultural Events
• “Viral” Social Trends
• Helpful FAQ Information
• Humor based posts
• Local “hometown” based posts
• Themed posts: “Is this a case?”
• Contests & Giveaways

What Are Some KPIs Attorneys Can Track For Social Media?

Should A Law Firm Manage Their Own Social Media Or Use An Agency?

• Do you have your own creative team that can produce the creative assets you need to post? 
• Do you have a world-class social media manager that has managed social campaigns specifically for law firms for years? 
• Do you know what KPIs you should track to know if you social strategies are successful or a waste of time and money?
• Do you know what range these metrics should be in relative to other law firms or relative to other businesses?

If you don’t know the answer to these questions you should likely hire an agency to aid in your social media campaigns. The fact that you are reading this is a fairly good indication that you know your own strengths and weaknesses and should have professionals manage your firm’s social media accounts.