While many think of social media as a place to share personal updates, it is also a valuable marketing tool. With the right approach, you can use social media to attract new clients and build stronger relationships with existing ones. Often, social media is where people go to have fun or, at the very least, to be less buttoned up. So, your posts need to be engaging.
Here’s How to Make Your Law Firm’s Social Media Marketing Copy More Engaging
When you are trying to capture the attention of your followers on social media, remember that it is only a matter of seconds. If your post is dull or not of interest to them, they will likely move on.
If you wish to get more engagement with your posts, the secret is creating content that will inspire people to respond. To do this, it is best to stay away from topics that may cause people to become uncomfortable, insecure or upset. This includes matters that are highly disputed, anything that may be considered as offensive, and things that make people feel as if they are not good enough.
That said, at the risk of redundancy, here are a few more ideas to keep in mind to humanize yourself on social media and make your law firm’s content more engaging.
Focus Your Law Firm’s Social Media Posts (Primarily) on Your Audience
If there’s one thing that most marketers agree on, your law firm’s social media focus should be on your audience and what they might be looking for, struggling with, or curious about. With that in mind, the idea is to be a trusted advisor rather than a salesperson. You don’t want to come across as pushy or self-serving. Your clients are already bombarded online with sales pitches and ads. The last thing you want is your law firm’s social page or profile to be another place they avoid going.
This can hurt your marketing efforts altogether. Instead, you want your readers to be glad they landed on your page. The bottom line is that when you help your clients and potential clients (without the constant selling), they will be more inclined to help you by spreading the word about your law firm and its services.
Save the Erudition for Your Colleagues
One thing you need to remember when building your law firm’s social media reputation is the operative word – social.
People generally don’t come for scholarly discussions and debates. They come to be heard, engaged, entertained, and lightly educated. Even when they are exploring or researching a serious legal topic, this does not mean that when led to your social media page, they hope to find a legal brief or a legal analysis.
Let Your Hair Down
You can’t be stiff and stolid and tightly wound. Nobody is saying you have to be silly but put a little more casualness in your professionalism. Try to avoid talking to your readers with your suit on social media. Talk to them in your T-shirt and torn jeans. Take your deposition pearls and pumps off. Put the briefcase down.
Adjust your mindset. Talk to your law firm’s social followers in the kitchen, the hallway, the elevator, the lobby, on the stoop, and over the fence in your backyard. Be approachable. Stay out of your Wall Street conference room head when you’re on social media. That’s not the place for it.
Think Like a Ted Talk Presenter and Have Fun
Have you ever listened to a Ted Talk? I watched a Ted Talk about the epidemic of chronic disease and understanding epigenetics, and even that speaker managed to be approachable and funny! No matter what these speakers are pontificating about, they are always warm and inviting – at least all the ones I’ve watched were.
Lawyers must find a way to enjoy their time while on social media. You can keep on your lawyer’s hat, but let it be your weekend lawyer’s hat. It’s the hat you’re wearing while you’re washing the dishes from last night’s gathering – the hat you wear when yelling into your speaker phone or cradling your landline between your ear and your shoulder, advising your sister about why she needs an LLC when she sets up her Rhode Island boutique. Be that version of a lawyer on social media.
Find a way to emotionally connect with your law firm’s social followers and readers. You must be a little warmer than you might find yourself in your daily professional life between 9 and 5. You certainly don’t want to be cold and distant when you speak on social media like you’re talking to a group of law students or interns to whom you have no attachment. These folks you’re talking to are potentially the ones who will be helping you keep your lights on. They deserve a friendly version of you.
Tone Down Your Language
Many of your clients, particularly in b2c practice areas (e.g., divorce, personal injury, immigration, intellectual property, tax law, and b2b), will be regular, average folks who don’t have twenty-dollar vocabularies. And even if they do, it doesn’t mean they want to hear you come at them with it.
Imagine being approached at the family barbecue and your 17-year-old, mature niece of average intelligence asks you a legal question (not the niece attending the specialized high school for intellectually gifted Harvard-bound children – no, not that niece). When you speak on your law firm’s social media page, talk to her – the regular one who has other talents but may not go to college at all. Use vocabulary she would understand.
Conclusion
Social media is a powerful tool for lawyers, but it’s essential to approach it with the right mindset and tactics. By focusing your posts on your audience, toning down your language, and having some fun with it, you can make your law firm’s social media strategy more engaging and successful.
