Social Media as the New Legal Industry Word of Mouth

For as long as there have been lawyers, legal representation has largely been a word-of-mouth business. Satisfied clients recommend legal services to their friends and family based on experience they may have had. This type of advertising can have a huge impact on a firm’s reputation, because if someone you know and trust would recommend a service, it must be good, right?

If you stop and think about it, you may not be getting the whole story. Word of mouth from one or two people is not a large enough sample size to be an accurate representation of the service that a particular firm can provide. That’s where social media comes in– and almost completely changes the game.

Social media has changed the landscape in the world of legal advertising. Word-of-mouth reviews are not just limited to your social circle anymore. You can hear the experiences of people you most likely never would have met, getting a (generally) unbiased review of the firm you are considering. This helps to broaden the scope for you, giving potential clients a more holistic approach to reviewing and choosing legal representation.

So now that you’re using social media to reach the masses and advertise your services, what can you do to make sure it’s working for you?

1. Update consistently and often: Clients want to know that you care about your work, and effort on your social channels will show your dedication. Your content doesn’t even have to be about your practice all of the time. Audiences enjoy and engage with content that has to do with news from your city/state. Basically, be an active participant in your social presence– don’t be a ghost who only posts every couple months.
2. Ask satisfied customers for reviews: These positive reviews are often the deciding factor for potential clients. They want to know a real-life situation that you have helped another client with. Often you have to explicitly ask for these reviews because customers don’t seem generally motivated to leave positive reviews, only negative ones. So, if you can get a couple satisfied customers to leave reviews this will greatly help your online reputation and will set you apart from the other firms.

1. Address negative reviews as swiftly as possible: While solving your client’s legal matters and leaving them satisfied is your number one priority, it is also very important that you address and hopefully remove any negative reviews. One bad review can often be worth 5 positive reviews. As I mentioned earlier, there’s something about a bad experience that really motivates people to leave a bad review. We are much more inclined to want to warn other potential customers of a shoddy service than we are to take the time to praise a good business. It’s very important that you resolve those issues as fast as possible, and get that review removed if you can.

1. Use a scheduling program: We know you’re busy running your firm, so you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to social media. Social media can be a big time commitment, especially if you aren’t very experienced. Luckily, there are ways to break it down so it can almost run itself for you. Scheduling programs like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and many more are there to help you cut down your time spent on social. Dedicate time once a month to filling up the program with posts to send out, then you don’t have to think about it for the rest of the month.
2. Monitor your analytics: If you’re interested in getting really in-depth and fine-tuning your social strategy, you can monitor the analytics for each individual account. This is where you can go to learn more about what works for your audience, see exactly which content resonates with them and what times are optimal to post. Then you can use that information to build your reach and success.

Social media can have such strong effects on word-of-mouth advertising for your firm, it’s definitely not something to be underestimated. And while starting and maintaining multiple social media accounts for your business may seem daunting, the immediate benefits will prove to you that the effort is well worth the results.

If you want to increase your firm’s reach in your community and generate more leads, our team is here to help. Let us create a comprehensive social media strategy so we can help your firm reach its goals.