“Best” versus “most popular” social media platforms
Social media for lawyers and law firms, used in moderation, can serve as a reputation builder and education tool for current and future clients. It can also become a highly time- and resource-inefficient black hole.
According to an American Bar Association’s (ABA) survey, most law firms use social media to some extent. The ABA’s TechReport 2022 shows that 89% of law firms surveyed make use of the platform various purposes.
However, despite its popularity, social media has considerable limitations as a new business development tool.
The biggest drawback to use of social media for business development is a general lack of public access.
With some exceptions, for a prospective law client to see a firm’s posts on a social media platform, the prospect first must already be active on that platform and already know about the firm in order to elect to follow it and only then see its posts.
In contrast, search engines and websites are many times more effective for introducing an unknown attorney or firm to a candidate client. Therefore, social media is largely second-phase tool for firms to persuade prospects to take steps toward becoming clients.
Thus, for the purposes of supportive trust building, what generally is the best social media platforms for the legal profession? The key questions about use of social media for firm business development are always, a) how do firms use social media and b) which platforms yield the most satisfactory results?
With new social media platforms appearing frequently, knowing which works best for generating new business for any single law firm can be tricky. One reason is that social media posting and management (i.e., gathering and analyzing audience data) can be a major time suck with few tangible results.
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Widest net Which is best? Guidelines
Avoiding the social media black hole
We’ve seen larger firms sometimes hire multiple staff to handle social media only. That may make some sense in rare situations. But it can be a mistake for small to medium-size firms, as staffing expenses can outweigh measurable returns.
Identifying the best selection and most efficient use of any platform depends on whether a firm primarily serves corporate or organizational clients or individual clients.
The most important consideration in choosing the right social media mix is whether a firm is primarily B2B or B2C or both.
Examples of firms focusing on the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector of law include those working in personal injury, family law, and criminal law. Clients needing these and similar services typically self-refer to firms via search engine research, digital and traditional advertising, and friend referrals.
On the other hand, firms specializing in business-to-business (B2B) law – such as corporate governance, labor law, and intellectual property – tend to rely more on referrals from other attorneys than those in B2C specialties.
Of course, many firms (especially larger ones) offer services in both categories. Therefore, a law firm marketer should take care to design what professional marketers call the optimal marketing mix.
Related reading: How Social Media Marketing for Law Firms is Like Tabasco Sauce
Casting the widest net for the lowest cost
Multi-specialty, generalist and B2C-focused firms should look to social media (and other marketing media such as online ads) that reaches the public at large.
Interestingly, the ABA TechReport cited LinkedIn as by far the most popular platform among the legal profession. This choice makes sense for B2B-specialty firms, as LinkedIn was designed explicitly for enhanced professional networking.
The platform enables an account owner to target both existing or known referral sources a lawyer already knows through professional, social and community circles. It also performs well for reaching prospective referral sources not already in a lawyer’s or law firm’s network – in-house counsel, generalist attorneys with occasional specialty needs, and business executives.
LinkedIn advertising is the tool of choice for expanding anyone’s existing professional network. Rarely should it be the only tool, however.
Paid advertising on LinkedIn allows a lawyer or firm to specify a well defined target audience by professional traits: e.g., you tell LinkedIn that you want your posts to reach people working in certain industries, in specific roles, and (if applicable) certain geographic regions.
Perhaps that’s why the ABA survey ranked LinkedIn as the most popular platform in the legal profession:
Why the big players matter in social media for law firm marketing
Note that Facebook ranks as number two. There’s a good reason. As of this writing, Facebook boasts more than 3 billion (with a “B”) active monthly users.
Nearly two of every five humans on Earth of all ages, incomes, and basic tech know-how go on Facebook monthly, even in some of the most remote, impoverished areas on the globe. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
Similarly, although ranking last in the above list, Instagram is now close on Facebook’s heels, drawing somewhere between 2 billion and 3 billion active monthly users, according to various sources. (The fast moving tech world reveals the age of the ABA survey and the difference in numbers of users between then and now.)
It’s no coincidence that the same company, Meta, owns both platforms, enabling the social media juggernaut to cross promote them unusually effectively. As a result, Meta platforms collectively reach the largest audience.
Lesson learned: As attractive as LinkedIn is for professional referrals, the reach of the traditional platforms of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter et al are unbeatable for connecting with the general public. A personal injury or family law firm will likely find many more clients on these platforms than on LinkedIn or others.
Nearly two out of three humans alive today use social media, according to one source.
YouTube videos should not be ignored entirely, due to the power of videos. Although YouTube is the world’s second most popular platform, its drawback is the time and money required to produce more professional-quality videos.
While TikTok (1.6 billion active monthly users) and SnapChat (900 million-plus) also post behemoth numbers, both are better suited for entertainment than for business development. Their cause célèbre is short-form videos, which do not lend themselves well to the proven educational and content marketing genre of law firm biz development.
