Written by Corinne Remeika
All law firms should be using Social Media as an active component of Biz Dev and Client Retention efforts. As a critical marketing platform in today’s competitive marketplace, beginning a Social Media initiative can be overwhelming for Legal Marketers.
Set forth are our Top 10 tips for effective Social Media programs to help focus and guide your firm’s Social Media strategy.
|01| Have a well-defined target on which to focus your efforts
You will kill yourself trying to write to everyone about everything. Know who is most critical to the success of the firm and focus your efforts on them.
|02| Write content that is in demand by your target
Make sure your target is leading the subject matter of which your firm writes. A few good places to start are Google Trends, convention schedules, industry and legal publishers and competitors. You could also ask! It’s a great reason to check-in with your most important clients.
|03| Write for your audience
One size does not fit all social media. Are you writing to lawyers, entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, a technologist…? Write content that fits their language, length and tone preferences.
|04| Engage
Add pictures, graphs, infographics, video, audio, etc. to peak interest and retain readers for longer periods of time.
Encourage readers to leave their thoughts or questions in the comments to begin a dialogue.
|05| Have goals, so you can measure success
Likes, Comment & Share are the KPIs for social medial. To set a baseline, see what your competitors are doing and the response they are receiving. Make sure key stakeholders are aligned with the goals and expectations of your social media efforts upfront to avoid confusion or debate on program effectiveness.
|06| Have a Schedule
Consistency is key so find a cadence that works for you and ease into it. Many find a schedule of 12x posts a month a comfortable cadence for which to aim.
|07| Don’t Forget to Hashtag
If you want to help new users find you, make sure to include hashtags on social media posts, which make your content more searchable. There are several tools like me/ that can help make this process easier.
|08| Publish Everywhere
Get mileage out of your content and post to all your firm’s owned platforms, like your websites and social media feeds. Send your information to content publishers for free and paid opportunities.Leverage the power of your internal team with tools like Clear View Social, which makes sharing from a personal account a single click away.
|09| Maximize ROI: Recycle, Reuse & Repurpose Content
Content is only present in social media feeds for a fleeting moment… and then its buried. If content is strong, post it again and again with small tweaks. This could be adding a Q&A, summarizing the key take always, highlighting a quote or a number of other creative solutions. Try releasing long format content as a series of posts to realize more mileage out of the piece. When news cycles are hot on a specific subject matter or industry, go back into your archives and repost topical content.
|10| Test, Measure & Refine (Repeat)
Watch trends in engagement (likes, share and comments) to tune into that which your readers are positively responding.
In addition, set-up Google Analytics to measure the traffic coming to your site and monitor their behaviors. Sometimes engagements might look low based on the traditional social stats, however, the quality of the reader and the reader’s time on your site can be exponentially more rewarding.
Social media is all about trial and error. Go slowly, take your time and pay attention. You will soon see why these powerful platforms are worth your firm’s attention.
Looking for more information on content marketing, visit Content Marketing for Law Firms