Although social media has been popular among the average Americans since 2008 and later; it has not been on the forefront of law firm marketing until the recent years. To really understand why many law firms’ social media efforts fail think about the scenario below:
You‘re an attorney, wake up at 3AM and have a brilliant idea to start a Facebook page to help launch social media for your law firm. So, you grab your tablet or laptop and create a Facebook Fan page in under ten minutes! Cool huh? Then, in morning when you get to your office—you show everyone what you have created. For two weeks, your new Facebook page seems to go great, and then you get busy and can only concentrate on lawyer tasks.
After a few weeks—you look at your Facebook firm page, you wonder why it’s not generating followers and what you can do to help it grow without it being so time consuming. This is a fleeting thought and you move on to more pressing issues. Then, before you know it a year goes by and your Facebook Fan Page for your firm is silently sitting in cyberspace in the dead zone. If this scenario describes you or someone you know then this blog is for you!
Truthfully in social media, like everything, takes planning and commitment. A few weeks ago, an attorney contacted our office interested in our social media services and law office management services. Like many of our clients; this law firm engages in more than practicing law. The attorneys at this law firm all write blogs, white pages, and engage in social media efforts such as; Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. While their efforts were not as inconsistent as the foregoing scenario—they still struggled to meet the demands of social media marketing and the general management of their law firm. The law firm wanted to know what we could do for them and how we would do it. There was one problem with this request; they did not want to disclose how they approached their social media marketing. In addition, when we asked them if they prepared a plan such as a marking plan for their efforts— all we heard was silence.
We attempted to explain to the firm that for us to inform them of what we could do and how we would do it, that it was essential for them to tell us what they had already tried. The reason most law firms social media efforts fail is because they fail to plan their posts and maintain consistent posting. Social Media marketing is content marketing and it is based on the premise of sharing and have conversations with your followers. Any content marketing is designed for slow growth and built around consistency. If you’re not consistent, it won’t matter how cool or informative your social media content is.
Therefore, if you want to build a following on any of the social media channels, you must be prepared to put effort in to building it. Even if you hire a company like Best Virtual Paralegal, LLC to help you – you need provide what you have done in previous attempts. The key to building a successful social media following is patience, consistency, and content.
