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Choosing the Best Social Media Platform for Your Law Firm

Determining the best platforms to establish your firm’s social media presence and establishing an effective social media presence may seem overwhelming at first. Here are some effective tips to consider as you begin to develop your firm’s strategy. 

Evaluating which platforms are right for your firm follows a process of gathering data, and beginning with 1 or 2 platforms best suited to your defined goals for content delivery and marketing results. Measure your results against stated goals and course correct as you learn what efforts are most effective for your firm.  

Gather Industry Data 

Learn what works and what doesn’t by conducting competitor research. While evaluating reports and data on highly performing networks, identify similar firms that are successfully using social media strategies and learn from how they use their platforms.  

  • What type of content investments are they making: blogs, legal podcasts, videos, webinars, eBooks? 
  • How are they engaging with users? 
  • What are they doing well? 
  • How would you improve on their efforts? 

According to the American Bar Association, law firms continue year after year to prefer LinkedIn as a social media marketing platform. This is because LinkedIn allows lawyers to promote themselves professionally, and because of its popularity within the legal profession. 

Facebook follows closely behind, with 62 percent of firms holding a social media presence. This platform allows you to share related trends and articles, advertise to a targeted audience, and engage with followers.

Different platforms offer unique advantages in achieving specific goals. If your primary goal is professional development and networking with other attorneys, LinkedIn is the platform of choice. However, if your goal is community engagement, consider a more personalized network like Instagram or Facebook.  

Setting Clear Goals for Social Media Efforts 

Setting clear realistic goals around your social media efforts is critical to guiding your strategy and achieving success on your terms. Social media is about cultivating an audience and creating conversation. If your main goal is quick conversions, you will likely be disappointed. Some goals other law firms have in their marketing strategies are:

  • Professional development and networking (66%) 
  • Maintaining client pipeline (51%) 
  • Education and awareness (49%) 
  • Community engagement (43%) 
  • Case investigation (21%) 

Content Delivery 

Successful social media presence requires a sustained commitment to consistently create and publish timely, new, relevant content that caters to the interests of your target audiences. Different platforms require various levels of commitment to new content. Some platforms like LinkedIn can yield positive results with only a few short posts a week while others like Instagram require a steady flow of relevant high-quality content to capture users’ attention.  

Next, carefully consider your ability to respond quickly to users who engage with your content. This is how you build your audience, network, and increase brand awareness. Responding to comments from two LinkedIn posts a week is a smaller time commitment than remaining in continuous conversation with users on other platforms.  

In the beginning, set yourself up for success on one or two platforms and track your results. Gain a solid understanding of how much time you can dedicate to social media content creation, publishing schedules, and user engagement, and then adjust your strategy accordingly. Establishing and managing six different social media accounts on separate platforms is not likely to be successful right out of the gate.  

Track Your Results 

It is crucial to track and measure your results to learn what is working and what needs course correction. Add your social media accounts to your Google Analytics goals and review the data after your first 3 months. The data will help you discover what type of content is most relevant to users, will cultivate your target audience, and create brand-building conversations. 

Firms with clear goals, a steady content flow, and an established presence on at least one platform need to periodically evaluate performance and adjust to maximize success against stated goals.  

Use Available Reporting to Increase Investments in Your Highest-Performing Networks 

Data will help you discover which platforms and activities deliver tangible results and which ones are a waste of your time. Google Analytics has several reports to help you evaluate the success of your networks and content:

  • Overview reports – Identifies how many users are converting from social networks 
  • Network referrals – Measures engagement generated by each social platform 
  • Landing pages – Tracks engagement for URLs by platform driving traffic 
  • Conversions – Identifies total conversions by social platform 
  • Plugins – Details how many users clicked your share buttons by platform 
  • Users flow – Maps the path users take through your website by social network 

Maximizing Social Media Success 

Is your google profile set up to attract your ideal clients? Is your firm’s visibility maximized in search results? Optimize your google profile to bring in more cases with this helpful checklist.  

GoBeyond, a full-service marketing agency, is ready to support your practice whether you are new to using social media or an expert practitioner. Contact us to discuss your needs or visit us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Blog Content Marketing Law Firm Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing

The Importance of Using Social Media for Law Firms

A robust social media presence is a necessity today for thriving up-and-coming law firms. Social media strategies are used to establish brand awareness, connect firms with their ideal clients, drive traffic to your website, and generate sales.  

Here is what to consider when making the decision to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy.

Increasing Brand Awareness 

Law firms have always strived to get their brands in front of the largest audience possible. The primary platform to reach a targeted audience was once newspapers, and then it migrated to television and billboards. 

To meet your audience where they are today, your firm needs a robust social media presence. According to a recent survey, 38 percent of people looking for an attorney check online first. Maintaining a consistent social media presence keeps you top of mind (and top of search results) when users are looking for legal help.  

Humanizing Your Firm’s Brand 

Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy helps to bring your firm’s culture to life by showcasing who you are and what you are passionate about. You can include features like personal stories about your team members and updates on notable events you have attended. That way, your followers will feel as if they know you and, when they need you, you will already feel like a trusted partner.

