Retweets and postings and diggs, oh my! It’s not exactly the lions and tigers and bears that Dorothy feared, but for some law firms the social media world can be almost as scary.
Here are 5 ways to help transform your firm into the kind of social animals that produce client-building, referral-generating relationships:
- Find bloggers and tweeters within the firm – Not everyone in the firm will latch onto social media like a teen to World of Warcraft. Instead recruit the team members who have a passion for sharing knowledge and aren’t afraid to share it online. It’s okay if it’s not a partner, as long as the writer is enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and able to regularly post relevant content.
- Use more than just words – Don’t be afraid to add richer media to your blog messages or website. For example, if you specialize in employment issues, interview a local HR pro about how they’ve navigated a new regulation. A Pittsburgh firm recently posted a podcast in which attorneys talked about legal issues for biotech companies who want to attract investors and partnerships.
- Make it easy for clients to interact with you – If you have an active and engaged presence on social sites like Twitter or on a LinkedIn group, promote, promote, promote. Add social icons to your website’s home page; add URLs to everyone’s business cards; incorporate social site addresses into e-mail signatures. In short, make sure everyone who interacts with your company knows where to find you on the social web.
- Humanize your staff – Customers don’t want to interact with office@important_law_firm.com. They want to know they’re reading blog entries from Gillian or tweets from Ray. Stay away from avatars as well and use current, good quality photos of blog and tweet writers.
- Use social media to market offline events – Sahana Mysore at Inside Facebook recommends using social sites like Facebook to promote and manage face-to-face engagements. For instance, she suggests using Facebook Events, which has an RSVP feature, to organize a meet-and-greet advice session at a local restaurant.
Release your firm’s inner social animal. To learn more about doing everything from creating and distributing content to using social sites for offline promotions, contact the social media animals at Social Strategy1.