Today, law firms seeking to capture leads and expand their reach on Facebook need a marketing strategy that includes both organic and paid endeavors. 

Organic Facebook Strategies

For the past few years, organic reach on Facebook has dropped significantly and the site’s latest news feed update means that businesses will find it virtually impossible to build an audience through traditional posts alone.

So does this mean you should abandon posting on Facebook altogether? No, you just need to know how to create posts that encourage engagement and sharing.

According to BuzzSumo research of more than 800 million Facebook posts provided the following insights on engagement:                                                                                                           

• The most highly engaging posts were those that featured video, images and questions.
• The most shareable posts were those featuring video.
• The most engaging posts had less than 50 characters.
• Posts on Sunday enjoyed more engagement than other days of the week.
• Posts linking to longer pieces of content outside Facebook got more engagement.
• Images posted directly to Facebook got more engagement than images posted to Facebook through Instagram.

It’s clear that if you want to stay engaged with your audience on Facebook, you must incorporate video into your law firm posts. One of the best ways to do this is to create short (40-60-second) clips that answer the most common questions your target audience has in your practice area. You know what these are — you are asked them every day. Write them down, create a short script, and get on camera with the answers.

If you give a speech or host a webinar, be sure you have a recording that you can grab some relevant sound bites from and link to the entire presentation on your YouTube channel.

Another avenue for you to explore is Facebook Live, where viewers can interact with you live during your presentation. Consider hosting a session like “Ask a (your practice area) Lawyer” where you answer viewer questions live on Facebook. You will need to promote your Facebook Live session before it happens with both organic and paid posts so you attract an audience. Facebook Live is not for the faint of heart, but can be a great way to connect in real-time with your target market.

Paid Facebook Strategies

Probably the most compelling thing about paid advertising on Facebook is the ability to target an audience with pinpoint accuracy. The more details you know about your ideal client, the better you will be able to target others that fit that profile with Facebook ads.

You can start small by creating an impactful post that extends an offer to download an ebook, attend a webinar or sign up for your newsletter. Once you publish the post, you will see a blue“Boost Post” button — click on that and follow the prompts to set your budget ($50 or so should do it), choose how long your boosted post will run, and customize your audience from these three options:

• People who like your Facebook page
• People who like your Facebook page plus their friends
• People you can choose by geographic location, age, gender, behavior and interests.

You’ll need to take people who click on the link to a form on your website, blog or landing page to redeem your offer by submitting their email address — which becomes a new lead for you!

Creating a Facebook ad is just as easy. Start at facebook.com/business and click on “Create an ad.” You then choose your objective from several choices (lead generation, conversions, awareness, etc.) and then follow the prompts to select your audience, budget and schedule. You can also upload your email list of current clients if you want to market to them, or a list of leads you’ve been nurturing. Facebook also provides you with the option of targeting visitors to your website, which is a great way to remarket to that group of prospects.

Visuals are just as important for ads as they are for organic posts, so be sure the image you choose for your ad is an attention-grabber. You can also create a video ad — learn how at facebook.com/business/m/facebook-video-ads.

Combining organic posts and paid ads is the best — and some now say, the only — way to effectively promote your law firm on Facebook.