With 845 million monthly active users and 483 million daily active users on average at the end of December 2011, law firms cannot afford to ignore the impact that Facebook can have on their business development efforts.
The key to having a Facebook page for your firm is being prepared to use it as an interactive tool.
A few years ago, firms started created Facebook pages without a clear purpose; mostly to use as a recruiting tool. Now firms are finding the power of using Facebook for marketing efforts. One such firm, the Canadian firm MBM Intellectual Property LLP, has found success in using their Facebook page as a marketing tool and other firms can do the same. We spoke with Samantha Collier, who is the page’s administrator, about MBM’s success.
Getting noticed
After completing a branding campaign, MBM published an issue of their quarterly newsletter that focused on the rebranding and they included a link to their different social media sites. Just by including a link to their Facebook page, without even asking people to “like” the page, the firm received over 600 “likes” in just a few days. What does this mean? Those 600 fans will receive MBM’s updates in their Facebook stream. MBM is judicious about their posting – just 3 or 4 times per week – but they are nonetheless getting their message out regularly to an important audience.
Getting interactive
Think of a firm’s Facebook page as its interactive news page. All of the alerts, articles, press releases and event updates that firms post to the “News” pages of their websites can be posted to Facebook. But rather than get a Lexology report of how many people read an article, firms can interact with people on Facebook about the article and begin creating the key factor in developing new business – relationships.
MBM has seen the benefits of Facebook relationship building first-hand, with recommendations that were posted to the page.
Getting started
Firms have a lot of concerns when it comes to creating Facebook pages, but the sheer numbers make it hard – and unwise – to stay on the sidelines. For better or worse, the line between personal and professional is getting erased. Professionals check their email via mobile devices 24/7 and our online life has no definite beginning or end. Facebook offers the opportunity to reach decision-makers where they live and play. It’s time to judiciously and thoughtfully join them!