Choosing the right social media platforms for your firm can seem a little daunting – there are so many out there! It can be tempting to just join them all and hope for the best, but there is a more logical way to decide which platform best suits your firm.
Why should law firms be on social media?
You’re probably already aware that you should be on social media. In fact, you’re probably already on social media. But have you ever stopped to wonder - why?
According to We Are Social, internet users aged between 16-64 in the UK spend almost five and a half hours per day online, with over an hour and a half of that time spent solely on social media. In an age where our lives are busier than ever and therefore our attention spans are shorter, this is an incredible amount of time to engage with social media users.
It’s important for law firms, and any business for that matter, to be present on the social media platforms where their target audience spends most of their time. Most social media platforms are free to use and can be used to promote your services, as well as listen to what your audience is talking about and actively engage in conversations with them.
Choosing the right platforms
So, how do you know which platforms are right for your law firm? Should you create a profile on every platform and hope for the best, or is it better to be more selective?
Choosing the right platforms for your law firm really depends on two things:
- Who is your target audience and what platforms are they on?
- How much time do you have to invest in social media?
It can be beneficial to sit down and sketch out your ideal target persona (something that we can help with at Conscious with our social media healthchecks). Think about age range, average income, typical job titles, location, and what sort of problems they’re likely to have that you will be able to solve with your legal services. You may have an overall target audience and several typical personas within that audience. From there you will be able to work out their preferred social network e.g. Facebook and Instagram largely attract an older audience than TikTok and Snapchat.
Once you’ve established which platforms are best for your target audience, consider how much time you have available to dedicate to social media. Building up an audience and creating and curating content takes time, so we recommend only creating a profile on a platform if you can set aside the time to manage it.
Ideally, you want to be posting to most channels, several times a week, with relevant and engaging content. Additionally, at least once a week you should be spending some time exploring the platform, finding new people to follow and conversations to get involved in. You should also be checking in daily for any notifications – for people who have commented on your content or sent you a message – and responding to them as soon as possible.
Without a plan and time set aside to execute it, you won’t get the most out of your social media channels. Inactive profiles will lose you followers and will also discourage new followers. If a potential client comes across your Facebook page that hasn’t been updated for months, it doesn’t give a very good impression of the firm. Just being present on a platform isn’t as good as having an active and engaging profile.
Up and coming social media platforms for law firms to watch
When most people think about social media, they think about the most famous and well-established platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Although we recommend being selective about which platforms you are active on, that doesn’t mean you should discount the new and less well-known platforms.
There is a plethora of social platforms available, many of which grew out of niche communities, e.g. Twitch for gamers, Goodreads for book lovers, Ravelry for knitters, and Flixster for movie lovers etc. There are too many to list here (although Influencer Marketing Hub has had a go!), but we’ve selected just a few of the more interesting platforms that we think businesses should be keeping an eye on.
TikTok for law firms
Tik Tok, which originally launched in 2016 under the name Music.ly, has exploded in popularity in the past 4 years. The latest figures suggest that TikTok has just under 700 million active monthly users and in December 2020 alone, it had 56 million new app installs globally.
The app began as a creative space for individuals, mostly young teens, creating short videos with music to share with friends. However, it didn’t take long for influencers and brands to jump on the bandwagon and now the platform has over 1,000 whitelisted TikTok stars that brands can do business with.
Although it has a young audience, it’s interesting to watch how this platform develops and to see what kind of content is most popular as this may influence other platforms going forward.
Clubhouse for law firms
There has been lots of hype surrounding Clubhouse recently, and for good reason. The platform is around a year old and is fairly unique in that it is an audio-only app that (currently) is only accessible by invite. The idea behind it, is to encourage users to have meaningful conversations with each other, without the mindless scrolling that can sometimes happen on visual-based platforms like Instagram. This might come as a sigh of relief to those of us who are all Zoomed-out from the past year.
The potential of this app is really intriguing. Users can search for topics or scroll through ‘rooms’ before deciding to join one. They can then either just listen in to the conversation or join in if they feel like it. It’s more informal and less pressure than Zoom. This platform has the potential to attract a hyper-engaged audience who are going to be actively engaging in a topic that is important to them.
Check out David Gilroy’s latest blog on how law firms can use Clubhouse.
WhatsApp for law firms
Hands up if you’re in a thousand WhatsApp group chats right now. It can feel that way sometimes! You may be using WhatsApp to catch up with family and friends, but did you know that you can use WhatsApp as a business too?
WhatsApp is currently the third most-used social media app in the world with 2 billion active monthly users. That’s too many people to ignore. With the rise of fake news and concerns surrounding data privacy, social media users have flocked to private and secure apps such as WhatsApp to share news with their friends.
Now businesses can use WhatsApp Business, for various uses. At a basic level, you can use it as an alternative to a newsletter for your clients or potential clients, sending out a broadcast message to everyone on your list. On a more complex level, you can use it as a customer support channel. Respond.io has broken down everything you need to know about WhatsApp Business here.
Pinterest for law firms
Pinterest is essentially an online pinboard where users can create boards on topics ranging from weddings to interior design and from recipes to book recommendations. If you search for it, Pinterest will generally have it.
In fact, Pinterest acts more like a search engine than a social media app, with 77% of weekly Pinners (people who use Pinterest) saying they regularly discover new brands and products on the platform. Businesses have only just started to realise the powerful potential of Pinterest, particularly since pins became ‘shoppable’ in 2018. Pinterest remains the only social media app where people are actively looking to be sold products and services.
You might be thinking – but how does this apply to businesses who aren’t in the retail industry and don’t ‘sell products’ in that sense? Well, you might be interested to know that 9.5 million Pinterest users actively engage with financial services content, and 82% of Pinners visit the site when they are looking to decide on financial services products. So, users are going to Pinterest for information and research as well as shopping.
Let your audience choose your platforms
There are many social media platforms available today, so it can be overwhelming when deciding which ones to join. The most important thing to remember is to figure how much time and resources you have to maintain a social media presence and then which platforms your target audience is most active on. It’s also perfectly acceptable to experiment with different platforms until you find one you get the most engagement from.
Whether you’re looking to get started or you’re already on social media but could use a burst of inspiration, our friendly team at Conscious are here to help! Call us on 0117 332 5719 or drop us a line at sales@conscious.co.uk.