Related reading: Content Marketing for Law Firms
So, which social media combination is optimal for attorneys?
This question invites the classic lawyerly answer: It depends. As noted, the biggest factor is a firm’s target audience, individuals or organizations (or both). If it’s a mixed target audience, then a combination of platforms is probably wisest.
Yet beware the social media time suck. Excessive posting frequency and going beyond management of three or four platforms calls time efficiencies into question. An advantage of Facebook and Instagram is their single owner, Meta. This allows sharing the same or similar posts to both sites.
For a law firm offering both B2B and B2C legal services, the Meta duo in combo with LinkedIn could be a sound choice. No disrespect to the ABA, but Martindale and Avvo are really lawyer review sites and not so much true social media platforms with all the advantages of user interaction. Further, we’ve not seen satisfactory returns on investments in such sites.
In any case, social media can be an essential part of a firm’s marketing mix. One source notes that nearly two out of three humans on the planet use social media.
However, again, bear in mind that what’s most popular doesn’t always mean it is the best for a law firm’s messaging and image. Below are further summaries of social media platforms worthy of consideration for legal new-business development.
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Related Reading: Law Firm Branding Made Simple
For reaching existing and potential clients, Facebook’s 3 billion-plus active monthly users and Instagram’s 2 billion-plus are where the biggest crowds congregate on traditional social media.
A law firm can earn user endorsements and expressions of gratitude on both platforms from its client base, especially if a firm encourages happy clients to follow them. Be aware that on Facebook, a business must set up a separate “Pages” account on apart from individual accounts.
Law firms can join Facebook groups related to their practice area, post live videos, advertise, and pay to boost posts to extend reach beyond the follower base. Facebook is also a search engine potential clients use to search for attorneys, although many firms have a meager presence there.
Similar to Facebook, Instagram allows either a business or a personal profile account option. Each has its own pluses and minuses.
For example, and Instagram business profile offers robust analytics on audience demographics, post performances, and follower activity.
But organic searches (i.e., among posts outside of paid ads) are limited on a business profile due to algorithms favoring personal accounts. In addition, a business profile tends to take more time to manage and does not permit access to a full music library offered by a personal account.
YouTube
People are often surprised to learn that YouTube is the number-two most popular search engine. YouTube has more searches than Bing, Yahoo! Ask.com, and AOL combined).
YouTube can be a worthwhile platform for law firms with considerable marketing resources. One advantage is video sharing, which can attract viral audiences sometimes numbering in the thousands or even millions (nearly always entertainers, however).
Additionally, YouTube videos can be embedded in a law firm’s website to become viewable on all internet enabled devices.
This professional networking platform is favored by lawyers as a means of gaining referrals and sharing information. Vanguard optimizes a law firm’s LinkedIn profile, including info about the firm, photos, locations, and specialties. We seek new connections by posting info related to the firm’s focus areas, often linking to the firm’s website or external news sources, and mixing it up with photos and in-channel content.
X, formerly known as Twitter
Another highly popular platform, X’s beauty is its forced brevity. Free users must keep posts to no more than 280 characters. Premium subscribers, paying a starting price of $8 per month, can post up to a whopping 25,000 characters.
For X, think mini-blog. Users favor its brevity for time efficiencies. Moreover, X has long been a medium useful for reaching the news media.
Guidelines for social media business development
- Post with a strategy. A firm’s distinctive or differentiating characteristics – aka, brand – should rigorously drive the overall look and content of social media posts.
- Measure results and push to increase followers and engagement. If analytics tell you something in the strategy isn’t working, adjust accordingly.
- Follow the rules of the particular platform. For instance, Instagram does not allow links in posts, and loading up Facebook posts with hashtags doesn’t work well.
- Consider posting videos, arguably the best driver of social media traffic and engagement. But keep it mercifully short, nothing more than one-minute explainer video shot, which on a smartphone works well. With the exception of YouTube, don’t sweat production values on social media videos. Just shoot it on a smart phone and load it.
- Don’t scrimp on images. High quality photos, charts, illustrations, and infographics bring content to life – and is expected by followers.
- Use the proper tone, which can change according to the post. Avoid legal jargon and look for opportunities to engage with a touch of entertainment. Social media is the place to lighten up a bit.
- Keep posts short. The longer the copy, the faster the exit.
- Always have two sets of eyes on a post before publication. Typos can ding a firm’s reputation.
- Feed the newsfeeds regularly. Two or three posts a week on each active platform is generally the sweet spot: not too little, not too much. Make sure to promote any special events of interest to the target audience(s).
- Monitor and respond to comments. This is essential to promote engagement and build followers. But be extra, extra careful about maintaining confidentiality with any clients who may respond to posts.
- Post at optimal times for legal practices, which will vary some by platform. Analytics can help here.
- Consider boosting posts. Sometimes it’s a good idea to set aside a budget of $50 to $100 monthly (depending on desired reach) to “boost” a post’s exposure. Boosting is available on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn (pricey), as is paid advertising.