Everything About Facebook Marketing Strategy

Whether you're a large or a small firm, Facebook marketing strategies can help you propel yourself to the top of the social media heap. The most recent data released by the ABA shows that only about half of firms are even using Facebook, and out of that half, most aren't using the website to its fullest potential. Regardless of your law firm role, you can find out more about Facebook marketing strategies by reading this guide.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #1: Know Your Brand

It's time to stop thinking of your firm as just a collection of lawyers, and start thinking of it as a brand worth remembering. What is memorable or unique about your law firm? Most of the best Facebook marketing strategies will require having a good understanding of your brand and why it makes your firm special.

The reason that you need to know your unique qualities is that branding is everything online. If you can define your brand, any further Facebook marketing strategy you implement will look less like advertising and more like a genuine expression of your firm's personality.

Try to play up what your firm already is when you're designing Facebook marketing strategies, not what you hope it will be someday. Your existing strengths should be the foundation of your Facebook marketing strategy, so that you can show real expertise and great legal advice.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #2: Be a Real Person

Too many firms start by using a Facebook marketing strategy that involves sounding very “corporate” and rehearsed—a move that is unlikely to make you any friends in social media circles. If you sound fake, your potential clients won't have any reason to enter into an honest conversation with you.

Your Facebook marketing strategies can vary depending on exactly what you feel your brand's personality is. Often, it's a good Facebook marketing strategy to sound a little bit playful and significantly less formal than you might at a traditional client consultation.

The more real you sound, the more real interaction you'll get. That's why it's a good idea to make it clear from the beginning who's posting to your Facebook feed. If your viewers feel like they're really getting to know someone, you'll reap the rewards in the form of new clients and increased buzz about your business.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #3: Don't Just Talk—Listen

Facebook marketing strategies are very different from traditional marketing strategies in that they emphasize listening as much as talking. Your Facebook marketing strategy will work much better when people feel that they have a real stake in how your firm does business.

One of the best tests for whether your Facebook marketing strategies are working is a negative comment. If someone makes a negative comment, you have several different options. Instead of deciding to shut down a potentially interesting dialogue, most contemporary Facebook marketing strategies advise you to engage in a conversation—and keep it civil, no matter what. If you're too quick to delete critical comments, you'll get a reputation for having a thin skin, and your Facebook marketing strategies will be less effective.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #4: Keep Updated About Changes

It seems like just about every year, Facebook makes big changes to how its pages display. These changes can cause a great deal of outcry in the Facebook community as a whole. Facebook marketing strategies can be affected in major ways when the changes affect the way people view pages.

This means that if you want to have the best possible Facebook marketing strategy at all times, you need to do more than just following the lead of your competitors. Your Facebook marketing strategies should be making the most of the newest changes to Facebook, including any new display.

The most recent change to Facebook's display, Timeline, makes it much easier for law firms to include information on their Facebook page about past victories and the history of your firm. A number of Facebook marketing strategies already exist to help you capitalize on Timeline, but if you had neglected to find out about these changes before your page switched over, you may have experienced days or weeks of sub-optimal marketing.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #5: Testing, Testing, 1-2-3

No matter what Facebook marketing strategies you're implementing, you should know that no solution works for every law firm. That's why every campaign you do should be tested. Here's a quick three-step method that can help you develop a great test every time:

Step 1: Make a hypothesis about how people would react to a particular new Facebook marketing strategy—which clients do you think will be delighted? Will anyone potentially be offended? What performance indicators would best show that your strategy has worked?
Step 2: Implement your campaign, being careful to gather all relevant data for future analysis and testing.
Step 3: Check your actual conclusions against your hypotheses.

Remember, it doesn't necessarily matter whether your hypotheses held water under scrutiny. Even if it turned out you were wrong, you now have something you didn't have before: data that shows one strategy doesn't work in the way you had expected.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #6: Shake Things Up

On the internet, novelty catches people's eye. If you want to make your law firm stand out on Facebook, your Facebook marketing strategies should involve doing something that most similar firms aren't doing.

One place where most Facebook marketing strategies for law firms fall short is in the area of apps. Apps aren't necessarily tough to make any more—a number of app creators can help even novices design them—but most law firms haven't yet developed apps to make their clients' lives easier.

You can also shake things up by addressing controversial topics on your Facebook wall. As long as you're doing this in a way that is moderated to avoid abusive language, even hosting a Facebook debate on some legal topic can be a great way to draw in new fans who admire your rhetoric and your tenacity.