Which Social Media Platforms Should My Firm Use?

Initially intended as an alternate method of communication and networking, most of us couldn’t imagine daily life without social media. Social media is a hotbed of activity, making it an ideal place for law firms to find new potential clients.

Naturally, it makes sense for law firms to utilize social media to their benefit. However, users on social media are highly reactive, so it does take some strategy to get your message across in the most effective way. Making a positive first impression is critical to winning over the user base, and each platform has its own culture. Any organizations perceived to be misusing social media or acting overly transparent in their attempts to win over users to the point of pandering are rapidly dismissed.

When opting to promote your firm on social media, it is critical that you do so with a thorough understanding of the platform you’ve selected, and that it is appropriate for your law firm’s needs.

Assessing Different Forms of Social Media

Facebook is the most popular platform in use today with over 2.7 billion active users on the site. With its balance of family pictures and weekly updates, law firms can maintain a professional yet informative profile. With that in mind, it is far from the only avenue social media users frequent. While they operate on a different model, Instagram and Twitter are popular as well. The former, which is owned by Facebook, has 1 billion active users, while the latter features over 330 million. Instagram is primarily a way to share images. What people share there tends to be lighthearted in tone, but it does have a strong youth following. If your target audience includes millennials, it’s smart to have a presence. Twitter encompasses a wider age demographic and wider range of tones – from comic to professional, there’s a voice for most types of clients on Twitter.

Most law firms embrace LinkedIn for networking, but it’s becoming a place for clients to find firms as well. Advertised as a strictly professional networking site, it has embraced several more social features over the last several years, allowing users to share articles and posts with each other in a more personal manner. The mobile app, Snapchat, is one of the newest platforms. It took the opposite route from LinkedIn, starting strictly as a more visual form of texting and becoming more and more public over time, allowing users to share their content with greater pools of people.

If your law firm is invested in any global client outreach, WhatsApp offers great potential. Having a WhatsApp presence may take time to develop, but it’s a smart time investment.

While the above options have the potential to serve as effective promotional platforms, they appeal to users for different reasons. Many users use multiple social media apps and sites simultaneously. This means that law firms shouldn’t simply copy the same content across each platform. Each type of content should be created with the platform’s audience and culture in mind.

Additionally, the user base of each platform is different. For example, the largest user demographic group on Facebook is composed of users between the ages of 25 and 34. Snapchat and Instagram skews younger, appealing more to users between the ages of 13 and 29. Meanwhile, most of LinkedIn’s users are between the ages of 30 and 64.

Pros and Cons of Advertising on Each Social Media Platform

When you are considering which platforms to use for your firm, it’s best to consider the benefits and drawbacks of each. Here is a breakdown of each.

Facebook

Pros: Facebook has the largest user base, allowing you to reach millions of people, and it provides more ways to customize your target audience than any other platform. You can use this system to test out different types of ads and ad targeting to determine what combination is most effective for your law firm. Facebook ads are also extremely affordable.

Cons: Due to the proliferation of fake or duplicate accounts, your ads may be targeted at non-active users. Ads also require maintenance and monitoring over time.

Instagram

Pros: The visual nature of the platform allows for your ad to be placed in a very visible location without appearing disruptive. Instagram provides several ways to target your audience.

Cons: Instagram does not easily accommodate links, making it difficult for people to follow your ads to your law firm’s website. Instagram’s status as a mobile app adds additional limitations to your potential reach.

Twitter

Pros: Ads on Twitter are designed to be very user friendly, allowing you to set them up in a short amount of time. The built-in retweets feature offers users a low-effort method of engagement likely to help widen your reach.

Cons: User targeting on Twitter is fairly limited, making it difficult to optimize your marketing campaign. One of the biggest cons is that Twitter does not offer analytics, making it difficult to monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns.

LinkedIn

Pros: LinkedIn features a wide variety of ways to narrow down your potential audience, allowing you to target very specific groups of people. Campaigns are also very user-friendly and intuitive to set up.

Cons: LinkedIn ads are more expensive than other alternatives, and the user base is often smaller. It’s also still considered a way to network professionally, so it may not offer the target audience your firm is looking to attract.

Snapchat

Pros: Unlike the ads on websites, which are displayed in banners or posts that can be easily ignored, Snapchat ads appear fully on the user’s screen, increasing the visibility of your law firm.  Snapchat also has a Discover page that allows users to explore more content.

Cons: There are limited ways to interact with ads on Snapchat, making it difficult to obtain any data on their effectiveness. Videos on Snapchat are also limited to 10 seconds per video, which can make it difficult to fully communicate your message. Finally, unlike all the other platforms listed here, there is no way for users to organically re-share your content within the app, limiting your reach.

Discuss Your Social Media Strategy with RizeUp

While it’s clear enough that promoting on social media can be extremely beneficial to your law firm, you may be struggling to determine which of the above platforms is best suited to your needs. Even after deciding upon your ideal platform and marketing strategy, you may face challenges in developing ads customized to appeal to the user base. At RizeUp Media, we offer social media marketing services that will provide you with everything you need to be successful at promoting your law firm on social media. Our team of experts has years of experience studying trends and analytics. We can work with you to create a marketing strategy customized with your needs in mind. To get started, simply fill out our online form or contact us by calling 866-806-8538.