Chloe Wingate
You might have social media accounts for your business, but have you got a strategy for them? After all, there’s a big difference between making the odd post and having a specific (and consistent) posting schedule for each platform.
Having a strong social media presence aligned with your branding is a vital way of boosting credibility and engagement. Just like hiring managers conducting a quick online search of a prospective employee, potential clients are likely to Google your firm before instructing your business.
Making a plan
With so many platforms to choose from, it can feel overwhelming knowing where to start with social media marketing. That’s why it’s important to break it down. Decide your aims and work back from there. Ask yourself, who is your target audience? What are your objectives – could it be to bring in new clients, raise brand awareness, or engage with the community? Your answers to those questions will help inform you which platforms to focus your efforts on.
As LinkedIn is made for business, it is a popular choice for firms marketing themselves online. It’s designed to be a networking tool, so is a great way to connect with potential clients and others in the legal industry. The posts should therefore have a professional tone, so you come across as a credible and reputable company. In terms of content, LinkedIn is an ideal platform for sharing articles and other thought leadership pieces to showcase your expertise.
If you want to reinforce your presence within a community, Facebook might be the platform for you. It’s more informal in its nature – you can interact with local pages and groups, and they can respond by leaving comments and reacting to posts. Visual content tends to work better, so you will need to work with your designer to create images or videos that will attract interest. Your firm’s Facebook usage will also depend on who you are targeting – in January of this year, 24.7% of all Facebook users in the UK were aged 25 to 34, while the second largest demographic was 35 to 44-year-olds.
By design, Instagram is entirely visual, so it does require having someone who can produce graphics on a regular basis. Some firms use the app to provide an insight into the firm’s people and culture. For example, you might post Instagram Stories welcoming a new staff member to the team or celebrating work anniversaries. You can strike a balance between professional and casual by keeping everything in line with your firm’s branding. Due to the algorithm, consistency is key – the more you post, the more users will engage with your content, and the more you will feature on future feeds.
X (formerly known as Twitter)
A place to share brief thoughts or comments, X is more effective if you post frequently. You can easily repost articles and news stories, so it is a way of showing your company is up to date with national and local news. You can easily get your firm seen by new users by following accounts, mentioning other people and using hashtags.
Managing social media
Posting regularly on social media doesn’t have to take up all your time. Once you have created the content, you can use scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer to give you oversight of all your platforms. Once you understand what kind of posts work best with your audience, you might then choose to pay for targeted ads to improve your reach.
Sources:
https://www.clio.com/resources/digital-marketing-lawyers/social-media-lawyers/