4 Essential Considerations for Defense Lawyers’ Social Media Accounts

Running a criminal defense firm in the United States requires carefully structured marketing and a keen awareness of the different ways to locate and secure leads that ultimately convert to clients. If you want to position your defense firm as the ideal option for anyone in your service area looking for a particular type of criminal defense representation, call our agency. It’s vital to understand the value that a solid social media presence can provide in this regard.

Developing your social media presence takes consistent effort. The result will be a steadier stream of prospective clients connecting with your social media profiles to learn more about the value your firm can provide during what is sure to be the most difficult times of their lives. Keep the following tips in mind as you explore the ways to improve your social media presence, avoid common social media blunders, and boost the visibility of your criminal defense firm.

One: Choose the Right Platforms

It’s a common misconception in modern criminal defense marketing that a firm should have a presence on every social media platform. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are just a few of the most prominent social media platforms available to businesses today. It’s important to understand the different benefits each of these platforms may provide to your firm.

Spreading your efforts too thinly across too many platforms will only tax your marketing budget and waste valuable time that you should be spending on serving your clients. Start choosing your preferred social media platforms by conducting some market research and determining where your most likely leads are spending their time online. For example, you could research local competitors and examine what types of social media profiles they operate. You should also check their engagement levels to see where their social media presence excels and which areas appear to need more work.

It’s also vital to think about your typical client. What age group do you primarily serve? What is the average age, education level, and demographic of your typical client? What type of criminal defense law do you practice? These are all important questions to ask if you want to narrow down your target audience as accurately as possible to focus your efforts.

Two: Boost Brand Awareness

Prospective clients need to know that your firm is a trustworthy and reliable choice for criminal defense representation. Boosting your brand awareness is possible in many ways, from participating in local networking events to generating online content that captures the attention of prospective clients. For example, if you practice a particular type of criminal defense law or only focus on a few practice areas, highlight your expertise in these areas by generating content that will resonate with your target audience.

Imagine a social media user facing a charge for driving under the influence (DUI). This is arguably one of the more common practice areas handled by criminal defense firms in the U.S., but if your firm specializes in these types of cases, it is crucial to position your firm as the leading choice for DUI defense. For example, when this social media user sees your firm’s social media profile and compares it to another local firm, they notice that you provide DUI defense exclusively while the competition offers defense in various practice areas. While on the surface, this may seem like the competition is better positioned to handle a wider variety of cases, you can make a stronger connection with a lead interested in your specific practice area by demonstrating a greater breadth of knowledge on DUI defense than your competitor.

Building brand awareness on social media means playing to your strengths and positioning your firm as the leading choice when a social media user searches for an attorney that handles the type of law that you practice.

Three: Provide Valuable Content

“Content is king” has been a prevailing mantra in the digital marketing world for several years, with good reason. Connecting with modern audiences requires establishing truth, providing value, and resonating with what is important to them. Content is how you accomplish this. As far as criminal defense firms are concerned, imagine you are a person accused of a crime in need of legal representation. An individual in this situation is bound to frantically search for as much information as they can find about their current predicament, including potential sentencing, best available defenses, and statistics related to the charges they face.

Generate useful and relevant content around your practice areas that focuses on meeting this need. You want the average person who finds your site when in need of defense representation to quickly recognize that you know exactly what you are talking about and are fully capable of serving their needs.

Consider a few ideas to generate more useful content for your target audience:

• Create content focused on each of your practice areas that provides professional insight into each practice area. Emphasize your experience and the success your firm has had in handling cases in each of your practice areas.
• Provide readers with useful statistics related to each of your practice areas. For example, you could create a blog post that highlights the conviction rates for cases in your state for each of your practice areas.
• Create content that acts as a “how-to” guide for handling criminal prosecution. These posts can emphasize the importance of knowing your constitutional rights and the value of defense representation.

These are just a few ideas to help you start generating more effective content for prospective clients in your service areas. Experiment with different content ideas on your social media profiles to determine which types of content resonate the most with your audience.

Four: Encourage Engagement and Connections

Social media marketing should not be a passive means of engaging with your audience. Part of the appeal of social media is the ability to connect with others and talk about different subjects openly. If you want your defense firm’s social media presence to be successful, you must engage with your audience.

If you post content that generates discussion among your followers, take time to respond to comments. For example, if you create a post about a specific type of criminal offense, your followers might likely ask questions that would be better suited to a one-on-one conversation than a public forum. Use this as an opportunity to encourage them to reach out to your firm by explaining that while they have good questions, you cannot provide specific legal advice on a public forum. They can find the answers to their specific questions by contacting your firm.

These four tips can help your criminal defense firm cultivate a much stronger presence on social media. RizeUp Media can help you take your social media marketing to the next level with dedicated marketing analysis, professional social media profile construction, and much more. Contact RizeUp Media today to learn more about how we can help your defense firm’s social media presence flourish.