Social Media Platforms for Attorneys: What’s the Difference?

Not all social media platforms are made the same, and they do not all serve the same purpose. It is important to keep this in mind, particularly for law firms and attorneys where professionalism is key. It is also important to make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew, regardless of the platform. If this means committing to only one or two social media platforms on a consistent schedule, this will look much more professional than posting irregularly on every platform. When trying to decide which social media platforms may be useful to you or your firm, it’s important to take the time to understand what kind of content users turn to that platform for.

Some of the most popular social media platforms for attorneys include:

• Facebook: According to Statista, Facebook reported almost 1.82 billion daily active users for just one quarter of 2020. Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms of attorneys and law firms. Many of the people looking for an attorney expect to find some sort of presence on this platform where they can go to learn more about potential legal representation. The type of content which can be shared on Facebook is diverse; from short posts, to web pages, blogs, articles, videos, and funny relevant pictures, this is considered one of the simplest forms of social media to use.
• Twitter: According to Oberlo, Twitter has an everage of 145 million daily active users. Twitter is another popular social media platform in which users can post status updates of no more than a few sentences; hashtags are a key tool on this platform, and when used in conjunction with a post, can help people browsing a particular subject area to be directed to your page. The same type of content which can be used on Facebook can often be shared here as well, although the post itself must often be cut down for length, and hashtags should be added for optimum visibility.
• LinkedIn: According to Hootesuite, LinkedIn has 675 million monthly users. People tend to use LinkedIn on a less frequent basis than other social media sources, but go there looking for industry-specific information. LinkedIn is a unique social media platform, as it is almost exclusively used by professionals and for professional reasons. This is a good way for colleagues and industry professionals to stay connected, look for employment opportunities, and share employment opportunities. If your field of law is particularly relevant to a certain industry, it’s a good idea to post industry-specific content here. Hashtags can also be used on LinkedIn to drive traffic to your page.
• Instagram: According to Statista, Instagram has 500 million daily active users. This has been growing in popularity in recent years, with all kinds of businesses branching out and creating accounts. However, the content which can be shared on Instagram differs greatly from the above three platforms. It is difficult to recycle material for Instagram, as most of the content on this platform is in the form of images or videos. This could be a good place to share funny lawyer memes, pictures of an office pet, and short Q&A videos, but articles, blogs, and longer videos generally don’t belong here. If you or your firm decides to start an Instagram page, it’s important to keep things light, professional, and relevant, even when sharing a funny picture of a dog wearing glasses.

Across any of the above platforms, the same rules apply. Any type of content should be informative or entertaining. It is also particularly important to maintain consistency above all else. Decide on what kind of schedule you want to stick to with your chosen platform; how many times can you commit to posting a week? What type of content do you intend on posting? Are you going to create your own content, or primarily share content from other sources? Even if you only post once a week on your chosen platform, this will be more effective over time than posting haphazardly whenever you remember. To learn more about attorney online marketing, talk to AskTheLawyers™.