Marketing and Advertising: Social Media for Law Firms

STACEY E. BURKE
ATTORNEY/OWNER

4615 SOUTHWEST FREEWAY
SUITE 850
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77027
MOBILE (713) 225-8621
FAX (877) 314-9990
STACEY@STACEYEBURKE.COM
WWW.STACEYEBURKE.COM

Marketing and
Advertising: Social
Media for Law Firms
18th Annual Insurance Law Institute
The University of Texas School of Law  The
Insurance Law Section of the State Bar of
Texas
Nov 7-8, 2013
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Houston, TX

Social Media Channels: Overview
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FACEBOOK

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– Facebook has over 1 billion users, 42 million pages, and over 15 million business
pages.
– Facebook is the largest online social network, boasting 1.11 billion users.
– Over half of the United States is on Facebook, 52.9% of Americans.
GOOGLE PLUS

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– G+ is Google’s own social media creation.
– While Google Plus has only 343 million users, Google is not going anywhere, and
it gives credence to its own content
INSTAGRAM
– Instagram boasts over 150 million users and counting
– An average of 40 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day

www.staceyeburke.com

Social Media Channels: Overview
•

LINKEDIN

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– Over 238 million users and 40% of them check LinkedIn daily
– Maintaining professional relationships, an online resume
TWITTER

•

– Only 7 years old and has 500 million users.
– 32% of all Internet users use Twitter, and 175 million tweets were sent from Twitter
each day throughout 2012
YOUTUBE
– YouTube has over 1 billion total users with 4 billion video views each day
– 500 years of YouTube video are watched each day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube
videos are shared on Twitter each minute


Social Media Channels: Facebook
• Customize your URL
• Make sure your firm has a “Page” not a “Profile”
or a “Group”
• Share your blog posts, press
coverage, videos, and relevant content from
related professional associations and other law
firms
• Facebook advertising
• #Hashtags (#law #lawyers #oilgas #hounews)
• Tag users and other Pages in your posts for
increased exposure

Social Media Channels: Google Plus
• Google loves itself
• If you are included in a large number of circles
on Google+, that will increase your
AuthorRank and overall Google Authorship
• Google Hangouts
• Even more #Hashtags
• Tagging or +’ing other users

Social Media Channels: Instagram
• Photo sharing social media
• You can simultaneously and directly feed out
Instagram photos into your other social channels
• Image based social sharing gets 94% more total
views and 37% more user engagement because
users prefer a quick look at something, rather than
having to read – “instant gratification”
• Yet again use #Hashtags
• Tag other users in posts
• Facebook acquired Instagram for $1B in 2012.

Social Media Channels: LinkedIn
• Online resume – the part of your LinkedIn profile
that is most important is your
career, jobs, education, and other skills. Build it
out with SEO-driven copywriting.
• Optimize the 120-character Headline to the right
of your profile photo
• Customize your URL
• Link up your Employment section to the
appropriate Company Page(s)
• Build out your Company Page

Social Media Channels: Twitter
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Brand your profile, including your handle
Link back to your law firm website
Follow back
Yes, #Hashtags again
@’s (mentions) and DM’s (direct messages)
Twitter Lists
Interacting with the media
If you are only self-promoting, you are doing it
wrong!

Social Media Channels: YouTube
• Google owns YouTube and it is the second most used
search engine online
• YouTube videos auto-populate your Google+ profile if
you set it up correctly
• Transcribe the spoken words within your video content
for great SEO
• YouTube isn’t just for video you make yourself – use
your channel to repurpose your television
advertisements, speaking engagements, and news
coverage
• YouTube advertising

Social Media& Your Law Firm Website
• Include social sharing functionality on your blog
and throughout your website
• Include links to all of your social media channels
in the footer of your website and/or in another
design element such as a right column


Social Media Protocol
• Use a professional voice and tone
• Always be aware of client confidentiality and
inadvertently forming an attorney-client
relationship
• How to respond to client communications
• How to respond to new lead communications
• How to respond to external lawyer
communications
• How to respond to media and press
communications

