For law firms and Partners in the legal profession, an effective social media marketing strategy may not have been a top priority up until now. But with the legal sector increasingly turning to social media platforms as a way of reaching and engaging with prospective clients, now's the time to rethink your social media marketing activities. Here at Social Hire, we understand how busy professional services firms are because we have extensive experience working in the professional services space.
Our clients tell us our social media marketing services are perfect for a firm like yours. Why? Because we'll do all the hard work of growing your audience of prospective clients and crafting an effective marketing plan to bring new client leads into your practice. This leaves you to get on with running your law firm and handling your case load, knowing there is a dedicated team out there working to get you tangible results. Outsourcing your social media management is like hiring an entire social media team without any of the hassle!
Like other professional services businesses, a social media strategy is vital in the legal sector. The main reason being that you need to be constantly reaching potential new clients and remaining on the radar of your past and current clients. Social media is somewhere your target market can be effectively reached and engaged. Not having a credible and well-managed presence on social media is dangerous because you're missing out on a great deal of potential business no matter what area of the legal industry you specialise in.
Having the right social media strategy - combining a content strategy with targeted advertising and proactive social media audience growth, can take your law firm's business development up a level. The only sticking point is that a marketing approach like this takes time, expertise and patience. Thankfully, our social media marketing experts at Social Hire can do all this and more, plus we'll anchor everything to tangible key performance indicators like lead generation, webinar sign-ups and audience engagement.
We thought we'd expand a little on how law firms currently use social media to achieve greater success, just to give you a sense of how possible all this is. Too often we find professional service companies simply can't imagine themselves on social media, they don't see how their traditional business will 'win' using a social media marketing approach. How could it bring in new clients? Hopefully, the following pointers will help you visualise things.
Social networks now dominate large swathes of our lives. But it's important for your law firm to be wise to the fact that there are some social media platforms that will be of use as business development and brand-building tools - and some that are less appropriate to invest in. To be successful, think about your law firm and the kinds of specialist areas it deals in. Who are your typical clients - and where can they most easily be found and engaged with on social media? That'll inform where you're most likely to reach potential clients in the future.
When it comes to goals, all successful legal firms have key performance indicators that they base results upon. These KPIs should be SMART, meaning:
To appeal to those who buy legal services, successful social media strategies will involve posting industry-related content and advice regularly. Partners will want to ensure their in-house marketing team or outsourced social media management company (such as Social Hire) have planned out weeks' worth of content that ensures their target audience are seeing their name, brand and expertise within their feeds.
In addition, the content has to be relevant, otherwise you're visible without building your credibility in meaningful ways. Successful professional services firms on social media look at what their target audience would be interested in reading, liking and sharing and then shape their content strategy around that.
Law firms that do well talk to their target market and keep themselves front of mind with the potential client audience that they've found on each social media platform. Putting out good content, posts that link to other sources of information from across the web, helps them be seen as experts by their target market. In addition, businesses will engage with their audience and make it a key activity to message and interact with prospects on social media. These firms don't just look active, they are active and indeed proactive! Putting out content is one thing - but replying to every comment, share or mention is just as important. Doing this will help build the bond between your firm and your target audience.
Law firms' level of social media usage ranges from negligible to intensive. So we thought we'd highlight a few law firms that are investing in social media more intensively. If these firms' strategies excite you and you think doing this would be of benefit to you then get in touch with the team at Social Hire who can help you create a social media marketing strategy that delivers tangible results in a timely manner! So, let's take a look at four law firms that are succeeding at social media.
With nearly five thousand Twitter followers, Kingsley Napley is clearly doing something right on social media. We happen to think it is because they've posted over 4,700 tweets that are packed with relevant content. In addition, Kingsley Napley is not afraid to speak out. At the time of writing, their current pinned tweet is in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, for example. In addition, they have a blog series that takes a look at popular TV shows or movies through the lens of a legal expert. Here we can see how they can jump on trends in culture while remaining relevant to their sector.
