Leveraging Social Advertising for Attorneys

 Posted on December 09,2014 in Campaigns

Social media marketing has no intention of losing pace in today’s fast world of technological brand building and marketing. As the Social Media Examiner reports, the lure of social media remains an intriguing fascination for the U.S. consumer, who spend at least 37 minutes per day on either Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The lure remains so strong that 57 percent of all online marketers relied heavily on the placement of social media ads in 2013, with numbers expected to rise by 23 percent by the end of 2014.

The legal community is not immune to this trend. According to the 2013 American Bar Association Technology Report, social media marketing utilized by all levels of practicing attorneys is becoming more important than ever. No longer is social media a mere concept, but law firms are working to create an effective marketing plan involving social advertising to increase leads and grow practices.

One of the advancing methods of effective social media marketing is social media ad development and placement. For those in the legal field still becoming familiar with social media, the following three examples of effective social media platforms serve as a primer of what is available.

Facebook Advertising

Features that attorneys can take advantage of when leveraging Facebook ads include:

App Engagement - directs targeted audience to utilize desktop app,

App Installs - motivates the installation of mobile or desktop app,

Clicks to Website - directs traffic to a specific website,

Event Responses - requests and increases online event attendance,

Page Likes - encourages like clicks to encourage growth of demographic audience,

Page Post Engagement - increases traffic to well-performing posts,

Video Views - increasing traffic to professional website videos,

Website Conversions - directs traffic to website via specific conversational topics.

LinkedIn Advertising

Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn's advertising platform offers companies a way to promote their business with the following features:

Direct Sponsored Updates - updates appear in timelines of targeted demographic,

Sponsored InMail - email marketing delivering sponsored content directly to inboxes,

Premium Display Ads - able to share content with targeted demographic via display ads.

Twitter Advertising

Advertising on Twitter allows brands to use 140 characters to promote their brand and may include:

Promoted Account -  invites members of targeted demographic to follow one’s brand,

Promoted Trends - utilizes popular topics to engage a targeted demographic,

Promoted Tweets - prompts instant messages to a specific targeted demographic.

Although Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are viewed as perhaps the top contenders, StumbleUpon, Instagram and Pinterest are also other avenues attorneys may consider in their pursuit of .

Determining the best course of ad development and placement first requires a composite understanding of how ads are specifically developed. Not only should quality social ads engage a targeted audience, but it is important to understand how ads are sold, budget considerations and the best platforms to achieve a favorable return on investment or ROI.

If you have questions about strategic ad placement, the experienced team of OVC, INC. has the answers. Since 2008, OVC has assisted attorneys with online marketing by offering personal and cost-effective online marketing strategies. For more information on ad development and placement, contact our office at 630-635-8000 today.

About the Author: Greg Wildman is the President of OVC, INC. Since 1999, Greg has developed hundreds of websites for attorneys from his company's inception as Online Video Concepts, LLC to the modern era's OVC, INC. Greg's knowledge of law firm marketing has helped many attorneys establish online presences through custom website development, Search Engine Optimization, legal directory partnerships, social media marketing, content writing and more.