A Legal Marketer’s Checklist for Effective Social Media Measurement

If you’re participating in social media, you really need to understand how you’re doing. It is imperative that your firm measures its social activities so that you can learn what’s successful, what isn’t, and how you can improve. How do you know if your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts are resulting in business growth? How can you tell which content resonates and drives the most business? It’s hard to know these answers without having a measurement plan in place. We see a lot of law firms struggle with effective social media measurement. Thus, we’ve put together a legal marketer’s checklist for more effective social media measurement.

1. Determine what you’re tracking. 

What do you want to track and why? It’s important to elaborate on the metrics you want to take – understand why those are the figures that matter and what you hope to learn from them. For a deep dive into important law firm social metrics, visit our blog post: Valuable Social Media Metrics Law Firms Should be Tracking.

2. Make sure goals are defined and measurable. 

You can start by looking at the items you just listed as goals. Also take a look at competitors to get a feel for where you stack up and areas for improvement. Plan to measure campaign-over-campaign. 

3. Set clear time tables. 

A common social media measurement mistake is comparing apples to oranges. Seasonality or the budget you’ve set for particular campaigns, among other factors, can all contribute to the performance of social media in a given timeframe. Having clear dates in place will help you be sure you’re controlling for outside factors.

4. Set up alerts. 

Once you’ve narrowed down your timeframe, activate alerts on your social channels so that you can respond to activity right away. For example, if someone tweets about your firm, you can promote that right away or answer their question rather than miss it. 

5. View results and filter them. 

Especially when it comes to keyword activity, you want to filter out the ones that don’t matter. Make sure only relevant data will end up in your social analytics. 

6. Keep a pulse on top themes and influencers. 

You never know what’s going to resonate or what can become associated with your firm over time. There’s always a chance that unplanned keywords have become linked to your brand or one of your attorneys. As a marketer, it’s important to stay agile as you may want to refine messaging (and hashtags) from time to time.

7. Collect metrics on one dashboard. 

At the end of the monitoring period you set during step 3, pull or export all of the data available. Choose a tool or platform for creating a dashboard where all of these metrics can reside and be easily viewed. Look at solutions like HubSpot or Hootsuite to make this process as seamless as possible. 

8. Line up data and goals side-by-side. 

The only way to effectively measure social performance is to ensure you’re comparing like with like. If there is a visual way to represent this, that will make social media analytics easier to report on and share with your firm leadership. 

9. Look outside your original scope. 

Take a look at performance outside of the original goals and metrics you planned to measure. Be flexible – your firm’s social media measurement plan is not set in stone. You might spot outliers that can be incorporated within your next campaigns. This way you can also take into account any new activity with your brand, such as new competitors or updated keywords. 

10. Share your findings.

Of course you’ll share this report with your internal team and any marketing personnel. You should also share with your business development team and all of the attorneys at your firm. Being transparent about the firm’s marketing efforts is only going to lead to a more knowledgeable, interactive office. Additionally, employees can more effectively advocate for the firm on their own channels if they are apprised to campaign adjustments and new initiatives.

Takeaway

Social media marketing can help your law firm attract prospective clients and build valuable connections. Use this ten point checklist to help you effectively monitor and measure your social media activities to make better informed decisions when allocating resources. Not only will you save time and money by honing in on what works and what doesn’t, you’ll also be more prepared to acquire new leads from more impactful campaigns. Contact us today if you need help achieving greater success through your social media marketing efforts. Wherever you are in your social media program, we can help.