Ways to Improve Your Firm’s Facebook Page

With 2.38 billion active monthly users,  Facebook offers a valuable platform to market your law practice and interact with potential clients. Just as the sheer amount of user data that Facebook collects gives businesses — law practices included — the ability to effectively pinpoint a target market, it also helps consumers to quickly locate local law practices that match their search terms. You can help these users find you by giving Facebook the information it needs to connect clients to lawyers and keep them coming with regular content updates that feel informative and friendly — not pushy or promotional.

Follow these steps to get started:

Promote and Optimize Your Firm’s Facebook Page for Better Visibility

• Leveraging your network — For solo practitioners and small practices, using your existing personal network is a great way to start spreading the word about a new firm page or an existing one that has yet to gain traction. Start by posting on your personal page to encourage friends and family to visit, “like” or leave a review on your firm page. When you post original or shared content on your firm page, link to it from your personal page (and have your partners and staff do the same on their Facebook accounts). If you are on other social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, cross-promote from your profiles on those sites as well.
• Optimizing your page — Optimizing is just marketing speak for filling out your Facebook page in a way that makes it as easy as possible for prospective clients to find you. Facebook has tools that facilitate SEO (search engine optimization) for your page, including the “About Us” section and the “Our Story” box (a 2018 Facebook update for business pages). Include your firm’s contact information, location and website in the About Us section as an easy, at-a-glance reference. Use the Our Story section to briefly sum up your practice areas, the locations you serve and anything that sets you apart from the competition (Are you a longtime, active member of your community? Do you have insider knowledge of a particular industry, such as having worked in insurance defense before becoming a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney?) Don’t include a full bio or your resume here. Write in a voice that is both friendly and authoritative to instill confidence and trust. Put yourself in the shoes of a client: what first impression of a firm would inspire you to investigate further?

Post Useful Content to Build Trust

• Create posts that offer value — Although it’s fine to include calls to action (“Call Us,” “Visit our website,” etc.) in some posts, your Facebook firm page is not the place for a hard sell. Instead offer value to visitors in the form of original posts and shared content. Include photos and videos of you and your staff when appropriate. Of course, you don’t want to offer legal advice online, but you can post tips or explainers about state and local laws. Be sure to show the human side of your firm, such as video of a partner judging a mock trial, snapshots from your office summer outing, or information about a community event. You can also promote a blog post or other content on your firm’s website with a brief summary and a link back to your firm’s site. Likewise, if you regularly share or write posts on other social media platforms such as LinkedIn, you can cross promote to and from them, as well. This mix of content will bring new visitors to your page, build trust and drive traffic to your firm’s website.
• Answer questions — When in doubt about what to post, answer questions that Facebook users are asking you. Answer the question on your Facebook page, rather than just linking to content on your firm’s site — even if you have already written about the issue there. Other sources for questions to answer: questions people ask elsewhere online (Quora, Reddit), frequent questions from your clients and common myths you can dispel. Imagine what search terms you would enter if you had a legal problem that fits with one of your firm’s practice areas. Answer questions that address those search queries (and make sure you include terms the average person uses, e.g., “alimony” not “spousal maintenance”) to increase the chances of your page coming up in Facebook search results.

On Facebook, the most effective advertising isn’t about the “hard-sell.” By promoting helpful and informative content to your target audience, you can build trust and burnish your firm’s brand. Consumers who discover your Facebook law practice page may not need your services at that moment, but they will likely remember you when they do need legal help in the future.