At the start of the last decade, the social media buzzword was Facebook for law firms. There was a push towards glossy imagery, fancy slogans and a lot of jargon. Pages gained significant growth by posting content less focused on law and more focused on presenting their business in a positive light.
Moreover, a large number of law firms waded into more viral content. This did achieve the goal of breaking down some of the stigma of the legal industry being stuffy and boring. More to the point also directly challenged and in some cases went against certain law firm’s brand identity.
3 Factors that has affected Facebook for Law Firms:
This approach to Facebook transcended past just the legal industry. A lot of small, medium and large businesses invested significant resources in developing a prominent audience. However, with the passing of time, the value of this audience has depreciated significantly. This is due to three main factors:
- Users have begun logging onto Facebook much less frequently, as other social media platforms become available.
- The cost of advertising on Facebook has increased despite little being done to weed out problematic bot users.
- Businesses are shifting their focus towards marketing on LinkedIn.
All three of these factors have changed the perception of Facebook for law firms. Rather than an essential presence, it’s now seen as a millstone. Pages with large followings often fail to attract huge numbers of organic engagements. What’s more, law firms can’t just simply abandon their Facebook page. It is still important to their brand identity. It represents a previous investment and time commitment that law firms cannot waste. Some law firms may have large followings that they can still harness too.
It’s important to break up each of these separate factors and analyse in more detail how they have affected Facebook for law firms.
Less Frequent Logins
Facebook’s status as the dominant law firm is now hotly disputed. A string of problems relating to security and free speech drove users away. Although Facebook experienced a renaissance in the pandemic, this is dying down too. More law firms are moving to Twitter due to the instant nature of the network. Moreover, LinkedIn is also becoming a more important platform for marketing. As the most ‘professional’ social media device for law firms to use, it has become the dominant force.
Advertising Costs
The late 2000s and early 2010s saw a social media marketing boom. Costs were cheap, rewards were high and data quality was less important. However, increasingly smaller budgets mean that decisions need to be tactical rather than spur of the moment. Facebook advertising for law firms has been affected. It’s no longer easy to cheaply build a following of 10s of thousands of targeted users. Moreover, the IOS data changes make it even harder to access the quality of Facebook data.
The LinkedIn Shift
It’s not just users that have moved to LinkedIn. Advertising on Facebook for law firms has been displaced by different platforms. For one, Google Ads represents a much stronger and cheaper opportunity for a consistent quality lead pipeline. More to the point, with decision-makers increasingly finding their time stretched, they are spending more time on LinkedIn due to the professional nature of the platform. Consequently, it makes sense for law firms to advertise their services there more as they have the best chance of speaking to decision-makers.
Does this mean Facebook for law firms is finished?
Whilst Facebook for law firms is no longer as important as it used to be, it still can’t be completely discounted. As explained before, the time and spend most law firms have put into building platforms needs to show an ROI. In part, there is an expectation for every business to have a Facebook page. It needs to be up to date from a pure professional point of view. This is especially true for law firms. People’s expectations of law firms are that they are organised, polished and succinct. That means having the wrong location information on your social media, or incorrect opening times is only going to reflect poorly on your law firm.
Additionally, Facebook can still be useful from a recruitment point of view. Firstly, the average age of users on Facebook still remains relatively low. Although it is rising, this is a generation that have grown up using the platform. As a result, they are going to be reaching ages when they are able to work and thusly are looking for opportunities. Making working for your law firm look attractive on Facebook can be a ‘free’ marketing USP when it comes to recruitment.
Answering The Content Question
The real point about using Facebook for law firms now is less is more. People are still not interested in hugely complex explanations. They baulk at jargon. The best law firms are using Facebook as a primarily visual platform now. Multimedia activities such as videos, animations and infographics are going to be much more effective in explaining and reassuring users than long paragraphs. They are also going to keep people’s attention for longer and increase the chance of a click to the website.
In part, this brings us back to the ROI point above. Law firms with a big audience on Facebook can maximise whatever value is left in this audience by always including strong positive calls to action. Through digital analytics, they can review which calls to action resonate strong enough with users, and then either replicate these in future social media content or alternatively mimic them in website content. Moreover, this can help improve the historic ROI of your law firm’s Facebook page.
Facebook for Law Firms: The Sun is Not Down Yet
Although Facebook for law firms is not the integral social media engine that some perceived in the last ten years, it is still important. From a brand perspective, it allows law firms to display the softer, more human side of their business. It also offers profound multimedia benefits for law firms that are ambitious to trial it. Facebook now, when paired with other more modern social media platforms still offers opportunities for significant marketing successes.
If you want to discuss how viewing Facebook in a new light could benefit your law firm, or want to find out what other aspects of legal marketing Boss Digital can assist you with, get in touch today.