A big one, Freshfields has over 28 thousand followers on Twitter and a big LinkedIn presence. They use the latter to post monthly reports which help people looking to join the legal sector and professionally shot videos that showcase what they can do to help people. Again, like Kingsley Napley, Freshfields are vocal in their support for marginalised groups. Their Twitter cover photo is the LGBTQ+ flag in support of Pride month.
One of the main things this team do so well is their array of blog posts and news updates. Head to their social media and they are constantly putting out valuable content that is thorough, well-written and engaging. Interestingly, Forsters use their Instagram profile (which currently has just a few followers short of 1,500) to showcase positive reviews that they have had from clients and to show the human side of the business. Their profile is packed with friendly faces that do a great job in humanising the law firm.
Cooley has lots of interesting content; head to their Facebook page and you'll see that they have over 2,500 likes! They've really nailed their presentation on this page, with a great header picture and a consistent stream of interesting content, both content they have created themselves and other valuable resources they have found and shared. This engagement positions them as a real member of the legal community across social media channels.
We love what those law firms do and we would love to help you achieve similar success by utilising the team here at Social Hire! We have worked with lots of businesses in the professional services industry like consulting firms, business coaches and headhunting recruitment agencies. Our deep-rooted knowledge and experience with these businesses make us confident that we can help law firms achieve specific social media goals too. From simply growing your professional network to tangible things like a specific amount of followers, building awareness about a networking event, showcasing a new service or using social media for lead generation - we can do it all here at Social Hire.
Below are just a few things that we'll do for you to help you achieve success in the world of social media.
We know your time is precious and we know you haven't got time to hear about wishy-washy goals that won't achieve anything tangible. That's why, from day one, we'll define what it is you're looking to achieve with your social media strategy. These goals give us a north star to aim for with your social media channels and give you peace of mind that you're working with a company that has your goals in mind. By doing this, we're ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Defining your target audience is vital. Without it, you're just throwing out content and trying to grow an audience without any direction or purpose. We'll work with you to ensure that doesn't happen. We take time to get to know your team, get under the skin of your business and understand who your ideal client would be. Our experts then go away and create content and a strategy based on that, potentially including some paid social media advertising.
Before we look to the future, it's important to look at the present. As part of our service, we'll go through your current social media profiles / social media posts and assess your strengths and weaknesses. Each client is at a different level so, for us, it’s vital that we take a bespoke approach to each one to ensure they are getting the most out of their investment with us.
Using appropriate keyword research, relevant calls to action and other performance metrics, we'll develop effective content and social media strategies that over the first few months of working with us will yield real results from your social media posts. The reason is that we've put in the hard work to find out ways to make your social activities effective. A lot of outsourced social media management agencies will just create posts and hope it works under the guise of being experts. Trial and error. Who has time for that?!
For years we have helped professional services companies expand their social media and generate tangible new client leads. We are one of the most established and highly-rated agencies in the sector and we're always working to ensure we're using the most cutting edge social media tools and adapting to changes on the social media platforms for our clients so they get the maximum ROI.
The way we work is simple, we offer your law firm a low-risk initial package that commits to working with us for 90 days. This period of time is enough to prove to you the effectiveness of our work and the impact it can have. The professional services firms we work with typically remain clients for many many years thereafter because they see just how good we are at getting them consistent and ongoing results.
This hard work and laser-focused attention to detail are just two reasons we have great client testimonials and a stellar 5-star rating on Google.
So, if you're a law firm that started investing in social media but didn't see great results or you have no presence whatsoever and want to begin then schedule a call with the experts at Social Hire - we can't wait to hear from you.
If you're a law firm that wants tangible results from an effective social media strategy then the best course of action is to book a 30 minute discovery call with us. To book, use our scheduling tool below - but before you do, it's important to keep a few things in mind:
Use our handy booking widget to select a convenient time and date to book a call with us. Also make use of the notes section when submitting your call booking. The more information you can send across about what you'd like to achieve, the better placed we'll be to make the most of our 30-minute call. Look forward to speaking soon!