Engage! a Lawyer's Guide to Social Media Marketing © Attorney at Work
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SSOOCIAIAAL MMEDIAMEDIEDEDIAA Engage! A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Online Profiles: Presenting the Best Version of Yourself | 36 By Sally J. Schmidt Contents Lawyers and LinkedIn Skills and Endorsements | 39 By Nancy Myrland Editor’s Note | 2 Using LinkedIn to Reach Your Goals | 43 By Sayre Happich Attorney at Work Social Media Survey Highlights | 3 TURBOCHARGING TWITTER RETHINKING SOCIAL MEDIA What Top Lawyers Do on Twitter | 46 Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Plus | 7 By Susan Kostal By Dan Lear Anatomy of a Tweet | 47 Assess Your Online Image | 9 By Derek Bolen By Merrilyn Astin Tarlton The Hashtagger’s Guide to the Galaxy | 50 Use Social Media Like Social Media Didn’t Exist | 11 By Jared Correia By Gyi Tsakalakis Five Ways to Use Twitter Lists | 53 Crushin’ It: 10 Social Media Misconceptions, Revised | 13 By Andrea Cannavina By Jared Correia Twitter Made Me a Better Lawyer | 54 SOCIAL 2.0 BEST PRACTICES By Dennis Garcia A Roaring Sea of Noise — and How to Rise Above It | 17 Getting My Wings: How I Used Twitter By Kevin Iredell to Promote Social Change | 56 By Olga V. Mack Increasing Your Visibility With the Press | 19 By John J. Buchanan FANNING OUT: FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & VIDEO Storytelling: Bring Your Message Alive! | 22 Paid and Organic Facebook Strategy for Your Law Firm | 59 By Drew Keller By Tim Baran and Mike Miceli Does Your Online Reputation Need Tending? | 24 Using Facebook to Drive Traffic to Your Website | 63 By Helen Bertelli By Mike Ramsey Copyright Concerns and Social Media | 26 Why Your Law Firm Needs an Instagram Account | 66 By Ruth Carter By Justine Daley and Jabez LeBret Test Your Social Media Ethics IQ | 29 Seven Steps for Promoting Law Firm Videos | 68 By Mark Homer By Stefanie Knapp and Adam Stock LEVERAGING LINKEDIN Pros and Cons of Facebook Live | 72 By Michael Mogill You Need to Pimp Your LinkedIn Profile (Yes, You) | 34 By Susan Kostal Tips from the Experts | 74 1 | A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing ENGAGE! Editor’s Note In the past couple of years, social media has exploded — moving pros for advice on where lawyers should focus their efforts — and well beyond the sharing of selfies and updates around the virtual their best tips on how to do it. watercooler and establishing itself in the marketing mainstream. If you’re just getting started with social media marketing — It’s where big brands and small businesses are putting mega baby boomer, digital native or somewhere in between — this advertising dollars. It’s where at least 50 percent of Americans are guide will help you cover the bases for your law practice. Does getting their news. And it’s where professionals like you are engag- your social media presence need an upgrade? The guide will help ing with clients every day. you rethink social media’s role in your firm’s marketing strategy. Today, social media isn’t about experimenting with a new Along with best practices to help you up your game, there are marketing platform for your firm. It’s about connecting with sections on leveraging LinkedIn and Twitter — plus a section de- clients and prospects, because that’s where they are now — and voted to Facebook, Instagram and video. where more are sure to be in the coming years. Look at your client Social media is full of humorous memes explaining hand-cranked base. Who are the decision-makers? Who’s following in their foot- pencil sharpeners, fax machines and dial-up phones to younger steps? How do they engage with the world around them? Where generations. Don’t become a meme. do you fit in that orbit? A lawyer can shake hands, network, speak and write all day long, Especially if your client base includes Gen Yers and millennials, the but if you can’t comfortably engage in social media, you could get question isn’t whether you should be on social — it’s how long will left behind. it take you to get up to speed. These generations are media and tech-savvy; the youngest are even called “digital natives.” They — Joan Feldman, Attorney at Work Editor-in-Chief don’t know a life without smartphones and social media. — Susan Kostal, Attorney at Work Contributing Editor For “Engage! A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing,” and Special Guide Editor we reached out to top law firm marketers and digital marketing 2 | A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Attorney at Work 2017 SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS Attorney at Work Reader Survey This is the third year Attorney at Work asked lawyers about their • What’s the social media story for lawyers this year? Nearly everybody social media habits, preferences and attitudes. Here is what we is now using social media: 96 percent of responding lawyers say they learned from the 302 lawyers who responded to the