Get More Out of Your Social Channels
Social media is one of the most effective marketing tools out there. It’s free, it’s ubiquitous, your client base hangs out there, and it’s easy to use. Using social media well is a different story. These 7 tips are a good guideline to using social media for marketing and lead generation.
1. Pay for It
You’ve heard the old adage, “you get what you pay for.” While a primary virtue of social media is that it’s free, sometimes a strategic boost, or a small budget to generate an audience is a wise expenditure up front, so you can scale back to a free model.
I am not suggesting buying followers or anything of the sort. These types of actions can sometimes help in the short term, but in the long term, they will only damage your brand as they inevitably get discovered.
Most platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, have advertising tools available to paying customers. These tools can tailor your messaging, pinpoint your targeting, and ensure your advertising is seen by a wider audience.
2. Video
People like videos. As a lawyer, you have a lot of highly sought-after and interesting information to impart. While this can be done via a blog or podcast, consider a series of videos. With a video, not only do you create a piece of content that can then be shared across platforms, but you put an approachable face, and personality onto your practice.
Think about the questions you often get from clients, friends, and family. Talk about the lesser-known challenges your clients might face. Lay out a step-by-step journey for someone who needs your help. All of these places are fertile ground for a wealth of video ideas that will keep traffic coming into to your social media and from there, your website.
3. Be a Host
In a world of on-demand entertainment, there is still an allure to a live event. Hosting live events like webinars is another way to showcase what you can do. The increased comfortability people have with platforms like Zoom can be leveraged as a marketing tool.
Additionally, these function a lot like videos do, both by demonstrating your expertise and by putting a human face on your firm. Unlike videos, your events can come with Q and A sessions, which is a great way of personalizing the experience for attendees. Recordings of these events can then be repurposed as new social media posts.
4. Find Some Friendly Influencers
Influencers make their living understanding the vagaries of social media. Find one to collaborate with and avail yourself of their expertise. Not only will your posts reach more eyes, you can learn more about how to leverage social media.
Find an influencer—this shouldn’t be difficult; their livelihood depends on their being easy to find—with a sizable following that has a compatible audience. For example, a personal injury attorney might collaborate with a fitness instructor and talk about avoiding injuries in workouts.
5. Monitor Your Reputation
Tracking your social reputation is a small part of a much larger point, and you can find entire articles on the ins and outs of online reputation management, but it’s also a vital part of managing your social media presence and can’t be ignored.
In a nutshell, you should keep track of reviews wherever they can be found and respond to each one of them. Comments and messages always merit a response, even something short. Engage with your audience and they will be more likely to retain your services.
6. Retarget
The best target for advertising is the person who has already shown interest in your services. That is the simple principle behind retargeting. Saves time, money, and gives you pinpoint accuracy for a proven market.
The idea is simple. If a person has engaged with the website, interacted with social media posts, or emailed the firm, ads can be targeted to them. It’s a powerful tool that you should leverage.
7. Test
Without testing, you don’t know what works and what doesn’t. Becoming good at leveraging social media isn’t a goal you can reach, it’s a continually advancing challenge. Algorithms change all the time, and what works on one day might not the next.
Review your analytics regularly, adjusting your strategy as you identify trends. A/B test posts to determine the effectiveness of wording, images, and even content. The more testing you do, the better your long-term skill.
Lead Science: Your Digital Marketing Experts
Social media is an incredibly powerful part of a digital marketing strategy. The only ceiling to how well you can do with it is your skill level. Utilizing these 7 tips will get you started, but there’s no substitute for experts who have already spent the time and energy.
At Lead Science, we know the ins and outs of digital marketing strategies and can help guide you on your marketing journey. Schedule your free consultation today and we’ll show you exactly how we can help your law firm gain new clients.
