Business sectors have adopted the use of social media to keep in touch with their current clients and prospective consumers and partners, track the activities of competition and update their knowledge of current trends.
The wide reach of social media makes them an invaluable tool for businesses, including legal practices. It is not very long ago that law practitioners started to use social media for their business, particularly in the United States. Lawyers are aware of social media sites and it is probable that they use some of them for their personal benefits rather than as marketing tools. In the United Kingdom, lawyers started using social media after the Law Society issued them guidelines of the use of social media sites in the early part of 2012. Six months after the issuance of the guidelines, lawyers in the UK depend on Twitter for referrals.
Overall, businesses have realized the value of social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms to track competition, learn the trends in their niche markets and keep in touch with prospects and clients quickly and cheaply.
Marketing for law firms
Traditional advertising is an expensive way to market your products and services. While the practice has many advantages particularly to commercial products, using social media platforms for reach and exposure is beneficial to law firms, as they do not have to spend too much to be seen by prospective clients.
But law firms should not use social media platforms arbitrarily. Like other businesses, they should have an advertising and marketing plan as well. Advertising and marketing in social media should be a part of the overall marketing plan for the law firm. Using social media as a marketing tool is just one of the components. What other forms you use to advertise and market your services should be tied up to your overall objectives and goals for the law firm.
Marketing plan using social media for law firms
These are some of the ideas on how to create a plan to use social media as a marketing and advertising tool for your law firm. Use your objectives and goals to create a plan that fits your company profile and the services you offer. But you can refer to the tips below to come up with a basic but sound marketing plan to ensure effective online presence.
- One of the first things to do is to have smart and professional looking website. Your site should fit your company image and your industry niche. While a bit of formality is needed, you should not be too formal. Your site should be welcoming and attractive to your primary and secondary target clients.
Your brand image and your message on the website should extend to your social media profiles. Provide information that are brief and to the point, using sentences, words and phrases that every reader will easily understand. Reserve the legal language when you are already handling a case.
- Bear in mind that each social media platform has its own features, characteristics and limitations; therefore, it is important to learn these features so you can utilize them to your advantage.
- Market research is important. You have to know if people know about your law firm and what they are saying about your company and services. You can start by searching your brand name or your lawyers. Using the same search terms, find out if there are people talking about your company in the different social media platforms. Every conversation you find about your law firm is a chance to influence others.
While you are doing general research, come up with keywords based on your business areas and use these keywords to search topics in social media sites. It’s a method to find out what legal topics people like to discuss. You should look into niche social sites as well, based on the legal services you offer, like family law or property law.
- You do not have to use all the platforms. Choose only those that can be maximized to your benefit at the initial stage. You can use more later. Your previous research will help you determine which social media networks to use. Refer to the activities market leaders in your field as well as your direct competitors are doing. Look at successful ideas in your own business sector and adapt them to your own strategies.
- Make sure the goals you have set are measurable. Don’t make them too difficult to reach. You can start by learning what motivates your prospective clients and what legal services they need. Your goal could be knowing what type of content your prospective clients want.
From the results of your research and other studies, you can now plan to create the content you can provide your target audience. Work around the perimeters set by your profession and choose the topics that you think will provoke and interest your target clients.
- Determine what you are capable of creating and set a realistic routine. With social media, you have to be consistent and constant. If you think you can come up with new content (article, posts, stories, blog or newsletter) once a week, stick to that schedule. Set some time as well to respond to readers’ comments and delete spam. You can keep your future clients engaged and interested if you respond to their comments.
See to it that everyone in your firm contributes to your social media advocacy. Encourage the other lawyers in your company to respond to client requests and comments. Request them to share some of the good stories to their own followers.
- Once you have created your presence in the different social media networks and you are gaining a following, then you can start building new networks for your social media marketing. Encourage attendees to events you host to post online and share others’ posts so you. Do the same thing when you attend conferences – connect with other participants, speakers and organizers and post updates and important information worth sharing.
- Be sure to maintain a database of the people you have connected with through your social media network. Each one of them is a potential client, so be sure to stay connected with them.
Using social media platforms
You may face some challenges when using social media for your law firm. You should come up with a solid social media strategy and identify which platforms will suit your brand better. You can identify a few that you think will work best for your type of services and try others, just to see if they can be utilized as well. Measure the results from the different platforms to gauge which are the most effective.
For some platforms, such as YouTube or other video streaming sites, it is better to seek the help of an SEO manager as well as a professional videographer and a copywriter. Many people understand a concept better when they see a visual example, so if you want to utilize YouTube, create a series of short videos to explain complex legal concepts, using a language they can easily understand. Upload good quality video consistently and regularly, making sure that you present yourself as an authority in the field. For YouTube, produce videos that are 6 to 12 minutes in length.
Utilize the playlist feature of YouTube, so you can segregate your videos to specific law areas of your firm’s practice.
For other platforms, be sure to choose the content that you are going to upload. The same goes for images. Make sure that they can grab the attention of the readers by posting thought-provoking content. As always, it is important to do research. Find out the topics that interest your target audience, provide solutions to their problems and lead them to your main website. Provide them with the information necessary for them to get in touch with you quickly.
Create a content calendar so you know what to post in advance. Moreover, a calendar will help you plan your posts ahead of time and give you chances to edit them before they go online if there are new developments. Again, it is vital to be consistent and keep to a regular schedule for your social media posts.
Consistency and accuracy of legal translations
The technical vocabulary of the law is quite complex and it takes a translator who has experience in the legal profession to properly handle legal translation. Likewise, ensuring the consistency and accuracy of legal translation needs the expertise of a professional legal translator. But to effectively serve an international client base, a law firm should make its website available in other languages.
Legal localization services are one of the many language services offered by Day Translations, Inc., professional translation company with a full complement of native speaking translators and interpreters who live in-country. It’s your assurance that you will consistently get accurate translation and localization services for effective communication with your international clients. You can get in touch with us day or night, wherever you may be. We are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Give us a call at 1-800-969-6853 or send us an email at Contact us.
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