Even though I have been talking to lawyers about social media for years, I am still amazed how the pushback I get from some attorneys who swear their prospects and clients are not on social media.

What I have come to realize is that these attorneys who don’t “believe” in social media are really just afraid of what they don’t understand.  These are usually people who themselves are not on social media, so they don’t think any of their clients are there either.

Please remember, you are not your client.

Deny all you want, social media is not going away.  So you can either embrace it and reap the benefits or continue to ignore it and keep placing those good old Yellow Pages ads.  There are so many resources out there for you to explore and learn how to harness social media for marketing your law firm that you can quickly alleviate your fear through knowledge.

Just like many things in life, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things when it comes to social media.  And since the landscape is ever changing, marketers that don’t keep on top of the latest trends can do themselves and the clients they serve no small harm when they do it wrong.

Three surefire ways to succeed at social media marketing include:

Participate.  Social media is just that:  social!  Which means you have to participate.  Just like you wouldn’t attend a networking function and sit in a corner saying nothing to no one, you can’t just throw up a page on Facebook or LinkedIn and call it a day.  At the Rainmaker Institute, we add new content to our social media pages and blog every day, respond to those who make a comment and always strive to engage our followers in a conversation.  This is what it’s all about.  If you just have a social media page for your law firm that is devoid of relevant, recent content, you are NOT engaged in social media marketing.  In fact, you are basically telling prospects you have nothing to say.

Set goals.  As I’ve always said, hope is not a business strategy.  Simply putting up a post on your social media pages and hoping for the best means you have no goal for your social media marketing.  And with no goal, you have no program.

Measure.  The purpose of any marketing program is to deliver measurable results, whether that measurement is in terms of increased leads, sales or even improved SEO.  Too often, marketers fall in love with their number of “likes” and “+1s” without discerning if these really add anything to the bottom line.  We see social media as a means to an end, not as an end in and of itself – and the end should be more leads delivered through engaging on these forums.  It takes time and effort, but don’t most good things in life?

To make this the year you do something really great to grow your law firm, check out the infographic below from digital marketing agency Open Minds, produced using data from the 2015 Social Media Industry Report by Social Media Examiner. It provides the latest information on the top social media trends, so you can learn what is succeeding for marketers already fully engaged in social media every day.