Social media is great in many ways. It can improve the way people stay connected with their friends, family, co-workers and virtually everyone in their lives. Social media continues to open the doors on communication between people regardless of distance. Social media can be used to introduce yourself, your like and dislikes, to large audiences or prominent people that were never accessible to you before, but have you ever thought to use the power of social media to promote your law practice, and to stay abreast of evolving legal issues and cutting edge legal decisions? If you never thought about using social media in this matter, I would suggest you keep reading and maybe you will rethink why you haven’t thought about social media as a business tool. Maybe your law firm has launched your social media campaigns, but you are not getting the results you want, or you just don’t have the time to be consistent. If the lack of time is the reason you have for not jumping onto the social media band wagon for your practice, you are missing a wide market of opportunities.
Social media has the ability to deepen your law practice’s network of connections, thus increasing your client base and client opportunities, if handled correctly and consistently. Many of my lawyer connections in my network struggle with the idea of using social media a marketing tool. This blog article’s purpose is to share some of the valuable tips I have learned about social media for the legal profession through attending seminars, webinars, and quite simply trial and error.
Understanding the basics
Before any company launches a social media, advertising campaign you must first conduct some research before it begins. This is the most important step in developing any ad campaign. Social media is no different, because in a sense social media is a never-ending ad campaign.
In this first stage, you must conduct research to understand all the different social media platforms that are available to you and your company. Social media sites are sprouting up everywhere and it can be overwhelming to anyone, even the most experienced of social media users. When you ask people the question, “what is social media” you are very likely going to receive vastly different responses and none of which are going to give you a clear image of social media. In my first e-book on the topic of social media titled Social media & how to do it right for your business, I defined social media as a mass marketing channel for sharing information. Social media is an important marketing tool; it is the new word of mouth. The major difference with this form of word of mouth marketing is it can be controlled with the right strategy and plan. (Teel 2012)
Understanding that social media is the new word of mouth is the key in developing your strategy for promoting your law practice. The second most important key to starting a successful social media plan is being consistence with your posts.
Lawyers should use real life case results from real clients the winners and losers to get their content. If you’re a family law attorney use information that affects your prospective clients’ issue. Is there a new rule regarding child support, and then you use it. Share your expertise within your social media. Lawyers like any other business should use a combination of Twitter, Facebook, with his or her website and a blog to generate a following of prospective clients.
When using twitter and Facebook, both of which offer their users to ask questions of their followers and post answers. Lawyers should use these options and platforms to assist in gathering good quality information and content.
If you find that, you lack the time that your social media campaign will take, because you are a practicing attorney who is in court 95 % of the time you are awake, then your social media plan for your firm should be delegated to your senior paralegal. The reason social media, content marketing, and blogging are excellent tasks for a senior paralegal is because as senior paralegals we are trained to research topics for you, write in a manner, which mirrors your voice, and final ask and answer client questions under your direction.
When you make the decision to delegate blogging, social media and or any content marketing to your paralegal, you should sit down with your paralegal and decide whose name goes on the by line for the blog or article. You should decide whether or not to give your paralegal credit for contributing to your content. Ultimately, the main thing you need to do is make a plan and stick to it.
