By Elena Manukyan, Founder: Socially Legal, Social media for lawyers & law firms
Lawyers are busy, often stressed, and carrying the burdens of their clients’ cases. It’s no wonder that the last thing they want to worry about are the latest social media trends, or the latest TikTok algorithm update. But by failing to take social media into consideration are they missing a trick, and more importantly, a vital source of leads for their firms?
Traditionally law firms have relied heavily on referrals from sources, their previous or existing clients, paid search engines such as Google, and in some instances, email marketing, although the latter isn’t as common as you may think, with many law firms hardly ever sending worthwhile newsletters to their databases.
In 2020 I started my own law firm, yes, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It really wasn’t the best time to start a business, let alone a law firm specialising in personal injury, but law and personal injury is all that I knew, so I went for it, what was the worst that could happen? But I had a slight problem in that we were still in full lockdown, unable to even spend Christmas with our families, let alone network and regenerate leads for a brand-new business, that relied on people being out and about and having accidents.
At the time I had almost no professional network, or a very small one, we’d spent a year in lockdown, and I had no idea where to turn to get my business off the ground. But I had used social media, mainly for personal use, for some time, and I realised that people were spending more and more time on social media thanks to the lockdown.
I decided to start posting about my business on Instagram and LinkedIn, at the time TikTok wasn’t the platform that it is now, and I started to generate leads. I was over the moon, so I leaned into it as much I could to the point that it would often mean I got busy directly as a result of my social media activity. This was great but as business owner will know, when you get busy, it brings to light other problems that need addressing, like staffing and resources.
As lockdown eased and things returned to ‘normal’, I started networking in real life a lot more, but the reliance on social media never went away. As I got busier in the law firm I wanted to outsource my social media activity to an agency, but I realised very few agencies specialised in law firms, or really understood the client demographic that I wanted to target.
In 2023 I decided to launch an agency specialising in legal marketing, specifically in social media, and helping law firms utilise social media for their firms.
Going back to the original question, should my law firm be on social media, the answer largely depends on whether your target audience are on social media. Most people use some form of social media, so it’s likely that your target audience are on social media.
The next step would be to identify which social media platform would be most relevant to you and your business. If you target businesses, then LinkedIn is your platform, for B2C consumers you should consider a platform like TikTok, which has been growing in popularity unlike anything else we’ve seen in a while. Identifying your ideal client profile shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s likely you already act for these clients within your business, so using the data you already have in the business is a great place to start.
Personal branding or thought leadership seems to be growing in popularity, but is it all it’s made out to be? That really depends on your objectives. Business owners need to be careful to avoid being the ‘main character’ or the ‘hero’ in their content, because that’s reserved for their customers. Businesses are there to be the guide, something that is often lost when we think of personal brands. Knowing what to post requires an article of its own, because speaking to your target audience means first understanding them, which requires an element of social listening.
If you’d like to know more, please reach out, I offer free, zero obligation consultations for all legal businesses.
hello@sociallylegal.co.uk
www.sociallylegal.co.uk
07545614805