| Updated: March 3, 2025
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Social media marketing and presence are the cornerstones of a law firm’s digital marketing strategy. When executed correctly, it can drive organic traffic, attract clients, and enhance the firm’s brand reputation.
For law firms that dismiss social media by assuming their clients aren’t active on these platforms, consider this: 83% of Americans use YouTube, and 68% use Facebook to stay informed, consume content, and engage socially.
Ignoring social media marketing for lawyers means handing over a growing pool of potential clients to competitors. This article explores how attorneys can leverage social media to secure more clients, build a strong brand, and choose the right platforms. Additionally, I’ll cover the best strategies to get started with social media for lawyers and law firms.
There are several compelling reasons why law firms should maintain a strong social media presence in today’s digital age. The primary goal is client acquisition, followed by brand building and generating organic social traffic.
Your competitors and colleagues are already using social media, which is why you should be, too. Additionally, it provides an excellent opportunity to engage with potential clients, address their concerns, and strengthen your firm’s public relations.
Here are a few reasons why social media for law firms is essential in 2025:
Social media offers law firms a powerful way to reach a broad audience. According to the ABA’s 2018 Survey, 35% of professionals using social media for business have gained clients, with small firms seeing even better results at 42%. This highlights the significant potential of social media marketing for client acquisition.
Your law firm’s SEO strategy may be the primary driver of website traffic and client conversions, but social media is just as crucial in today’s digital landscape.
It serves as an additional channel to increase visibility, allowing potential clients to discover your firm, engage with your content, and ultimately connect with you. A well-optimized social media presence can drive traffic to your website, generate inquiries, and encourage prospective clients to discuss their cases with your team.
Here’s a breakdown of the client journey—from discovering your firm on social media to hiring your legal services:
Let’s say you wrote a blog post on the prerequisites for divorce in California and shared it on Facebook and Twitter.
A woman from San Diego, unhappy in her marriage, comes across your post and clicks on it. She lands on your website, finds your blog informative and helpful, and gains clarity on the legal process.
At this point, she has two possible actions:
This scenario highlights the power of valuable legal content in attracting and converting potential clients. By addressing real concerns and offering insightful guidance, your firm can build trust, drive engagement, and ultimately secure more clients via social media.
Social media is a valuable tool for attorneys to connect with colleagues, exchange insights, and stay updated on legal trends. It provides a platform to explore new marketing strategies, gain industry knowledge, and enhance professional visibility.
Additionally, lawyers can strengthen their professional network by actively participating in legal groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Engaging in discussions and sharing expertise helps build credibility within the legal community.
Attorneys can also amplify their reach by presenting legal insights on international issues via Twitter or offering opinions on national matters through YouTube Shorts. These platforms enable lawyers to showcase their expertise and establish authority in their field.
Social media marketing is a crucial component of a law firm’s strategy for attracting new clients and building a strong brand presence. According to the ABA 2023 TechReport, over 84% of law firms maintain a social media presence, highlighting its importance in the legal industry.
Potential clients often review a firm’s social media pages before making a decision, making it essential to optimize and maintain a professional online presence.
However, a successful social media strategy for lawyers requires careful planning and expertise. Law firms should align their efforts with specific goals, such as enhancing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or improving client retention.
Here are the key elements to include in your law firm’s social media marketing plan:
Before planning your law firm’s social media content strategy, it’s essential to understand lawyer marketing regulations and establish a content creation and publication policy accordingly.
For instance, lawyers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania cannot refer to themselves as “specialists” unless accredited by an organization recognized by the Supreme Court or the ABA.
This means that misrepresenting expertise—whether by you or your team—can lead to ethical and legal consequences in certain U.S. states.
To ensure compliance, it’s best to review all relevant regulations and develop a law firm social media content policy for your team. You can find further details on ethical guidelines here or refer to law society and bar rules for compliance requirements.
Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve from law firm social media marketing? Your marketing goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) and plan them in accordance with your business goals.
Your attorney’s social media strategy should have the following goals:
Set clear, measurable goals and KPIs for your social media legal marketing campaigns. Identify which social media channels and strategies yield the best results, then allocate more time and resources to maximize their potential.
