What Social Media Platforms Should Your Law Firm Be Using?
There are plenty of new and trendy social media platforms popping up all the time. The latest platform to gain popularity being Parler (pronounced Par-lay; not to be confused with the dating app Parler). How do determine which platforms your law firm should be marketing on? The answer comes down to this: What social platforms is your target audience using? Those are the platforms your law firm should be conducting social media marketing on.
Let’s take a look at the top five social media platforms and the various demographics to help you figure out which ones are more valuable to your law firm. Bear in mind that all of these platforms are free to maintain a business page on and there’s no reason why your law firm couldn’t post to all of them.
Target Audience
Understanding who your target audience is can really help you succeed in social media marketing. For instance, one study showed that the divorce rate was highest between the ages of 20 to 24 for both men and women. Knowing that and further refining your target audience can help you understand which platforms would be your best option for targeting them on social media. Which platforms is that demographic using?
With over 2.41 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest of all social networks. If there was one platform to rule them all, Facebook would be it. Did you get our Lord of the Rings reference? (Proud nerd here!) When it comes to global visibility, Facebook is only outranked by Google and YouTube.
Out of the 2.41 billion monthly active users, 10% of them are Americans (approximately 241 million). Of those 241 million, approximately 71% of those American users are adults. That’s 171+ million American adult users of the platform and 171+ million potential clients out there.
Let’s break down Facebook users by demographic:
75% of women use Facebook and 63% of men use it. While there is a slight disparity amongst genders, there is a much wider disparity amongst age. Take a look:
18 – 24: 76%
25 – 29: 84%
30 – 49: 79%
50 – 64: 68%
65+: 46%
While the numbers may be lower for older adults, seniors are the fastest growing group of Facebook users. eMarketer predicts Facebook will see a 7% growth in the 65+ age bracket.
Looking to target those who are a bit wealthier? Facebook averages that about 74% of high-income earners maintain profiles on the platform.
It’s undeniable that Facebook is the platform to market on regardless of industry. Should your law firm maintain a business page on Facebook? Absolutely. Without question.
Ranked as the fifth most popular social media platform, there are approximately 675 million monthly active users with 167 million of them being Americans. That’s approximately 27% of Americans. Breaking down the demographics again, 57% of LinkedIn users are men with the remaining 43% being female.
Here’s another eye-opening number for you: 61% of LinkedIn users are between the ages of 25 to 34 years old.
While it may seem a platform employment lawyers would thrive on, it’s not just for employment lawyers. If your demographic lines up with those using this platform, then you should absolutely consider maintaining a business page on it.
There are roughly 330 million monthly active users on Twitter with about 145 million logging in daily. Of those 145 million, approximately 30 million daily users are American. Going back to highest rate of divorce per age bracket, remember the bracket was 20 to 24 years old. A whopping 44% of American daily users are between the ages of 18 – 24.
While there are naysayers out there who don’t believe marketing their law firm on Twitter will make a difference, it all comes down to who you’re marketing to and which strategies you’re employing. There are quite a number of law firms who have found success on Twitter.
Another platform that some attorneys don’t see value in. This platform is a visual one, centered around photos. While users have the ability to write a caption with the photo, the photo should be good enough to stand alone to get the point across as the caption is not the focal point of the post. However, couple that with the ability to use hashtags to reach a wider audience organically and you’re in for a treat.
I digress. Let’s get back to the numbers. There are approximately 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram with 110 million being located in the United States. That brings us to approximately 37% of American adults using the social platform. Instagram is by far more popular among younger demographics with 67% of users being between ages 18 – 29. 62% of users say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories.
Okay that’s great, what should I be doing on these platforms?
That is simple. Posting content. The more of it, the better. An idol Facebook page just makes it look like you don’t care about it, which in turn may say you don’t care about your clients too well either. You need to post content on these sites to be relevant. It’s not that hard. Stay tuned for our next blog post where we will talk about the best type of content to post on social media, how often, what type of content and more.
Social media marketing is part of the long haul unless you’re paying to advertise on it. Your next client may not need a lawyer today, but tomorrow they may find themselves in need. When the need arises, you want your law firm to be the first one to come to mind and social media can help with that. These days, social media is a necessary beast that you can bet your last dollar on your competition is already crushing it. For help with your social media marketing, get in touch with Precision Legal Marketing today.