The more you can tell people about what you do, show them your knowledge, gain their trust, the more clients you’ll eventually acquire. The advantage of posting your content to social media services is that you expand your reach exponentially each time you utilize a different service. Consider the math: If you have 5000 followers on Twitter, 3000 connections on LinkedIn and 1500 friends on Facebook, every time you post something on those channels, you have the potential to reach 9500 people. And then, if any of those people repost what you’ve posted, you have access to their networks, and from there the numbers expand exponentially. It used to be that lawyers would have to go through a long-term editing process and find a magazine to publish something. Now, you can publish anything you want, anytime you want, while simultaneously developing a larger reach than those old school publication methods offered.
And, setting up profiles on social media services is straightforward — far easier than creating a website, which itself is becoming easier than ever to do. Once you have a professional photo and a logo, just follow the prompts for any service to develop a page for your business — keeping in mind that some business pages are valuable (Facebook) while others are not (LinkedIn). Even if you plan on remaining solo, or using your personal social media accounts for exclusively professional purposes, just claim accounts for your business name, in case you need them at some point in the future.
When your accounts are established, develop a publication schedule for your social media posting, just as you would for posting to your blog. And, if you’re having trouble effectively managing many different platforms, use a social media management tool, like HootSuite or Buffer, to login and post to different services at the same time.
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If you want to start your own law firm, join me for an exclusive workshop, coming up in Boston (August 24-26) and New York (September 7-9).
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]]>Ancillary costs related to the ownership of a website are not going to break the bank or your back, either. Domain names can be purchased for about $10/year, and can be scheduled for automatic renewal. Costs for website hosting (how your website gets published online) are around $10/month. And, that’s about all you need.
That all sounds simple, and it is; but, there are some other considerations related to website design, that may (and probably should) lead you down the path of having someone else design yours.
First, when you’re starting a practice, it makes sense to focus your time on converting your existing network to your new brand and performing the best possible work for your new clients. If you’re experienced in building a website, it’s gonna be a frustrating drag on your time. Assuming you finalize the content quickly enough — which is always the biggest issue for completing and publishing a law firm website — your new website will be published in short order, if you’re using a reputable vendor. Second, you’re not likely to have the up-to-date skill set to be able to optimize your website for SEO/SEM, and you may want a vendor to manage that for you, as well. Third, managing updates to themes and plug-ins can be a pain; and, contracting with a vendor will allow you to offload that responsibility. Fourth, if you’re using a specific theme to build your law firm website, there’s a bunch of other business who will be using the same theme, such that having a vendor code and build a website just for you will differentiate you from the crowd. If you do choose a vendor to work with, just make sure to buy and renew your own domain name, because unscrupulous vendors will attempt to buy it for you, and then to sell it back to you at an exorbitant rate before releasing you from a contract.
Your website should be the hub of all of your online activity, and to where you funnel all your clients. Make sure you take the time to do it right or hire right, to get the best online home you can.
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If you want to start your own law firm, join me for an exclusive workshop, coming up in Boston (August 24-26) and New York (September 7-9).
For more information, visit the official site: www.buildyourownlawfirm.com.
Social media hashtag: #BYOLF.
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]]>Whenever you launch a new business, you’re building a new brand. No matter what you’re doing now, you did something else before. And, you’ll remain associated with that something else until you begin to inform, and then to remind, people of what you’re doing now. Even if you’re launching a law firm right out of law school, prior to doing that, maybe you were the hostess at Olive Garden. That’s still an association you have to break, to create your new brand.
As alluded to above, the first step is to inform, and the second step is to remind. And, the usual method lawyers use to inform old and new clients about new endeavors is the opening announcement. Traditionally, this was effectively an advertisement, appearing in a local newspaper and potentially a local trade publication. But, those broad announcements have diminished in effectiveness as the circulation of traditional newspapers have diminished. That’s not to say that you ignore or eschew that option; but, you should supplement it, by sending out an announcement to your own list.
Now, what your list is, is an open question. In the first instance, you’ll likely have an email contact list of friends, families, colleagues, past clients, existing clients, etc. If that list is not robust, or not well-manicured — then, build it up as much as you can before you send to it. If t makes sense to construct tailored messages for, say, colleagues versus past clients, then segregate those sublists and build the separate messages. When you’re ready to send something out, use an email marketing tool, like ConstantContact or MailChimp, to create a better template, allow your list to utilize unsubscribe options and access analytics. Remember, though, that your opening announcement via email should be just the start of your email marketing campaign. You should next develop a publication schedule for an enewsletter or regular client alerts. But, remember that your contact points no longer exist solely in email — so, whatever you post to your personal email network, create a version of that opening announcement that gets blasted to your social media profiles, as well.
Building a new brand is a long process, that takes years. But, it starts with a first step.
. . .
If you want to start your own law firm, join me for an exclusive workshop, coming up in Boston (August 24-26) and New York (September 7-9).
For more information, visit the official site: www.buildyourownlawfirm.com.
Social media hashtag: #BYOLF.
Visit our Sponsors: