The Importance of Hashtag Research for Law Firms

Hashtags are at the core of many law firm’s strategy to expand their social media page’s presence and reach. Hashtags are one of the simplest things a firm can do to help get their posts in front of more eyes and form more connections with a wider audience. But not all hashtags are created equal. All too often, firms ruin their chances of leveraging hashtags to their fullest potential by simply using the wrong ones. This is where hashtag research comes in. By conducting hashtag research, law firms can ensure they’re using hashtags that fit their niche areas of practice, are followed by their ideal prospects, and that have the best potential at allowing their post to rank in the algorithm.

What Is Hashtag Research?

Hashtag research is the act of analyzing data to determine which hashtags will help your firm’s social media performance the most. This analysis can assist law firms in being able to estimate which niche hashtags and popular hashtags will be best at increasing engagement and helping them reach more people.

Related: Advanced Social Media Strategies for Law Firms [A Complimentary eBook]

How to Conduct Hashtag Research

As you research hashtags, keep track of which ones you’d like to use in a sheet or excel. Take note of the hashtag, its volume and a description of what types of posts it’s used for.  

Here are some ideas of how to find relevant hashtags for your firm:

1. Review the performance of your existing hashtags- take a look at which of your posts performed best and worst. Identify any hashtags you used that were out of the ordinary. This will help you make note of which hashtags may be worth your time and which should be forgotten.
2. Look at your followers- Review of your followers. What hashtags are they using? How do their posts perform when they use some hashtags versus others?
3. Look at competitors- Take a look at your competitors’ pages and determine which hashtags they use and how they perform. Make note of any hashtags that are relevant to your firm and its practice areas.
4. Search industry keywords- Search some industry keywords like your practice areas or location + law firm and see what posts come up. Take note of the hashtags being used by the top performing posts.
5. Look at what’s trending- Use your social media’s explore page or simply scroll through your feed to see what’s trending. Of course, you don’t want to only use hashtags that have millions of posts, but every once in a while it’s good to hop on trending hashtags.
6. Look at broad hashtags- You’ve probably been using some hashtags already but are now realizing they’re pretty broad, or too broad for your posts to get found. Search posts under these hashtags and look at what other hashtags they are using in their posts.

Using Hashtags

When leveraging hashtags across your law firm’s social media platforms, understanding the nuanced best practices for each can significantly augment your content’s visibility and engagement. Here is further insight into hashtag usage across various channels:

• Instagram: While Instagram allows for up to 30 hashtags per post, using between 11 and 30 hashtags can attract the highest engagement. However, it’s crucial to balance quantity with relevance; ensure that each hashtag you use is directly related to the post content to reach your target audience effectively.
• Twitter: Given Twitter’s character limit, concise and impactful messaging is key. Using too many hashtags can restrict your message space. Instead, focus on 1 or 2 highly relevant hashtags. Tweets with hashtags receive twice the engagement than those without, but engagement drops when using more than 2 hashtags.
• LinkedIn: Although LinkedIn suggests using 3 hashtags, the quality of the hashtags is more important than quantity. Targeted, industry-specific hashtags tend to perform better, helping your posts to be discovered by professionals interested in your content.
• TikTok: Hashtags play a significant role on TikTok in discovering and categorizing content. Unlike other platforms, using trending hashtags along with niche-specific ones can significantly boost your content’s visibility. Aim for a mix of 3 to 5 hashtags that include both trending and specific tags relevant to the legal industry or your particular focus area.

Remember, the effectiveness of hashtags can vary widely across different platforms and industries. Continuously monitoring the performance of your chosen hashtags and adjusting your strategy accordingly is vital to maximizing your social media engagement and reach.

Takeaway:

Hashtags are an important part of any social media marketing strategy, but just posting any hashtags isn’t enough to use them effectively. The savviest of law firms will research hashtags in advance and develop a well-thought-out strategy for how they will use hashtags on each platform.

If you’d like help creating and executing a robust social media strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ve helped many law firms and legal companies leverage social media to generate brand awareness and leads.