10 Ways to Grow Your Law Firm’s Social Media Audience

Social media, used wisely and efficiently, can be an incredible tool to express your expertise and create connections. However, social media marketing can only work best if your law firm has an audience of engaged followers. But how do you build your social media audience? Although it takes time to build a vast audience, rest assured the effort is worth the energy you put into it. Here are 10 proven methods for gaining new followers across your law firm’s social media accounts.

1. Engage with your target audience by joining groups

The “social” part of social media is commonly overlooked by numerous law firm accounts, leading to a mediocre audience. A simple way to engage new potential followers is to participate in industry-related groups and professional forums. Consistently comment on content, add to discussions, ask questions, and connect with other people in the group. You could also create a group, and facilitate relevant discussions there. It’s a great way to build credibility, and if people like what you have to say they may follow you to hear more of it!

2. Post consistently and use eye-catching visuals

Promote your law firm’s blog or some industry happenings regularly and enhance your posts with eye-catching visuals. According to HubSpot, posts with relevant imagery rack up 94% more views than posts without images. There is plenty of research that shows that visual content is many times more likely to get noticed. Furthermore, there are plenty of free tools to help you create compelling visuals for your posts. Check out Canva to add graphics to your social posts or blogs. 

3. Use video

Video content consistently ranks higher than any other kind of content in views and shares. If you don’t have the bandwidth to create your own videos, find ones that are interesting and share them with your thoughts (remember to credit and tag the original source). Another best practice is to upload your video directly to the social platform so it will auto-play as people scroll, which can really boost the attention it gets. The goal here is for your video to be liked by your own audience, so it then appears in their followers’ feeds.

4. Readily respond to your online community

Up to 83% of social media followers expect a response to questions posed to posts on the same day. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram, people have become accustomed to interacting directly with people, so make sure you pay attention to your comments, respond as quickly as possible, and thank anyone who happens to retweet or share your posts. Making your online community feel heard and understood will go a long way.

5. Use profile and cover photos to highlight great work

These images are some of the most powerful available to you. Consistently change them to keep them interesting and relevant. When you can, use them to highlight the great work you’re doing. For example, use a client testimonial as a caption, or add a photo of your team doing work at a charity event. Use photos to humanize your firm. Whatever you do, don’t just place a larger image of your logo. 

6. Understand why people follow you

You need to provide value in order for people to stay tuned into you on any platform. On LinkedIn, users are likely looking for more industry insights. On Twitter, they could be looking for quick answers and links to the latest industry news. Make sure you’re providing value in a way that’s appropriate for that channel. Ask yourself: ‘What am I bringing to the platform to entice followers to stay tuned in?’. 

7. Increase discoverability with hashtags

Social media hashtags can help you to increase social engagement, strengthen your exposure, and help you to attract new followers. Don’t just choose any hashtag, however. It’s important to do your research and understand the popular and relevant hashtags in your practice area and for your content. Going overboard on hashtags can be distracting and have the opposite effect. We recommend choosing 2-3 hashtags strategically. See: How to Develop a Hashtag Strategy for Your Law Firm.

8. Optimize your page for discoverability

Just like with your law firm’s website pages, your social media pages will be easier to find if they’re created with search in mind. Make sure the terminology in your copy matches your exact areas of expertise so that your page lands at the top of search results. You should also include relevant hashtags in your bio on Instagram and Twitter for increased discoverability.

9. Leverage paid social

Even if the resources you can spend are limited, you might want to explore applying some to paid social. When set up properly, paid social advertising can promote your law firm’s content directly to the precise audience you want to reach. The precise targeting options even allow you to retarget people who might prove to be warmer leads.

10. Don’t buy followers

No matter how important it is to you to grow your followers, it’s not worth paying for a bigger audience. The reason is, some of these profiles are robot profiles, which will pollute your analytics, restricting the organic reach of your posts. In many instances of paid advertising, you would be paying to reach more of those like your current audience – which means paying to essentially reach more bots. 

Takeaway

Most importantly, focus on simply sharing information that is relevant and helpful to your law firm’s followers. Doing so will help you cultivate loyal followers and introduce your firm to new ones.

These tactics are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing your firm on social media to gain more followers! If you need help developing an overall social media strategy, get in touch – and follow us on LinkedIn!