How Law Firms Can Advertise on Instagram

Out of the wide array of social media platforms available to law firms, Instagram is not one of the most frequently utilized. With more than half of its users worldwide being 34 or younger, it’s understandable why law firms and lawyers alike are skeptical to bring their advertisements into the outlet. However, Instagram’s features and photo-based nature, when utilized correctly, have the ability to reach a much wider audience and demographic than other frequently used platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Wondering how exactly to advertise on Instagram correctly? Here’s how to advertise on Instagram:

Find Your Target Audience

Instagram’s young audience is not a disadvantage to law firms, rather one of their greatest assets in terms of law school recruiting. Future or current law school students fall within Instagram’s primary audience, hence giving firms an outlet to advertise their firm and convey its firm culture. As a group that is highly persuaded by advertisements, Instagram is a key tool in branding and promoting your firm to future lawyers. Examples of advertising that would attract these aspiring legal professionals include involvement with charities, photos/videos that show a day in the life of a lawyer, photos that depict the culture of the firm, participation in community service, and much more. In regards to targeting the rest of its users, finding your ideal client profile is key. This may include income, age, marital status, interests, etc. The determination of these profiles will in turn help you determine the proper content to post and predict how it will be received. Not only will this save you time in regards to targeting the right people, but money too.

Post “Exclusive” Content

Instagram by nature is one of the least word-oriented platforms. It serves to inform through pictures- a potentially difficult task for some law firms. Enter, “exclusive” content. Images or short videos from events occurring at your law firm, also known as “behind the scenes” content, can help to humanize your practice and inform your audience in a lighter manner. Not only is this effective, but it’s quick too!

Turn your Instagram into a Business Account

Every Instagram user has the opportunity to turn their account into a business account. This feature, accessible through the settings button on the profile page, allows users to track profile visits, impressions, number of bookmarks, and promote the Instagram page by means of a budgeted campaign. Additionally, a business account allows for the account owner to link their email or phone number so that clients/users may easily reach out. How’s that for quick analytics?

Quantity and Quality

Social media’s greatest strength is its ability to keep a topic, business, or event relevant in a sea of excess information. Relevancy, however, does not occur without consistency. The most successful advertising campaigns on Instagram involved at least one high quality (high image resolution, relative content, professionally edited) post per day that was on par with the company’s overall image and were intriguing in either actual content or the caption underneath it.

Create an Actual Advertisement

Disguised under the name “promotion”, Instagram ads are quite straightforward- especially if you know your target audience. All that’s required is a post to promote, a destination (the location users are taken to when they click on your ad), a target audience, and a little money (a $1 minimum usage of total budget per day). Although the number of impressions does increase with the allocated budget of the campaign, a thick wallet is not necessary to promote posts. Hence, it’s truly a beneficial tool for small and large firms alike.

Takeaway:

Whether monetarily reinforced or simply utilized throughout an ad campaign, proper Instagram usage by law firms and lawyers alike aids in educating a broad audience in an informative, but unique manner. While not the most popular social media outlet at the moment, Instagram’s potential for advertising in the legal field proves bright for the future. If you need help to effectively advertise on Instagram, contact us for help.

This blog post has been edited and republished from Nov. 21, 2018.