Baskadia

Social media sites provide a quick, affordable way to stay in touch with your prospects/clients, monitor your competitors, and keep updated with the latest industry trends. Many lawyers understand the importance of social media, and use them to gain exposure and an advantage over others. However, not all professionals know how to tap the power of social media in legal practice. If you’re one such professional, follow these ten steps to develop and streamline the process of marketing your business on social sites.

1) Discover the Perceptions of People About You and Your Law Firm

First, find conversations about your lawyers or law firm on the World Wide Web. Perform a query in search engines such as Google and Yahoo for your brand. Also, visit Facebook and see users’ feedback there. Finally, check Twitter to search for your firm.

Each result or conversation you find unfolds an opportunity to influence end-users. If nobody mentions or talks about your firm, find the reason. Perhaps, you’re not remarkable enough or uninteresting. If so, fix this issue and popularize yourself on social networking sites.

2) Find Places Where People Talk About Your Preferred Topics

Many law firms and lawyers consider LinkedIn the best social platform to find topics of discussion. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. You need to do some search first.

Make a list of keywords that showcase your firm’s areas of expertise/business. Phrase them such that your potential clients might talk on those topics. Now, visit major social networks and search for those terms.

3) Choose Social Platforms and Plan Your Approach

Based on your research, choose the platforms to invest your time in. Start with one or two social networks in the beginning. Use Twitter and Facebook first as they let you an easy start. Also, they can deliver quick results. Plan the approach you want to use for social marketing.

Look at the social activities of market leaders and your competitors. Remember, social media in legal practice isn’t an easy job. It’ll take time and effort before you can see visible results. So, be patient and invest yourself in the right direction. Figure out what’s working and adapt those ideas and approaches for your social media campaigns.

4) Set Your Goals

How to figure out your success in social media campaigns? Your objectives and goals come into the picture here. Set specific and measurable goals before starting. The initial goals should be modest enough. Initially, your aim could be to understand your clients and how to motivate them. Also, find what type of content appeals to your prospects.

As you advance, you should set goals for growing your audience (followers and fans). However, this has to be a short-term aim. Your long-run social media goals must directly tie in with your business goals, and that leads to winning leads and clients.

5) Plan the Content and Set Your Policy

Although this sounds formal, it doesn’t have to be. Your content should include posts that you’d want to say in public. Plan the subject of discussion. Imagine why a particular legal topic might interest your audience. Figure out why your audience may share the chosen subject with others.

The efficient use of social networks means crafting content that’s provocative. Your chosen topic of discussion should invoke a reaction among readers to share and engage with you. Have a thought-provoking opinion, and be prepared to defend what you say.

6) Make a Routine

For social networking to be effective, you need to have a routine. Plan how much time and effort you can commit to social media networking and marketing. Be sure you stick to your plan and make it a regular practice.

You may invest 45 to 60 minutes each day. Keep some time aside for the routine. Your routine may include responding to comments and posting fresh, engaging content. However, ensure you've a plan and the time for crafting new content.

7) Involve Everyone in Your Firm

Scaling your social media campaign can be a challenge. This point is even more correct when you’re starting. You can ease the challenge by involving everybody in your firm. Encourage every person in your firm to post something about your topic or reply positively.

Ask them to re-post and retweet your stories and content to their followers. That’s a crucial aspect of social media advocacy; it delivers desirable results. Content shared by your employees can get much better engagement.

8) Build Social Media in Real-world Events

After making your team on social sites, build social media in real-world events. For instance, if you host a conference, encourage people to share and post about your event online. This action will spread messages about your firm on the net. You may also use social media to boost the ROI of your conference by connecting with speakers, organizers, and other attendees.

9) Host a Blog

Having a blog is essential for any lawyer. It lets you post better content broadly. Make a blog; have a content plan. Be sure about what you want to publish and when you wish to post. Write fresh content to draw your target audience. Accordingly, plan how to use social media outposts to spread your message.

10) Find Leads and Build Your Relationship

By this time, you’ll have people talking about your firm on social sites. They might be sharing your blog posts, retweeting your tweets, or chatting with your attorneys. Each of them is a lead. So, have a process to track/follow them and motivate them to use your service.

Final Thoughts

Drawing clients to a legal firm can be a chore in this competitive age. However, you can resolve this issue by tapping the potency of social media sites. Check the above tips on using social media in legal practice to gain leads and clients over time.