3 Social Media Marketing Tips For Law Firms

Unless you've literally been hiding under a rock somewhere in Outer Mongolia for the last five to seven years, you've heard of something called social media or social networking. You've probably also heard some kind of talk about using these online communication platforms to reach out to potential clients, keep in touch with past and current clients and generally to grow your practice. It is true that a lot of law firms are using social media as part of their overall marketing strategy as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking and social media platforms become ubiquitous.
Should your firm be using social media to reach current and potential clients? In a word, yes. The choice of which platforms you want to use is up to you, though it does bear mentioning that the most popular Web 2.0 media with law firms at present are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Your mileage may vary of course and the choice is up to you, but it is certain that there are rewards to be reaped by getting involved in social media. There are a few things to keep in mind before you step into the world of social media marketing.
1) Have a plan in place before you get started:
You need to have some kind of idea of what you hope to accomplish or at the very least, how you plan to go about it. Otherwise, there are a lot of business owners (including lawyers) who have found themselves sucked into social media mission creep and ended up spending far too much time. Know what you want and how much time you're willing to put into it before you begin and you'll avoid wasting valuable time (you know, billable hours).
2) Social media won't do you any good unless you actually use it:
Think of this as the flip side of the coin presented in #1. You don't want to spend too much time on your social media efforts, but you also can't expect results if all you do is create profiles for your firm and never actually do anything with them. The advantage of social media for law firms and other businesses is that it allows you to have a sort of conversation with current and potential clients; but if you never say anything, it won't be much of a conversation, will it?
3) Don't be afraid to get professional help if you need it:
You're a lawyer, not a social media expert and no one expects you to be. If you find the prospect of starting up and managing ongoing social media marketing efforts for your firm to be daunting, bring in people who do this sort of thing for a living. Your time and energy are better spent helping your clients to resolve their cases than they are on dealing with online marketing directly. Unless you have the time and the interest in handling your firm's social media marketing work, it may be best left in the hands of professionals so that you can help handle the cases of the new clients that your social media marketing will bring in if all goes well.