Strategic planning is essential for success. To create an effective law firm social media strategy, start by researching your audience, analyzing competitors, and utilizing tools like Hootsuite and Buffer.
Understand your target audience, identify which social media platforms they use, and determine the best times to engage them. Research shows that the optimal posting times are Wednesdays and Thursdays in the morning (7-9 AM), early afternoon (1-3 PM), and evening (7-9 PM).
Additionally, analyze your competitors’ social media presence to see what strategies are working in your practice area. Identify their successful tactics and find ways to improve and adapt them for your firm.
Once you’ve narrowed down your target audience and identified which content performs best for your competitors, it’s time to create a content calendar.
Your content calendar should include posts, images, and videos, ensuring your team follows a structured posting schedule. This approach is separate from content creation for law firm websites, though well-researched and informative blogs should still be shared on social media.
To streamline the process, consider using social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social. These tools help automate scheduling, improve workflow efficiency, and optimize your legal social media marketing strategy.
Instead of creating multiple social media accounts for your law firm, it’s best to focus on a few key platforms. Start by identifying your target audience and choosing one or two social media platforms that align with their online behavior.
For instance, a divorce lawyer with a small marketing budget should prioritize platforms where their potential clients are most active. This could be Facebook, TikTok, or another relevant channel.
A woman in her late 30s, dissatisfied with her marriage, is likely engaging with posts and discussions on Facebook or Instagram. To attract such clients, a divorce lawyer should focus on these platforms, posting daily and sharing informative content on topics like divorce laws, child custody, and legal rights.
Social media thrives on trends and newsjacking, which should be an integral part of your legal social media strategy, even if it’s not included in your regular content calendar.
By creating interactive posts on current affairs, trending news, and viral topics, you can significantly boost engagement, attract more profile visits, and drive traffic to your website.
For example, as an immigration lawyer, you could go live on Facebook to discuss the impact of Donald Trump’s policies on immigration laws. Leveraging trending topics helps position your firm as a thought leader while keeping your audience engaged.
What gets measured gets improved. To refine your law firm’s social media strategy, you should track which platforms and post types yield the best results. I recommend evaluating performance from the first week of posting to make data-driven decisions.
Always align your strategy with your original goals for social media marketing, which may include:
By analyzing performance, you can identify what works best and adjust your approach accordingly. Regularly review your strategy on each platform, and if something isn’t working, either tweak it or eliminate it based on your experience.
Additionally, observe and replicate successful competitor strategies to see if they yield similar results for your firm. Focusing on these six key steps will help you develop a strong, actionable, and effective law firm social media strategy.
Facebook and LinkedIn remain the top social media platforms for attorneys due to their large user base and business relevance. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to finding clients through social media.
For example:
To maximize your marketing efforts, you must narrow down the best social media platforms based on:
Spreading content across all social channels without a strategy wastes time and resources. Instead, focus on the most relevant platforms for your legal niche. Here are the best social channels for marketing your law firm.
With over 2.9 billion users, Facebook remains a leading platform in law firm social media marketing strategies. In fact, 40% of American law firms have reported maintaining a presence on Facebook.
There are numerous Facebook groups that you can leverage by sharing informative and relevant content, helping to drive traffic to your website and increase your law firm’s Facebook page visibility.
However, posting in Facebook groups requires a strategic approach, as many active groups are heavily moderated and do not allow sales-oriented posts.
Since Facebook’s December 2013 algorithm update, its organic reach has declined, making Facebook groups and ads essential for visibility. That said, posts with high engagement still receive strong traction and organic reach.
The best approach is to analyze your competitors and replicate successful strategies. Since there is no universal content format that works for every law firm, it’s essential to identify what resonates with your audience.
Some firms thrive with informative articles, while others see better engagement with videos and infographics. By studying what works best in your practice area, you can tailor your law firm’s Facebook content strategy for maximum impact.
LinkedIn is specifically designed for business networking and professional branding, making it ideal for lawyers to connect with a relevant audience. This is why it remains the most popular social media platform among lawyers in the U.S.
