Social media is not just about dance challenges and over-the-top influencers. It also continues to play a significant role in the decision-making process of potential clients looking for a lawyer. It’s a powerful tool for connecting with clients, showcasing expertise, and building a reputable online presence.
But it’s not just a place to broadcast your services or success stories. Social media is a conversation. So, figuring out how to increase social media engagement is an integral part of your lawyer social media strategy.
You may be wondering, as a legal professional, how you can effectively engage your audience without compromising professionalism. That’s what we’re here to discuss.
Understand Your Audience
On social media, many businesses—not just lawyers—are competing for your current and future clients’ attention and money. In order to be heard, your social media profile needs to resonate with the right potential clients and existing ones.
So, first, ask: who do you want to engage with your page?
Think beyond the services they need and consider:
- How they feel
- Their goals when contacting you
- What their lives may be like
- Interests
- Typical jobs
- Financial or educational background
- Location (town, neighborhood, suburb, etc.)
Are you targeting individuals seeking personal injury assistance, families navigating divorce, or businesses requiring legal counsel? Understanding your audience’s needs and concerns will guide your lawyer social media strategy.
It’s true that every client is different. But your ideal clients probably have some things in common. You can use these commonalities to connect with people like them online.
Localize Your Social Media Presence
It may be hard to nail down how best to connect with an audience on social media. They’re just too different.
But there’s one thing they all have in common. As a local lawyer practice, your clients are in your community. They’re locals!
People who live in a region have some similarities. They tend to know about the same local landmarks, parks, festivals, events, highways, restaurants, charitable organizations, celebrities, teams, and mom-and-pop shops.
Resonate on social media by building content around things in the community. Localize your law firm.
Relate these locally shared experiences to your practice area by combining them with general legal tips, relevant cases or bills in the news, and practice updates.
When you’re generating online engagement from people in your community, not only are you connecting with people who can actually become clients. You’re generating hundreds or thousands of little local signals that tell search engines (including social search) that you’re in a specific community.
These social media search algorithms then recommend your content to other people in the same community, increasing your visibility among the people that matter most.
The bottom line is that social platforms win when people stay on the platform and engage with content. So, if your content resonates with a subset of social media users, the platforms will give you more visibility. And people in your community will see your content more often.
Geo Tag Your Content
Did you know you can add location information to your photos, videos, and social media posts? These tags are often hidden from human view. But whether you’re a personal injury law firm or a family law firm, these tags help social media platforms show your content to more people in the tagged geographic areas.
Furthermore, these geotags become evidence for big search engines like Google that you are where you say you are. This builds trust, which can impact your website visibility as well. It’s great for local SEO for lawyers.
Claim and Manage Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business profile is a hub for helpful information, a review platform, and a mini social media site. Many law firms still don’t know this or use it to its full potential. Their lack of awareness can give your practice a substantial advantage.
Optimizing and maintaining this profile can boost your online reputation and increase your visibility, making it easier for would-be clients to find your website and social media.
This profile also creates more local signals confirming your location, which encourages social media algorithms to show your content to people in your area, giving them more opportunities to engage.
To learn more about optimizing your Google Business Profile, be sure to check out this post next.
Post Local Content Across Platforms
Social media marketing for lawyers comes down to this. An estimated 48% of social media users engage with a brand on multiple platforms. So, being on multiple platforms gives you more opportunities to connect with each potential client more often, increasing the chance of engagement.
If this sounds like a lot to manage for a small, local law firm, realize that local social media publishing tools were designed with you in mind. These all-in-one platforms allow you to create a post once and publish it in several places.
So, do the work once. But can reap the rewards many times over.
What’s more, locally-focused social media management tools add geotags automatically, further amplifying your “local” online presence.
Develop a Social Media Publishing Schedule
Learning how to increase social media engagement for law firms comes down to regularly engaging your audience. If you only post once a month, and irregularly, they will never see you.
So, get organized. Create a written social media schedule for the content you need to create so you can plan and put yourself on a schedule.
Don’t be afraid to make a bunch of posts at once, schedule them out for weeks, and then let the schedule run. Batch creating social media posts saves time and allows you to easily overlap and repurpose content to see what works best with your audience.
Respond to Comments
Respond professionally to every online review and social media comment. This shows potential clients that your firm listens and engages. This perception can reflect on the legal team itself, enhancing client perception of your firm.
These responses can also generate more social media engagement as people respond to responses on social media posts.
You don’t have to write a book as a response. Just be professional and somewhat personalized without sharing private information. AI-powered tools can alert you about comments and reviews, the general sentiment, and even draft responses you can tweak to add a human touch that can increase engagement.
Invite Clients to Join You on Social Media
Don’t take your social media presence for granted. Make sure clients know about your social media activities and that it’s a great place to stay in touch and get helpful information. Many clients will actually appreciate you enough that they want to help you help others.
Use other communication channels, such as email, website, and physical letters, to direct clients to your social media profiles.
Get Professional Testimonial Videos
Videos can generate a lot of engagement on social media. And testimonial videos take the cake. Authentic stories from real people connect like nothing else can. With permission, create testimonial videos and publish them on social media and your website to increase likes and engagement.
Share the Content of Others
You can say your firm is the best. But most people just see that as puffery if you don’t have the reviews, testimonials, and yes, social media engagement to enter as exhibit A.
When clients share their experiences with your firm on social media, you have a golden opportunity. You can amplify their reach among clients and potential clients to make the case that your firm really is the best.
Be sure to acknowledge them by commenting directly on their post. Then share it on your profile. You’ll not only generate more engagement but also reinforce your relationship with this client.
You can use social media tools to track mentions, so you never miss an opportunity to let someone else say how great you are.
Ask for Engagement
It may seem corny. But asking for engagement works. And everyone does it!
You can say things like “like if you agree” or “share if this has happened to you.”. You can also ask your audience a question on a post to encourage comments.
Try adding text to images, asking for engagement—even better. As long as you stay professional and don’t spam your followers by going overboard while you fish for engagement, this is how to generate a ton of engagement for law firms.
Automate Review Requests
Review sites are an often overlooked form of social media. Real people are sharing their experiences for others to see. Clients and potential clients read reviews to decide whether to hire you or stay with your firm.
So, it’s critical to get more reviews and to work on getting better reviews to grow your 5-star reputation.
Send review requests promptly after services are rendered. And respond to every review, once again building trust with both existing and potential clients.
Use reputation management tools that can automatically send these requests and reminders. Provide easy-to-follow links to the review site where it will matter most. Google Business Profile is undoubtedly a good place to start.
To learn more about how local marketing tools can help you increase social media engagement for your law firm and how that can impact your local visibility and revenue, schedule a demo.