Connecting and Engaging with Your Ideal Clients 

Social media is an effective tool for identifying and reaching your specific target audience. The platforms you select create a place for users to follow your firm and engage with your content as well as to stay informed on topics of interest and trending legal news. You are consistently working to build relationships with potential clients in a more organic way.

Driving Traffic to Your Website and Generating Sales 

Using social media strategically generates quality leads for law firms and accelerates results from other sales and marketing efforts. Platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram can be used to encourage potential clients to take an action like visiting your website. LinkedIn followers do not always convert to cases, but if you share a link to a timely blog post, many followers will click through to your website to read it and, in doing that, learn more about your law firm. 

Effective Use of Social Media Creates Competitive Advantages for Growing Law Firms

Is your google profile set up to attract your ideal clients? Is your firm’s visibility maximized in search results? Optimize your google profile to bring in more cases with this helpful checklist. An effective online presence and social media strategy creates competitive advantages by improving your firm’s visibility, credibility, relatability, and connection to an audience of ideal prospective clients cultivated for conversion.  

GoBeyond, a full-service marketing agency, is ready to answer any questions and support your practice whether you are new to using social media or an expert practitioner. Contact us to discuss your needs and visit us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Social Media Social Media Marketing

4 Easy Ways to Improve Social Media Engagement with Your Audience

Relationships of all types take work. Imagine striking up a new friendship, only to ignore all of that person’s texts and phone calls, and then to feel angry when they no longer want to be your friend. 

That’s how your potential customers feel when you neglect to communicate with them through meaningful engagement. Posting regularly about your business, and about yourself, on social media and interacting with your audience will enable you to create the traffic you need for your business to thrive.

Increasing social media engagement and building a community online is a free way to build trust with your audience, and if people trust you, they are more motivated to buy from you. Know your audience, find out where they spend their time, and nurture that relationship.

1. Promote Blog Posts on Social Media

By referencing those blogs you worked so hard to create through social media posts, you are driving your customers to your site to read them. This, in turn, boosts your SEO and further establishes you as an authority in your space, in the eyes of both your customers and search engines. In addition, by giving your audience a “sneak peek” of the blog’s content, you add some free value. This helps prove to your audience you are a trustworthy and knowledgeable source of information, and motivates them to go onto your website if they like what they see.

2. Use Your Brand Voice To Talk To Your Followers

Sharing your specific voice with your audience allows them to see your business’ personality and get a glimpse of what it might be like to work with you. Your brand’s voice immediately differentiates you from your competitors, and, if used correctly, shows that you care about your followers.

Through posts that aim to relate to your audience and conversations in the comments, you are able to make meaningful connections. Those connections turn into brand loyalty which turns into more profits for your business.

When posting to engage, don’t hesitate to promote “tagging” with your followers. Tagging your loyal customers, your biggest fans, and other small businesses can broaden the organic reach of your business to new people. It enables you to grow your following and bring more potential clients into the know. Encourage your followers to tag your social media handle too in order to organically reach more viewers.

3. Run Polls and Request Feedback

Polls are a quick and simple way to interact with consumers and increase social media engagement. At this point, just about every social media app has a polling feature, which in itself shows how important and popular this tactic is. Here are some key reasons you should be polling your followers, if you aren’t already:

  • Polls are a convenient way to get your audience hooked instantly. For instance, if you are a CPA, your poll could be “do you use an accountant or a website to do your taxes?” Then, following the poll, you could offer that already engaged viewer some content on why seeking an accountant is preferable. 
  • Polls help your business move in the direction of the marketplace by asking your audience to choose between two potential new products you may offer in the future.
  • Polls are an efficient way to ask for customer feedback. By doing this, the audience sees that your business cares about their input and your brand becomes more trustworthy in their minds. 

4. Include Short-Form Informational Posts

Referencing relevant outside articles and content, and sharing a short excerpt or your own take, along with the link, can be a quick way to get your audience involved. The idea at first probably seems foolish, as you are intentionally sending your audience to an outside website. However, by sharing thought-provoking content as short, easy to digest posts, you are showing yourself to be an authority in your space. And, just think of the conversations that might take place in the comments, or the shares your page might get!

Social media gives your audience a window into your business, and you get a look into your customers in return. Anyone in customer service will tell you that the more you know about your customers, the better experience it is for all parties. The next time you post, make it with the intention to engage your audience, provide them with value, and get them coming back for more.

Looking for more ways to improve your social media engagement? Reach out for help anytime!

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Law Firm Marketing 101: An Essential Guide for Family Lawyers

These days, it’s not enough that you have an office to meet clients. You have to have a strong online presence. Check out this guide on law firm marketing.

Every lawyer who ventures out on their own has a vision of a bustling practice and nailing one case after another. In reality, most find themselves with less action and more thumb-twiddling, than they’d like to admit.

The field of law, including family law, is a saturated and competitive industry. Why are your competitors getting more business than you are? What are they doing that you aren’t?

One of the most effective ways to build your practice is to have the right digital marketing strategy. After all, 85% of people hit the internet when they’re looking for local businesses, so a strong online presence goes a long way.

