In today’s dig­i­tal age, social media is not only a pow­er­ful tool to con­nect with peo­ple but also a key­stone for build­ing trust for your firm. Peo­ple nowa­days, check out reviews and likes on Linkedin, Face­book, Twit­ter, etc., before hir­ing a ser­vice or pur­chas­ing a prod­uct. So, your prospec­tive clients are sure­ly check­ing on social media for lawyers, before they decide to hire your services.

They are inter­est­ed in learn­ing who is rep­re­sent­ing them legal­ly and social media pos­sess­es the poten­tial to con­vince them about your firm’s ser­vice qual­i­ty. So if you want, to stay ahead of your com­pe­ti­tion, you need to under­stand how social media can effec­tive­ly build trust and cre­ate the author­i­ty of your law firm.

In this article, we are highlighting ten ways lawyers can build client trust via social media:

1. Quality content on social media platforms

We believe as a lawyer, you have already cre­at­ed your pro­file on var­i­ous social media plat­forms. Now to ensure that clients see your pro­file and stay long enough to engage or con­nect with you, it is imper­a­tive to have engag­ing con­tent on your social media pages. For this pur­pose, you have to:

  • Iden­ti­fy who are your poten­tial clients, what they want, and why they want it.
  • Iden­ti­fy your com­peti­tor law firms. Scru­ti­nize their con­tent and see what they are offer­ing as well as where their ser­vices lack.

With the help of this infor­ma­tion, you can strate­gize and pre­pare qual­i­ty con­tent for your social media plat­forms. The con­tent should cov­er the needs of your poten­tial clients as well as fill the gaps in the ser­vices that your com­pe­ti­tion is list­ing. 

2. Know where your prospective clients are

Even though LinkedIn is pop­u­lar, your sin­gle LinkedIn pro­file is not enough to influ­ence new clients. You have to under­stand the out­reach poten­tial of each social media plat­form to get to prospec­tive clients. For exam­ple, if you are adver­tis­ing for cor­po­rate law, LinkedIn is the best plat­form because of its author­i­ta­tive and B2B nature, where­as if you are adver­tis­ing for fam­i­ly law, you should def­i­nite­ly have a pres­ence on Face­book and Insta­gram as they are con­sumer-focused platforms.

3. Engage your clients

Just writ­ing qual­i­ty con­tent and know­ing where your prospec­tive clients are on social media plat­forms is not enough. You must respond and engage with your clients. For exam­ple, if you are broad­cast­ing a Face­book Live stream or post­ing an Insta­gram Sto­ry, and you see com­ments, ques­tions, or likes, make sure to respond. By encour­ag­ing inter­ac­tion, you can know more about them. This will give a face to your law firm’s brand. By engag­ing with your prospec­tive clients, you can not only build your brand but also build trust.

4. Establish thought leadership

As a law firm, you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case your exper­tise to your prospec­tive clients through social media plat­forms. But to estab­lish your brand as a thought leader, you must under­stand the sub­tle bal­ance between giv­ing infor­ma­tion and sell­ing your ser­vice. Sim­ply fol­low the 80/20 rule. 80% of your con­tent and respons­es to clients must be infor­ma­tive and resource­ful that por­trays your exper­tise and 20% should be about the pro­mo­tion of your law firm’s brand and qual­i­ty services.

5. Tell your brand story

Your clients need to con­nect with your brand so that they can trust your lawyers and law firm’s ser­vices. Use social media to tell your brand sto­ry and ensure you human­ize it. This helps in form­ing an emo­tion­al con­nec­tion with your poten­tial clients which helps in win­ning their trust and loyalty.

Tell your brand story

6. Monitor conversations around your firm

Lawyers should engage in brand lis­ten­ing with these social lis­ten­ing tools. Use brand­ed key­word search­es on social media, and know what every­one is say­ing about your firm. Tact­ful use of this tool can not only give you an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case your exper­tise but also pre­pare your firm for con­tro­ver­sies and neg­a­tive PR.

7. Ask your clients to review your firm

Reviews help in build­ing trust for your law firm. Clients read reviews on social media plat­forms to form an opin­ion about your law firm. So ask­ing exist­ing clients to give reviews about your firm’s ser­vices is a great way of lever­ag­ing social media for lawyers. For tips on secur­ing reviews for your firm, check out our past blog: The Impor­tance of Client Tes­ti­mo­ni­als for Law Firms.

8. Create informative YouTube videos

Your clients may not under­stand all legal ter­mi­nolo­gies. Hence, it is great to add an infor­ma­tive YouTube video to your blog post to explain rel­e­vant top­ics or dis­cuss cur­rent legal trends. They have a huge appeal and can attract new poten­tial clients. Make sure the facts and con­tent on the video are authen­tic as you show­case the exper­tise on social media.

9. Keep sharing regular blog posts and news updates

Reg­u­lar blog­ging with valu­able infor­ma­tion and shar­ing the lat­est legal updates can make your firm social­ly engag­ing and stand apart from your competitors.

10. Use ‘Skill and Endorsement’ section of LinkedIn wisely to advocate for your firm

Don’t for­get, your clients and cor­po­rate firms, do check your LinkedIn pro­file. The ‘Skill and Endorse­ment’ sec­tion plays a vital role in set­ting your firm’s brand image. So it is impor­tant to ensure that you are endorsed only for the skills you actu­al­ly have. Any­thing untrue can be detri­men­tal to your law firm’s image.

Takeaway

By now you under­stand how vital social media is if you want to get more clients. It brings a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty to mar­ket your skills and build trust for your­self or your law firm. Make sure to be con­sis­tent in your blog post­ing and it’s imper­a­tive to find a bal­ance – nei­ther under do nor over­do it. You must under­stand the basics of social media and then present your ide­ol­o­gy to your prospec­tive clients. 

Remem­ber, social media is for build­ing con­nec­tions and net­work­ing. Ensure to con­nect with your clients as much as pos­si­ble and respond to their queries or com­ments quickly. 

SOURCE: Good2bSocial