When it comes to marketing, I believe in measuring everything. The conundrum many marketers have when it comes to social media is how to measure it since social media delivers as many if not more intangibles than it does tangible things like clicks, likes and visits.

If your law firm is already participating in social media, you may want to consider these 10 ways that your firm could already be benefitting:

1. Brand building. Since social media is your unfiltered voice, you have a great opportunity to build your brand.

2. Community. Social media is all about cultivating a community and engaging in a dialogue with prospects and clients who will tell you what they need and want from your firm. This is a great way to gather meaningful market research.

3. Exposure. I talk about the Law of 7 all the time – it takes a minimum of 7 exposures for a prospect to decide to make a purchase. Social media gives you a number of different avenues for getting repeat exposure.

4. Authority. Social media helps you establish authority in your area of practice.

5. Influence. As you build your authority, your influence grows – and the larger the audience, the greater the influence.

6. Traffic. Social media drives traffic to your website or blog, giving you an opportunity to gather contact information so you can engage directly with prospects.

7. Relevance. Prospects and clients are already checking to see if you are represented in social media whether or not you realize it. You risk being viewed as behind the times if you are not engaging them on major social media sites.

8. Mindshare. You will probably never know how you are affecting people on social media, but you can bet you won’t have any chance of gaining mindshare if you don’t engage at all.

9. One-up your competitors. There are lots of lawyers who are still not participating in social media, which provides you with a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

10. Big wins. If a social media contact refers you on a big case or you get a call from a major media outlet to comment on something you’ve posted, that’s a big win. They don’t happen often, but when they do, they make your social media investment incredibly worthwhile.