I’ve read many articles over the past several months about social media and law firms and they typically carry the same misguided theme: social media success is about managing your posts, your fans, attracting more fans, and promoting good content. Don’t get me wrong, these goals may be worthwhile, but do they really help get business for your law firm?

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How Law Firms
Can Effectively
Use Social
Media To Reach
New Clients
By Matt Spiegel, Lawyer and General Manager of MyCase
I’ve read many articles over the past several months about social media and
law firms and they typically carry the same misguided theme: social media
success is about managing your posts, your fans, attracting more fans, and
promoting good content.
Don’t get me wrong, these goals may be worthwhile, but do they really help
get business for your law firm?
Do Facebook “Fans” Offer Value?
2
Targeted Social Media Advertising Pays Off
3
The Benefits Of Targeted Social Media Ads
4
© 2014 MyCase | How Law Firms Can Effectively Use Social Media To Reach New Clients
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Do Facebook “Fans” Offer Value?
Aside from personal referrals, how does a prospective client go about finding
a lawyer these days? For most consumer areas of practice such as criminal
defense, bankruptcy, personal injury, and family law, the answer is simple:
Google. The fact is clients aren’t going to sites like Facebook or LinkedIn
to search for lawyers because there’s really no way to do that effectively.
Sure, there’s a chance that they might happen to be fans of a lawyer’s page
and need a lawyer in the field that lawyer practices in. If that’s the case, then
great. But how did they become a fan of a lawyer’s page in the first place? The
answer is–not easily.
That’s because there are really only a few ways that people would be familiar
enough with a firm to become a fan of its Facebook page:
›› They are friends with the lawyer or someone who works at the law firm
›› They are a former client of the law firm.
›› They came across the law firm while searching online and discovered the
Facebook page on the firm’s website.
© 2014 MyCase | How Law Firms Can Effectively Use Social Media To Reach New Clients
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Targeted Social Media Advertising
Pays Off
In most cases, Facebook fans already know of the
law firm or have discovered it via a search inquiry.
The fact that a law firm has Facebook fans does
nothing to introduce the firm to potential clients
unaware of the firm’s existence. Facebook fans
are not what you need.
“91% of today’s online
adults use social media
regularly.”
— Experian
What you need is a targeted group of potential new
clients that are seeking help. Social media can help
you reach those people through highly targeted pay per click advertising. If
used properly, the pay per click features on social networking sites can
be relatively inexpensive and will yield very positive results.
Contrast this to the pay per click (PPC) spots on a search engine like Google.
Google is saturated with law firms struggling for organic positions and
bidding for PPC spots. These PPC spots certainly pay off in the form of new
clients, but at what cost? For the new lawyer trying to build a practice, the
cost of Google PPC is outrageous. In San Diego for example, DUI lawyer PPC
spots can run you around $40 per click! While this is a great way to get good
leads and is certainly much more effective than having a random fan on your
Facebook page, it is generally not cost effective. This is where PPC ads on
social media can make a big difference.
© 2014 MyCase | How Law Firms Can Effectively Use Social Media To Reach New Clients
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The Benefits Of Targeted
Social Media Ads
Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide users with
tools similar to Google PPC for advertising. The main
differences are cost and target. Cost is very affordable
on these sites. Most of the time you can get away with
good, targeted ads for between $1 and $2 per click on
both Facebook and LinkedIn.
“Facebook’s targeting
options help you
narrow down your
audience to help
increase the ROI on
your Facebook ads.”
— Hubspot
The other great benefit of social media advertising is the ability to reach
a highly targeted audience. Sure, with Google you can get keywords, but
as I mentioned, the better the keyword is for your practice areas, the more
expensive the click since every law firm is vying to benefit from those
keywords.
Plus, social media sites, particularly Facebook, give you the ability to specify
more about the people you want to reach. For example, you can target
potential clients by their job titles, gender, age, location, marital status,
etc. This type of targeted advertising is invaluable and the fact that it is
relatively cheap means it is a great way for new lawyers and small firms
to attract new clients. This advertising is also highly trackable, which is
imperative for any marketing venture.
© 2014 MyCase | How Law Firms Can Effectively Use Social Media To Reach New Clients
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Also important is the fact that, with these ads, you are able to direct the user
to your actual website or your Facebook page. I recommend sending them to
your website, since your website is designed to convert a potential client into a
new client. After all, isn’t that the purpose of placing an ad in the first place?
Sure, having fans on your Facebook page is wonderful, but it won’t help
you get clients TODAY! If that is your goal, as it should be for any solo or
small firm, the aspect of social media you want to focus on is the PPC
advertising. Set up a specifically targeted campaign with a tight budget and
give it a try. Make social media work to your advantage!
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Learn more at www.MyCase.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Matt Spiegel is the Vice President and General Manager of MyCase. He is an attorney in San Diego,
California and started his criminal defense law practice in 2009 after working for four years with one of
San Diego’s largest consumer law firms. As a practicing attorney and a founder of MyCase, he often
speaks at legal conferences regarding the ins and outs of running a law practice and on how cloud
computing technologies can benefit the legal profession. He can be reached at matt@mycase.com.
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© 2014 MyCase | How Law Firms Can Effectively Use Social Media To Reach New Clients
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