For a more effective and revenue-boosting strategy, check out these law firm marketing tips.

Family Law Firm Marketing Tips for Your Digital Strategy

Using the online world to gain business requires a few elements. You need people to know who you are. You need them to find you. And you need to be able to convert them to clients. Start with these steps.

1. Make It Easy

Before you jump headfirst into trying to get more visitors to your site, make sure your site has what it takes to convert those visitors into clients. Your key goal should be to make it easy for clients to make that conversion.

First, you need to guide clients toward taking the next step. Every page of your site should have a call-to-action. For instance, maybe you have a page about custody arrangements in divorce. At the end of the page’s content, invite users to contact you about their own custody case. Display a button they can click to do this.

Next, make it as convenient as possible for them to get in touch with you. The days of instructing clients to call you during hours of your convenience are over. Offer a way for them to contact you online with their questions. With that information, you or your staff can call them when you’re in the office.

2. Know How to Use Social Media

Every marketer talks about the importance of social media marketing today. They’re right, it is important, but it’s not just about whether you have it: it’s about how you use it.

On your social media pages, you should focus on spreading information. Your posts shouldn’t sound like sales pitches, because readers will tune out in a heartbeat.

Instead, your goal on social media should be to establish yourself as a trusted expert in your field. If you do this, you’ll be the one people will turn to when they need a lawyer.

3. Get Your Speed Up

It’s not just the content of your website that matters but the technical performance as well. After all, do you stay on a site that isn’t loading or one that doesn’t work well? Neither will your clients.

One of the key statistics you need to check is your website speed. If your site doesn’t load within two or three seconds, about half of users will head elsewhere.

When users leave your site so quickly, it raises your bounce rate which hurts your search engine optimization, or SEO. Even those users who stay are already starting to get frustrated, so they won’t have the best impression of your site.

4. Blog and Blog Well

Blogging is an important way to improve your digital marketing. The frequent updates and valuable content will improve your search engine optimization, and each blog post is providing content for your social media pages.

Those are just the benefits you get from posting each blog. When people actually read them, your articles will display your knowledge as an expert and will establish a connection with the reader and a growing trust.

Of course, not all blogging practices will give you the same benefits. Make sure you post blogs on a consistent basis and that the content is valuable and well-written. Focus on topics your clients really want, like tips for negotiating a custody agreement.

6. Get On Camera

If you don’t already use videos in your digital marketing strategy, now is the time to start. Videos are an engaging medium that users love, and there are so many ways to use them to market your firm.

You can start with simple “talking head videos,” in which you’re sharing your knowledge about a particular subject. You could also use videos to share a tour of your office or to discuss your recent interesting cases (with confidentiality of course).

After you have a video ready, post it everywhere. We’re talking about YouTube, your own website, and your social media pages as well.

7. Get Help from the Past

There’s a lot of trust involved when a client chooses a lawyer, and especially a family lawyer. One of the best ways for new clients to see that you’re trustworthy is to hear it from your past clients.

Encourage your happy clients to post reviews for you on Google, Yelp, and other sites. You can even ask them for a brief testimonial that you can post online. In many cases, reviews and testimonials are a client’s deciding factor when they choose their lawyer.

8. Prioritize Local Search Engine Optimization

One of the most common mistakes local businesses make is forgetting about local SEO. For instance, they optimize their site for keywords like “family lawyer” and “family law firm” rather than “Charlotte family lawyer” or “family law in Charlotte.”

As a law firm, attracting site visitors in California might help your statistics but it won’t bring you clients. Be sure to incorporate local SEO into your digital marketing strategy.

Building Your Client Base

Many lawyers think that if they do good work, the clients will follow. That’s not often the case. As you build your reputation as a great lawyer, you still need to spread the word about your business. The law firm marketing tips above are a great start.

If you’re ready to really jumpstart your growth, contact our digital marketing experts for a more comprehensive plan.

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Kristy is an Assistant & Coordinator of Awesome. She has worked extensively in academic administration and brings a varied wealth of knowledge. As a self-starter, she is ready to take on news projects and see them through to completion. Always curious, Kristy is an avid researcher and delights in the challenge of learning new skills.

When Kristy isn’t organizing or researching something, you can find her listening to a true crime podcast, re-watching How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory and coming up with some crazy shenanigan for her family’s next adventure.

5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT KRISTY

  1. Kristy prefers the Harry Potter books over the movies. Her favorite book is The Prisoner of Azkaban and her favorite character is Luna Lovegood. Ravenclaw house. She just started her 8-year-old son on listening to the books.
  2. Kristy has a nail technician license, esthetician license, medical assisting certification, associate degree, and bachelor’s degree. She didn’t get her full cosmetology license because she can barely do her own hair, she shouldn’t be trusted with someone else’s.
  3. She doesn’t know how to gamble but is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada. She moved to Colorado three months before her 21st birthday.
  4. Her high school graduating class consisted of only 20 people.
  5. Kristy loves gift giving. One of her great joys in life is finding the “perfect” gift.
Kristy Elias