Facebook’s news feed has evolved to promote more content that creates meaningful engagement and interactions among users. This means law firms and other businesses who use Facebook need to do a thorough evaluation of their strategy in order for their content to continue showing up in users’ news feeds. It also means they will likely need to allocate a budget to Facebook ads and promoted posts to remain visible. As with any law firm marketing strategies, adjustments will constantly need to be made with social media, but here’s what you need to know.
Organic Reach for Brands Is Decreasing
It now takes more than just relevant, high quality content for law firms to remain visible on the social media platform. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was recently quoted, “You’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.” Although brands can still reach some followers with their regular content, we see the organic reach of those posts decline. Law firms should get used to the idea of having to pay to be seen on Facebook. However, quality of content still remains important.
Types of Posts Facebook Will Demote
Facebook has cracked down on posts that appear to be authentic and engaging, but are actually just considered engagement bait. An example of this type of post would be if the title of the post or article is “Chat With A Lawyer to Make A New Friend,” but the actual content of the post only talks about lawyer fees and specific case examples. The title is misleading, because it suggests the company wants to be interactive with users, but the reality is it’s just baiting the user into clicking on the link so they can get another page view. The main reason for demoting these posts is so businesses don’t take advantage of Facebook’s algorithm – they boost their reach by enticing people to click, but don’t provide any value in return.
Match Headlines With Authentic Content
The best marketers will always push authenticity with any post or advertisement when marketing for the legal sector component that can get law firms in trouble with Facebook is creating authentic content, but displaying it improperly. For example, don’t write a headline stating how a lawyer saved someone’s life, when the reality is they just won a specific case for them. While winning the case could have transformed the person’s life for the better, the catchy headline suggests the lawyer did a heroic action to prevent the person from actually losing their life. Matching the headline with the actual content is what Facebook wants, so clickbait headlines will be ineffective and demoted quickly.
Quality Content Generation
The best law firm marketing strategy you can have is consistently creating high quality content that’s useful, intuitive, resourceful and engaging for your readers. What’s not considered high quality content is advertising messages focused on self-promotion, clickbait headlines or engagement bait designed solely to boost page views. In other words, your content should provide enough value for your audience so they will stay on the page longer and visit it voluntarily since it is a valuable resource.
If you’ve already adopted this strategy, you’re on the right track! But if your strategy has been more focused on engagement bait, clickbait or self-promotion to boost views and reach, then some alterations will need to be made.
The benefits of creating high quality content goes beyond extending reach on social media. These pieces of content are owned by you and can be placed on your website to drive traffic, improve SEO rankings and more. The more people who visit your website for engaging content, the more you will be viewed as an expert in the industry. You will likely see an increase in your business over time as a result.
Roux manages media planning and buying for businesses in nearly every industry. In our 20+ years of experience, we have helped law firms extend their reach organically through various strategies tailored to their specific needs. We are always available to help you by providing advice, expertise, research, analysis and strategic planning to maximize your marketing dollar. Contact us to learn how we can help you.