According to the ABA’s 2023 TechReport, nearly 70% of American law firms maintain an active presence on LinkedIn, leveraging it for professional networking, thought leadership, and client engagement.
An active LinkedIn profile can also rank on Google when someone searches for you or your law firm. This makes it essential to keep your profile well-optimized and up to date. By maintaining a complete, professional, and engaging LinkedIn presence, you can enhance your online visibility and attract potential clients.
Lawyers can create a YouTube channel focused on answering common legal questions within their practice area. With podcasts on the rise, law firm owners can also invite clients or industry experts to discuss relevant and engaging legal topics, adding value to their audience while building credibility.
While YouTube and podcasting offer great marketing potential, they require significant time, resources, and money. Your team will need to:
Since content creation for these platforms can be a full-time commitment, careful planning is essential. However, the long-term benefits—brand authority, audience engagement, and client acquisition—make it a worthwhile investment.
You can also post these videos on other social channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Instagram can be a valuable platform for lawyers good with Canva or a dedicated design team, as it primarily focuses on visual content such as images and videos. You can leverage Instagram by sharing eye-catching infographics, engaging short videos, and well-designed legal insights to attract and inform your audience.
However, Instagram is not among law firms’ most popular social media platforms. Because of this, I recommend repurposing content originally created for Facebook or LinkedIn rather than investing significant resources in platform-specific content.
That said, Instagram excels as a storytelling platform, allowing law firms to showcase:
Using Instagram strategically, lawyers can build a more personal and relatable brand, helping to foster trust with potential clients.
Remember to add hashtags and location tags to your posts. While this won’t directly improve your law firm’s local SEO, it helps build credibility and expand reach.
Ensure that images and videos are high resolution, making your content visually appealing and professional. Additionally, focus on educational and engaging content that provides value to your audience, reinforcing your law firm’s authority and trustworthiness online.
TikTok is an underrated yet powerful platform for law firms. When used strategically, it can generate leads and drive traffic to your website. With over 1 billion monthly users—including 135 million in the U.S.—TikTok has rapidly become a go-to platform for video content and audience engagement.
LawTok is a TikTok segment for law students that can be leveraged to promote your firm and legal content.
X is a concise and direct platform, making it ideal for lawyers who want to share legal insights without long-form content. The 280-character limit ensures that messages stay clear, impactful, and easy to digest.
It is also highly efficient for information sharing, allowing legal professionals to consume and distribute important updates quickly. With a fast-scrolling feed, users can stay informed on key legal news, industry trends, and client concerns in a short amount of time.
Another key advantage of X is its real-time engagement. Lawyers can react to breaking legal news, court rulings, and trending discussions instantly, positioning themselves as thought leaders in their field.
Lastly, the platform’s hashtag system allows law firms to expand their reach. Using tags like #LawFirm, #LegalAdvice, or trending legal hashtags can attract a broader audience and generate organic engagement.
Social media marketing plays a vital role in building trust, authority, and reputation for your law firm, ultimately helping to secure clients online. While it is not a Google ranking factor for law firm websites, strong social engagement signals can enhance your firm’s online visibility and credibility.
Clients often review social media profiles before hiring a lawyer. A well-maintained, active profile is far more convincing than one that hasn’t been updated in months. Regular posts and engagement help establish trust and professionalism.
Facebook and LinkedIn are the top platforms for law firm marketing, followed by Instagram and Twitter. If you have the budget and connections, starting a podcast or YouTube channel can be an excellent way to answer legal questions and feature industry experts or past clients, further strengthening your brand.
Finally, narrow down your target audience and focus on one or two social media platforms initially. Continuously measure results, refine your strategy, and expand to additional platforms as needed. This iterative approach ensures effective and scalable social media marketing for your law firm.
I’m Micheal Clark, an experienced SEO consultant specializing in law firms and attorneys. With over seven years in SEO, I help legal professionals rank higher on Google, attract clients, and grow their practice. From technical SEO to local optimization and content strategy, I provide tailored solutions to dominate competitive legal searches.