survey, do. What’s more, 70 percent of this year’s respondents say it’s actually part of their overall marketing strategy (compare that with 60 percent conducted in February. Where do you fit in? just two years ago). • Which sites are regularly used? Facebook is getting more love than ever — 80 percent of lawyers responding say they use it regularly, up 96% from 72 percent last year. Twitter use is growing, too. Last year, 47 per- OF RESPONDENTS USE SOCIAL MEDIA cent of lawyers said they regularly use Twitter — that has jumped to 59 70% percent. LinkedIn is still No. 1 among lawyers, but it is lagging a bit — 89 SAY THEIR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IS PART OF percent reported using it regularly last year compared with 84 percent this AN OVERALL MARKETING STRATEGY year. • What’s used most often? When asked which platform they use most of- 84% ten, Facebook came out on top: 48 percent of the lawyers cited Facebook ARE ON LINKEDIN — STILL NO. 1 AMONG LAWYERS — compared with 27 percent who said they spend more time on LinkedIn. BUT FACEBOOK AND TWITTER ARE CLOSING IN • But is it working? Only 7 percent of responding lawyers say they 31% believe their use of social media is directly responsible for bringing SAY FACEBOOK IS MOST EFFECTIVE AT BRINGING IN in new clients. (That’s an increase over last year, whenonly 3 percent BUSINESS (OVER LINKEDIN AT 27%) said it was directly responsible.) However, 42 percent say it is “somewhat” 7% responsible. As for which platforms are most effective for bringing in new SAY SOCIAL MEDIA IS “VERY” RESPONSIBLE business, Facebook took first place at 31 percent with LinkedIn second at FOR GETTING THEM NEW CLIENTS 27 percent. “None” was a close third, at 26 percent, and Twitter a distant fourth at only 5 percent. When asked, “Do you believe lawyers are actively 42% using social media for marketing purposes or is it really more hype than SAY SOCIAL MEDIA IS “SOMEWHAT” RESPONSIBLE reality?” lawyers were split: 44 percent say they do believe lawyers are FOR GETTING THEM NEW CLIENTS actively using it, while 43 percent think it is hype. 3 | A Lawyer’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Attorney at Work Attorney at Work Reader Survey Highlights • Do lawyers handle all of their social media marketing activities them- Lawyers on Social Media: 2017 Survey Results selves? Most do, according to the survey results: 67 percent do it all, while Here’s how the 302 lawyers who responded to Attorney at Work’s 2017 Social 23 percent say they get some help, and 10 percent say it is all handled by Media Marketing Survey tell us they are using social media. someone else. • How are lawyers managing multiple social accounts and scheduling DO YOU USE IS YOUR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA? PART OF A MARKETING STRATEGY? their marketing activities? When asked, “Do you use any social media management tools such as Hootsuite, Google Analytics, TweetDeck, Buf- YES NO fer, etc.?” 38 percent say they take advantage of management tools, while 96% 3% 58 percent say they do not. 70% 29% • About solo practitioners. Compared with last year’s results, more solos YES NO are talking the social media talk and walking the social media walk: 94 1% DON’T KNOW percent say they are using social media — 10 percent more than last year. ONLY 7% BELIEVE THEIR USE OF In addition, 75 percent say they use social as part of their marketing plan, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS “VERY RESPONSIBLE” FOR BRINGING compared with 70 percent of all lawyers surveyed. Solos continue to use THEM NEW CLIENTS LinkedIn first (82 percent) and Facebook second (78 percent), but Twitter is gaining a greater following over past years. Almost 60 percent of solos VERY RESPONSIBLE 7% reported using Twitter — a 14 percent increase over 2016. However, Face- SOMEWHAT RESPONSIBLE 42% NOT AT ALL RESPONSIBLE 34% book pulled into first place — at 34 percent compared with 22 percent DIFFICULT TO MEASURE 17% for LinkedIn — when we asked which platforms are most effective for bringing in new business. Twitter was next, pulling only 3 percent. MOST REPORT REGULARLY USING LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER • Paid social advertising. For the first time, we asked respondents if they are using paid social media advertising to market their firms. Of the 84% 40 percent who said yes, 50 percent regularly use Facebook ads, the 80% most popular platform for this by far. In contrast, only 8 percent pay for LinkedIn ads and only 4 percent purchase Twitter ads. 59% • Content sharing. We also inquired about content-sharing platforms — websites that help lawyers and law firms distribute articles. We learned that of the 31 percent who reported using a platform beyond their own blog, website or social media accounts, 32 percent are using LinkedIn’s publishing platforms and 26 percent are using Facebook publishing tools, while 9 percent use JD Supra and 7 percent use Medium.