Why Use Social Media

Social media is perhaps the most widely-growing technology worldwide. It's rare to find a person in this emerging world who doesn't use social media. People everywhere use it to catch up on news and trends, communicate with others, and discover new services and products. According to a report by We Are Social, over 4 billion people use social media every day. Aside from it being vastly popular among various age groups in today's society, creating accounts and sharing posts is completely free. Read on to see why lawyers and law firms should break into the exciting world that is social media.

Tips for Getting Started

The first step in establishing your social media presence is choosing which platforms would work best for you. For example, here at NextChapter we primarily use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as ways to advertise our product. Using as many free platforms as you can might be a good way to gauge which ones are most effective. It might even prove beneficial to research best practices to gain some insight on the best platforms for advertising services. We recommend starting out with a strong Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook presence and going from there.

How to Use Social Media Effectively

Establish your brand. Showcasing who you are and what your firm does for consumers is the whole purpose of your social accounts. Let your Twitter and Instagram be the medium through which you let your brand's personality shine. This is the platform where you establish yourself and your firm as a leader in the field. You can do this in many ways from creating informative posts about your services to sharing more personable aspects of your business like team activities or pictures of office pets.

Engage customers. No matter what you're posting, you always want to make sure you get the maximum audience engagement from it. Link back to your website, service or blog in your posts or maybe even your bio, so potential clients can easily navigate to where you want them to go. Also make sure to leave room for comments and suggestions from your audience, and occasionally reply to questions or concerns. This will establish you as a real person and make your audience feel more connected with you.

Connect with others. Social media is also a great way to connect with other legal professionals and businesses in the legal industry. Follow as many accounts and like as many posts as you can from other firms and leaders in legal. You'll gain more followers and make a few new connections in the process, which might even provide you a reference down the road.

Creating social media accounts and keeping up with them might seem like a daunting task, but the platforms are free and fun to use, so it's a kind of marketing you yourself can easily implement. Following these tips will give you a good foundation to establish yourself, then the rest is up to you. Make the platform what you want it to be and use practices that have proven to be useful for your firm. Check out NextChapter's Twitter and Instagram to see just how we do it.