Using Facebook effectively to market your firm
Many firms are becoming aware of the growing need to leverage social media to market their firm. The crossover from professional to personal life means that Facebook is now an effective marketing medium for many.
In years past, most people contacted firms based on word-of-mouth, billboards, or even a phone book! (In fact, I was surprised the other day to see phonebooks being delivered to houses in my street – I haven’t looked in one for years! Nowadays, fewer and fewer people would even recognise a phonebook if they saw one). Most people are seeking choices and searching their interests in over the internet. For that reason alone, using social media effectively has become an imperative law firms seeking to establish relationships with current and new clients.
How Facebook works in professional services
The purpose of using a platform like Facebook for outreach is to give potential clients the opportunity to see what you have to say. Customers that Like your law firm have the potential to become loyal followers of your page. They’ll hear more about you and gain an understanding of your firm, services, clients and the way you work.
For retailers and restaurants, this provides an opportunity to offer customer loyalty rewards. In professional services, the use of social media outreach is a bit subtler. Ideally, social media outreach platforms give firms an opportunity to discuss major achievements, talk about current changes to their service offering, new developments, discuss interesting cases or current events, and open their doors to new team members. It allows the firm the opportunity to engage with their clientele as experts, and provide a window for potential staff to assess their culture.
The trick is to create engaging content. You want to give potential clients the opportunity to learn something interesting while simultaneously creating rapport them. You want potential new team members to know that you are relevant, engaging, up-to-date, invest in professional development, support careers and provide flexibility to team members. When you post content on Facebook that is interesting and relevant to either or both of these groups, your followers start to see you as a leader in your field. And once you’ve gained their trust, they’ll likely turn to you when they need the services you offer or want a job!
Creating compelling content consistently is not as easy it sounds. Some firms have chosen to hire a service that generates content for them; but you must keep in mind that to do this, effort is needed on your part to set the journey, the subjects and the boundaries, and provide the research behind the content that they need to write. You will also need to edit this to make sure it says what you intended and is written in your tone of voice.
Is Facebook worth the investment?
Facebook has over 2 billion users with roughly 1.74 billion of them accessing the platform from their mobile device. Most firms nowadays are recognising the need to target potential clients using the web, and social media outreach over platforms like Twitter and Facebook are a huge part of how they’re doing that. Unlike other niche platforms, Facebook appeals to people of all demographics, including older people who are joining the site with more and more frequency. Facebook offers the option to sponsor posts and showcase it to a highly defined market, which means your content can potentially end up in your target market’s feed, even if they haven’t liked your page yet.
Those that aren’t using the platform for outreach are missing out on a major opportunity for new business or new team members.
Like it or not, firms have had to adapt to a market which now Googles what they need, researches on LinkedIn and joins communities on Facebook. While there is a considerable amount of competition now because of this platform, you can also see it as an effective channel to engage potential clients. Those that refuse to leverage Facebook are missing the opportunity to connect. With many opting out of direct firm communications, you need to cover your bases so that you can still connect. Facebook is a relevant alternative.
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