Social Media Tools for Law Firms

Social media marketing is easily one of the best ways to reach your law firm’s core demographic without a huge financial investment. It can, however, be both time-intensive as well as have a sizeable learning curve. There are five main categories of this form of marketing and they are:

• Advertising
• Creating workflow
• Management of social media
• Content marketing
• Monitoring social media

In this blog post we outline a few of the best social media tools for law firms that can help automate or facilitate each of these aspects of social media marketing.

Advertising Your Law Firm Online

One way to advertise your law firm with Facebook includes Qwaya. This will allow you to test an A/B ad. Even better, you can collaborate with team members and schedule ads. It is a trusted partner with Facebook and Instagram, and very easy to use for managing ads you’ve generated. You can also work with AdEspresso, which not only works with Facebook and Instagram but Google as well. You can easily create ads, manage them, and analyze their usefulness. There is also AdEspresso Academy to help learn the ropes.

Creating Workflow

To help create and manage workflows, there are two main choices of tools, Zapier and IFTTT. Zapier helps with ‘zaps’ or creating workflow. The custom workflows have a multistep process and seamlessly integrate with countless apps. IFTTT allows applet generation, which lets you automate social media tasks. It also allows applets that have been created by others to be used in whole or to base a new applet on. While classic tools like HootSuite traditionally allow for social media management and scheduling, newer tools like CoSchedule social scheduling one step farther with automation. CoSchedule allows you to schedule one post several times into the future while optimizing post times for the best engagement – all in the click of one button. Social marketing automation is great for any law firm that is short on time, but wants to make the maximum impact through social.

Management of Social Media

Managing your law firm’s social media generally comes down to scheduling. Buffer is the perfect tool for publishing scheduled posts across social media. Don’t miss the ‘Buffer Reply,’ feature which provides an inbox that combines the various social media platforms for easy replying. You can also consider Sprout Social for a medium-sized practice. There are many packages and plans that offer similar to Buffer but add Social CRM and bit.ly integration.

Another popular choice for law firm’s is  HubSpot. The all-in-one platform offers services similar to Buffer, but adds a CRM tool, website management tools, and automation into the mix.

Content Marketing

When it comes to content marketing, there are two main options: Social Animal and Buzzsumo. With Buzzsumo, you get an analysis of content working well for your competitors as well as article ideas. You also get access to pdf and csv files as well as historical data. It also helps locate influencers to promote with. Social Animal offers similar services, but comes at a lower cost, making it ideal for smaller practices.

Monitoring Social Media

Your two main options for monitoring social media are Mention and Awario. Awario has the ability to scan 13 billion pages daily, monitoring the web and social media platforms. It can log mentions of your law firm as well as competitors, and relative keywords. Mention offers these services for enterprises and agencies. It is the best tool for searches performed in real time. You also get automated reports generated and API access. Agora Pulse is another popular option when it comes to social media monitoring for law firms. The tool is all-inclusive and allows for social listening, scheduling, and reporting. If you’re curious about Agora Pulse, they also have some free social media tools you can try including a Twitter report card that analyzes your firm’s Twitter account against competitors.

Takeaway

While social media marketing for law firms is now essential with nearly everyone active online, it can be time consuming for legal marketers to implement. However, with the right social media tools for law firms it’s easier than ever to implement social campaigns, monitor your firm’s reputation, and follow competitors. If your law firm needs more help with its social media strategy, contact us for a consultation!