Lawyer Directory Listings: Overview
Digital Branding for the Individual Lawyer

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Avvo – PR6
Best Lawyers – PR6
Chambers – PR6
Justia – PR7
Legal 500 – PR6

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Martindale – PR7
RocketLawyer – PR6
State Bar of Texas – PR7
Super Lawyers – PR7


Online Lawyer Directory Listings: Avvo
• How do I sign up? http://www.avvo.com/freelawyer-advertising
• Avvo empowers consumers to rate lawyers
• Member lawyers answer questions for free online
• Avvo profiles contain helpful information
including experience, background, disciplinary
history, and reviews from clients and peers.
• The Avvo algorithm
• Avvo paid advertising

Online Lawyer Directory Listings:
Chambers
• Chambers is one of the most legitimate ratings
and listings systems both on and offline.
• They have a team of over 140 full-time
researchers who conduct thousands of interviews
with lawyers and their clients worldwide.
• They publish “guides” internationally.
• The value of this listing will depend greatly upon
your practice area and how much B2B marketing
you do in your practice.

Online Lawyer Directory Listings: Justia
• The Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII)
is a not-for-profit group that publishes law online for free on a
highly-ranked website. Its site is directly associated with the Justia
online lawyer directory.
• LII and Justia pass along “link juice” to each other.
• All searchers on LII’s website looking for legal information and news
are offered the chance to find a lawyer for free. If you are not
listed, your name isn’t an option for them to find.
• Justia and Cornell require a Letter of Good Standing or other
applicable item to be listed.
• How do I get listed? Visit www.lawyers.justia.com/new-profile.


Martindale-Hubbell
• Does the AV rating matter anymore? Do
clients know what it means?
• The majority of the profiles on their website
are not fully built out.
• While this was one of the first online lawyer
directories, it has become a dinosaur.
• More appropriate for B2B than B2C marketing.


State Bar of Texas
• If you are licensed, you are on their website for
free, so build out your profile and keep it current.
• You can include your website, the ability to
contact you via email, information about your
practice, and your social network profiles.


Super Lawyers
Basic Free Listing
• If you win Rising Star or
Super Lawyers, you are
automatically listed on the
website for free, with a
basic listing.
• Even if you claim and build
the listing out behind the
scenes, the data does not
show up online unless you
graduate to a paid listing.

Expanded or Premium Listing
• Expanded – You should pay
for this. Super Lawyers
listings show up on page
one of organic search
results.
• Premium – New listing to
get lawyers to spend even
more money basically on
pie charts. For now, go with
Expanded.


Super Lawyers Profile (FREE)
• Michael Murray, a lawyer from Watts Guerra
does not have a paid listing. This is what his
unpaid listing looks like.

Super Lawyers Expanded Profile (PAID)
• Mikal Watts has paid for his expanded listing

Inbound Traffic and BackLinks from
Social Media and Directories

• Inbound traffic:

– 2013 digital marketing surveys indicate that social
media and SEO efforts drive the majority of inbound
website traffic.
– The top three traffic drivers are
Facebook, LinkedIn, and a company blog.

• Backlinks:
– Backlinks are high-ranking website links “back” to your
website
– The lawyer directory listings mentioned herein (and
Google Places) are a great start.

Stacey E. Burke:
Lawyer/Marketer
• You can find me on Social Media + Blogging:
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http://www.Facebook.com/MarketingLawyers
http://www.Twitter.com/StaceyEBurke
http://www.LinkedIn.com/In/StaceyEBurke
https://plus.google.com/109980758416052073
177/posts
– http://www.slideshare.net/staceyburke/
– http://www.staceyeburke.com/blog/


STACEY E. BURKE
ATTORNEY/OWNER
4615 SOUTHWEST FREEWAY, SUITE 850
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77027
OFFICE (713) 714-8446
FAX (877) 314-9990
STACEY@STACEYEBURKE.COM
WWW.STACEYEBURKE.COM

Marketing and Advertising: Social Media for Law Firms

Marketing and Advertising: Social Media for Law Firms

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