I’m often asked how to develop a successful social media strategy. Firms of all sizes and budgets can do it if they are resourceful and creative.
Here are some ideas that Mike Mellor and I spoke about at last week’s LMA New York Local Group program on how to use social media for revenue generation.
- Define your target audience(s) and set clear, measurable goals for your content/social media efforts, including what “ROI” actually means and make sure your lawyers are on the same page here
- Select the right social platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – maybe you do all of them, maybe you focus only on some of them and incorporate others later on) – remember that you must go where your clients are or you are wasting your time
- Create and share timely, client-centric, educational content based on your business development goals
- Adjust the content for each medium – don’t post the same content to each platform or it will look like you do not have mastery of the social channels
- Use an editorial/content calendar to track the mix of posts
- Train your employees on how to use social media to tap into their networks
- Explain and anticipate what developments mean to your audience in their language and in a way that will most resonate with them – each client alert, thought leadership piece and social post should be written with your target audience in mind
- Effectively use visuals (here’s my JD Supra article on low-cost and free(!) tools you can use to help you create visuals), hashtags, calls to action (CTAs), videos and podcasts
- Reuse and repurpose your content to make it work harder and smarter for you
- Incorporate paid/sponsored content
- Use analytics to help refine your content strategy – this will give you powerful information to create more of what works and less of what doesn’t
- Understand how SEO works and use it to your advantage
For more tips, take a look at my JD Supra article, “The Secret Sauce to Effective Social Media Marketing for Lawyers and Law Firms.”