Where Should Laywers Begin With Social Media?

Perhaps you've dipped your toes in the world of social networking and set up profiles, accounts, and uploaded your photo.

You now may be asking yourself - Now What?

First of all I want to congratulate you on taking the first steps toward leveraging social media and social networking to grow your business.

Second, know that you are not alone in not understanding how to effectively use this technology to grow your law practice.

Let’s start at the beginning….

First you must believe one key piece of information - Estate Planning clients are looking for you through social media.

If you don’t believe me, listen to this:

According to a 2008 Cone Business In Social Media Study, 60 percent of Americans use social media, and of those, 93 percent believe a company should have a presence in social media.

Oftentimes, after attorneys are convinced that they need to use social media marketing, they begin by creating a Facebook profile and fan page, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn account, and quickly become frustrated by the amount of time necessary to really be effective in using this technology. There is a good reason for this….they did everything backwards!

If you were building a house would you begin by hammering nails into wood? Of course not! You would start with a PLAN.

Social media marketing is just like any other significant effort. You begin at the beginning! This means that you must walk through the steps of a plan that I’ve developed that will help you determine exactly what applications you should be using and where you should be spending your time online. The four steps involve:

1. Identifying Your Audience

2. Identifying Your Objectives

3. Creating Your Strategy

4. Executing Your Strategy

By following these four steps, you will maximize your efforts online and spend your time at quality sites, reaching your target audience.

I will be posting a series of four hubs that will describe each step in details. So, stay tuned!