Social media, where it earns its place
For a lot of professional firms, social media is the least productive place to spend a marketing budget. Where it does work, it usually works for one specific reason.
Get your free audit
The problem
An honest starting position
Someone looking for a solicitor after a difficult event does not find one on Instagram. They search. So for most firms, search should be funded first and social should come after, if at all.
Where social does earn its place, it is normally one of three things: recruitment, because good candidates look at your feed before they apply; referral relationships, particularly on LinkedIn, where the audience is other professionals who send work your way; or a genuine local presence, where a firm is part of a town rather than just located in one.
If none of those apply to you, I will tell you, and suggest you put the money into search instead.
Scope
What is included
Channel strategy
Which platforms are worth your time and, more usefully, which are not. Most firms should be on fewer than they currently are.
Content production
Written and scheduled around what your firm actually does, including the recruitment and referral angles that tend to be neglected.
LinkedIn for referral networks
Usually the highest-value channel for a professional firm, and the one most often handled as an afterthought.
Paid social where it fits
Recruitment campaigns and local awareness, mainly. Not lead generation for high-consideration legal or financial services, where the intent is not there.
Reporting
What it produced. If the honest answer is very little, that is what the report will say and we will change the plan.
What happens next
What happens after you get in touch
- Step 01
Audit
Your site, your rankings, your ad account and your analytics, and a written account of what is wrong. You get the report whether or not you hire me.
- Step 02
Agree the target
One number we are both working to, usually cost per enquiry or enquiries per month. Not sessions, not impressions, not rankings on their own.
- Step 03
Do the work
Technical fixes first, because content on a broken site does nothing. Then the pages and campaigns that go after the searches worth having.
- Step 04
Report monthly
What moved, why it moved, what happens next, and an honest note on anything that cannot be measured.
How the engagement works
What you are committing to
Google Ads for law firms has published pricing. For everything else I give a fixed monthly figure after the free audit, because it depends on your site and your market. What can be said up front is the shape of it.
- Term
- No minimum term. Thirty days' written notice, either way, at any time. Set out in the terms of business.
Straight answers
Common questions
- Should my firm be on social media at all?
- Possibly not, or at least not on all of it. Ask what you want it to do. If the answer is enquiries from people ready to instruct, search will almost certainly do it better and cheaper.
- What about compliance?
- Everything published is written to your regulator's rules on advertising and client communication, and comes to you for approval before it goes out. Nothing is posted without sign-off.
- Can you guarantee follower growth?
- I can grow a follower count. It is one of the easiest numbers to move and one of the least connected to revenue, which is why I would rather be measured on something else.
- Do you handle recruitment content?
- Yes, and for many firms it is the strongest argument for doing social at all. Candidates research a firm before applying, and an empty or neglected feed reads badly.
Other services
Free audit
Find out what Social media would change for your firm
A written audit of your site, your rankings and your ad account, back within five working days, plus a call to walk through it.
Get your free auditNo obligation to go further, and plenty of firms do not.