Happy New Year! I’m hoping that 2019 is the year more law firms master social media marketing to connect with prospects and clients. A new study out from Pew Research shows that, for the first time, social sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans. That means people are turning to social media for more than just interacting with friends and family; they are looking for information relevant to their lives.
Here are 5 steps you can take this year to up your social media game:
- Understand the purpose of social media.
Social media is a different kind of marketing cat and you can’t treat it like traditional marketing channels. Its purpose is to enable you to form relationships, demonstrate thought leadership, get on the radar of prospects you might not have been able to reach in other ways and to eventually drive them to an action that will allow you to keep the communication going — i.e., visit your website or blog, download a free report, watch your videos, etc.
- Gauge your current online reputation.
You begin your social marketing program by listening first to what people are already saying about you. Set up a Google Alert for the name of your firm and each attorney. Do searches on Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for your firm name.
- Choose the platforms that serve your target market and complement your practice area.
In general, B2C attorneys will want to be on Facebook, while B2B attorneys will prefer LinkedIn. However, there may be opportunities for you on other platforms so dig deep into the demographic profiles of your client base and search for similarities among the social networks. For example, if your practice targets women, you need to look into Pinterest. Using the Pew Research Center Social Media Fact Sheet will help you sort through this.
- Set goals for your social media program.
The only way you’ll be able to judge whether social media provides a return on your marketing investment is to set and measure goals. Make them as specific as possible — i.e., obtain 100 downloads of your free ebook from Facebook followers every month.
- Create content sources.
Social media is a short-form play, where you use a few enticing sentences or comments and link to longer content for the user to explore. This is why it is imperative for you to have a blog, which is really the content hub for your social media marketing efforts. Each time you add a new post, you link to it from your social network pages. This is what feeds the beast! You also need to create a YouTube channel for your videos and link to those as well.
Need more help in improving your social media marketing efforts? Click below to get my free report on Social Media Rainmaking for Lawyers!
