So, you have refrained from jumping on the Facebook bandwagon for as long as possible. Now, however, more than ever, you are hearing that your competitors are on Facebook. Not only are your competitors on Facebook, they are utilizing Facebook marketing to generate more referrals, cases and build lasting professional relationships.
If you are an attorney who is more analytical in nature, it may be compelling to look at some statistics and facts about Facebook:
- The social network has 1.5 billion users worldwide.
- There were 1.74 billion mobile active users (Mobile Facebook MAU) for December 2016, which is an increase of 21% year-
over-year (Source: Facebook as of 02/01/17). - Over half of all Americans have a Facebook page.
- Average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes. (Source: Infodocket).
- 1.23 billion people logged onto Facebook daily (Facebook DAU) for September 2016, which represents a 18% increase
year-over-year (Source: Facebook as 02/01/17). - According to a May 2016 study by the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation, 44% of the U.S. population
accesses its news on Facebook.
One of the best features about Facebook is that it allows you to customize and target your audience based on age, gender, job title, income level, buying habits, interests, location and much more. To take advantage of Facebook’s advanced targeting capabilities, you must have a paid Facebook marketing campaign setup by a firm that handles Facebook marketing.
Four Ways to Use Facebook to Your Firm’s Advantage
First, you can use it to reach your target audience via paid promotions and advertising.
Secondly, you can use it for re-targeting. A Facebook pixel is a snippet of code you install on your website — you can create a custom audience of people who have visited your website. Anyone that visits your site is shown your ad a couple of times during a 30-day period as they surf the Web and/or Facebook.
Third, you can use managed Facebook posts to post content that is relevant to your target audience on a daily basis. Posting content that has the propensity to go viral is even better as that content will get free organic reach. It also encourages your audience to engage in your posts and gets them involved in answering questions or stating their opinion about a certain topic.
Fourth, you can use Facebook Livestream. This option is by far my favorite. In case you haven’t noticed yet, Facebook is starting to do commercials and ads to promote the use of Facebook Livestream; that speaks volumes. Those that take advantage of this and start using this technology early on will benefit by building a loyal following and fan base. If you have never tried the Livestream option, simply go to your personal or business Facebook page and look for the video camera or Livestream icon.
My recommendation is to try it at first by picking the setting “only me” — this setting will allow you to privately livestream. With this feature, you can practice a couple of times and get comfortable before the camera and work on your speaking skills. Once you are ready to share your message with your audience, you can click the appropriate option for your needs. You can make your message public, or only to friends, or a selected restricted list.
Facebook Marketing for Lawyers: Beginner’s Tips
If you have not used Facebook on a regular basis in the past or do not have the time to manage your social media presence yourself, it is best to hire a professional social media manager to handle it for you. You can ask them to put together a strategy based on your specific practice area and goals. Once you start to work with them, you can request that they send you a list of what posts they plan on setting up for the month so that you can review and approve them.
If you are seeking to get more clients for prenup agreements or simply want to get more “likes” to your business page to build up an audience, specific advertising campaigns can be created with unique ad copy, visuals, and landing pages and you can request to give your approval prior to any campaigns going live.
Another advantage of Facebook advertising is that it allows you to test A/B campaigns and determine what is working best and turn off the campaigns that are not optimizing. Because Facebook gives customers the ability to turn on or “pause” a campaign at the push of a button, it makes it a cost-effective option to try out without committing to a huge investment.
Explore which aspects of Facebook appeal to you the most and implement a marketing strategy based on your law firm’s goals. Dimple Dang
