Social Media and SEO Marketing for the Small Law Firm and Solo Law Practice
Do You Know How to Acquire Clients With Social Media SEO Marketing For the Small Law Firm?
Part of sustaining a lean law firm is to make sure you have a consistent stream of clients. Many attorneys rely on networking with their colleagues or other businesses to generate referrals, but social media and SEO marketing for small law firms can also help get you there.
A client reached out to LeanLaw recently and asked:
“I had lunch today with a very experienced attorney who recently left big law to start his own practice. I recommended your services. He asked about the social media stuff, which I have woefully neglected. Does LeanLaw consult on how attorneys can use social media?”
When LeanLaw provides advice to its lawyer members, we take into account their needs, the facility with which they can incorporate our suggestions as well as the economics of the solution. LeanLaw’s Chief Service Officer, Jonathon Fishman, wrote back to this client with the following advice:
For most attorneys, social media is about being found online. So, what you really need to consider is how a prospective client would find you. Social media can play into the process, but search engine optimization and search engine marketing are the true focus. There are exceptions for those attorneys trying to create a “brand” for themselves and use content creation to do so, but just getting on Twitter and posting articles won’t drive new clients to their practices. True social media efforts are comprehensive and require SEO optimized websites, a true content production schedule and a very methodical social media posting routine. From my perspective, search is the most important marketing effort an attorney needs to get right.
A few tips. An attorney’s social media / digital marketing activities are directly related to three agendas:
- Being Found: If I search “XYZ Lawyer Boise” I see a slew of information that helps me both qualify and contact that specific lawyer. While I know XYZ Lawyer didn’t proactively drive these search results, it happened organically from his website and other web locations, (Linkedin, news articles, YouTube, etc.). Every lawyer should make sure their information is accurate and complete in the following locations:
- Your Business Website
- Google Plus
- Google Business Listing
- Yelp (I know folks don’t search lawyers on Yelp, but Yelp is a highly important search engine.)
- Bing Business Places
- Any lawyer specific listing sites
- Creating a “search brand” for folks looking for a specific service. Think, “Boise Estate Planning.” These are much harder search queries to be successful with as attorneys would need to spend a fair amount of time, effort and money to “rank” with these search queries. These tasks are true search engine optimization that play back into your website, social media posts and the content created on your website. I think it is a stretch for most attorneys to be successful here and challenge if it would ever produce a desirable ROI.
- If you are a personal injury attorney or have some other “consumer” facing practice, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can be very useful as it relates to folks specifically looking for legal services on the web. This differs from a “search brand” in that with this technique you are actually paying for those folks that click your search links.
My recommendation is that all attorneys should execute the first tip really well. You’ll need a current headshot, a short two-sentence bio, a longer 10-14 sentence bio, and your contact info. LeanLaw can assist with this task as it is simply setting up the appropriate social media sites and plugging in the information.
I would also suggest an attorney to consider a service like Refer.com. They help facilitate a process that drives referrals. This process will make sense to an attorney and work within their core competency. I am confident that it would outperform any social media marketing efforts.
Search engine optimization and social media marketing for small law firms are issues that every small law firm and solo law office need to deal with. LeanLaw can point you in the right direction, get you in front of experts and give you viable alternatives if online marketing for your law firm seems overwhelming. If you want this kind of thoughtful, curated-for-you advice, give us a call / email / IM at LeanLaw. Our mission is to help you have a lean law practice: efficient and cost effective.
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Gary Allen, Founder and Practicing Attorney
