SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT FOR LARGE FIRMS. Solicitor Brand Campaign The Law Society

Transcription

1 SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT FOR LARGE FIRMS Solicitor Brand Campaign The Law Society

2 CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW The Solicitor Brand campaign promotes the solicitor brand to consumers, SMEs, commissioners of legal services (including senior managers and in-house solicitors) and senior managers who use the services of in-house solicitors. This social media toolkit is for large legal firms so focuses on engaging with commissioners of legal services, aiming to help them realise the value of large solicitor firms. The campaign differentiates solicitors from other legal providers, directing people to online resources, the Law Society website and the Find a Solicitor website, where they can search a database of over 150,000 solicitors throughout England and Wales. We are providing campaign materials such as videos, infographics and animations for you to download and use on your own digital platforms. These promote the overall solicitor brand and inform commissioners of legal services why solicitors are best placed to help with legal issues for their business. Links to these resources, which we will continue to add to over the next few months, can be found on pages 3 and 10. Key messages we will be using to promote large solicitor firms throughout the campaign are: 1. When business gets complicated, get quality legal advice from trusted solicitors who understand your business needs 2. Solicitors are trusted partners for your most important business decisions 3. Solicitors are legal experts and will focus on your specific issue, representing value for money by providing you with the best advice 4. Solicitors aim to be approachable and accessible. Whether you want to keep in touch over the phone, via or face-to-face, your solicitor will do what s best for you 5. Solicitors add value to society last year UK solicitors provided over 2.5 million hours of free legal advice AIMS OF THE CAMPAIGN Solicitors to get involved in the campaign, sharing their stories and building trust with the public, SMEs and commissioners of legal services Differentiate solicitors from other legal professionals and highlight the benefits of using a solicitor Promote the value of a solicitor to consumers, SMEs and commissioners of legal services Promote the solicitor brand values: experts in our field, client focused, value for money, honest and honourable, approachable and accessible, add value to society Direct people to talk to their solicitor, visit the Law Society website or the Find a Solicitor website 2

3 GET INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN Social media is a key part of the campaign so we would love you to get involved and help us increase its effectiveness. We will be posting content across many different social media channels, so please connect with us and keep an eye on what s going on. WE WILL BE POSTING TO THREE OF OUR TWITTER ACCOUNTS: Law Society Find a Solicitor account Law Society Solicitor Hour account Main Law Society account We will be using the campaign hashtags: #UseaSolicitor #SolicitorHour #SolicitorChat Please retweet, share and like our posts to further increase reach and engagement! WE WILL ALSO BE POSTING TO FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM: The Law AND WE WILL BE USING: We will be providing you with lots of useful resources for you to use in your own social media activity. Check the Solicitor Brand campaign page ( for updates and register with My Law Society to see what s available. 3

4 SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLAINED FACEBOOK I like tea TWITTER I m drinking #tea INSTAGRAM GOOGLE+ Here s a filtered picture of my #tea I need my tea to rank high on Google search Here s a tea recipe PINTEREST YOUTUBE LINKEDIN SPOTIFY SNAPCHAT TUMBLR Here s a video of me drinking tea My skills include tea drinking Now playing the ultimate tea drinking playlist This is my tea as an emoji Here is a meme about why tea is better than coffee 4 Original concept by Douglas Wray

5 EXAMPLE POSTS AND BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS FACEBOOK Minimal text in the image Relevant or seasonal topic Quirky or eye-catching content Concise, easy-to-read and understand text Short 30 second video, using captions Use of video content 5

6 EXAMPLE POSTS AND BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS TWITTER Shortened link using bit.ly, Google or TinyURL Hashtags help you follow relevant topics/trends Text image works on Twitter Join in a discussion about a popular or relevant trend using hashtags Short, easy-to-understand text, avoiding jargon Posted at busy time of day Use of image in post, rather than a text only post 6

7 EXAMPLE SOLICITOR BRAND POSTS When posting on social media, it is important to remember WHY. The purpose of what you write should be to demonstrate how to solve your client s problem. In film terms, your client is Luke Skywalker and you are Obi Wan Kenobi; you will guide your clients and enable them to be their own hero. Here are some example social media posts to promote the solicitor brand values, which are based on what consumers, SMEs and commissioners of legal services want from a solicitor. Remember, use relevant hashtags when posting on Twitter. Getting the imagery right is just as important as the message include interesting and unusual imagery that catches your audience s eye and makes them want to engage with your message. Page 10 includes a link to some royalty free image websites where you can take images and use them on social media. Experts in our field (include relevant picture) [Team members] are attending [key conference/event] to learn even more about [expertise field]! (add link) Client focused (link to a case study or client testimonial to back this up) We ve been working in partnership with [client name] for this [good project example] and we ve had a great time seeing the results (add link) Value for money (link to a case study or client testimonial to back this up) Legal mistakes cost time and money and can destroy your reputation. We ll provide the right advice and support for your business, solving your problems and ensuring you really get value for money (add link) Honest and honourable When seeking legal advice your business needs someone who will act honestly. We follow a strict code of conduct and we re insured and regulated, so you know you can trust us to give you the best advice (add link) Approachable and accessible (include picture of team member) Questions about your legal case? Trying to unpick legal jargon? Call or book a meeting with us to see how we can help (add link) Add value to society (link to case study) We love giving back to the community take a look at the pro bono and charity work we ve been doing this year (add link) 7

8 VIDEO CONTENT As part of the campaign we will be creating lots of videos and animations that promote the value of a solicitor when dealing with legal issues. You can use member versions of these resources in your own marketing activity, providing your website visitors and social media followers with content about how a solicitor can help them. All of the member videos and animations can be downloaded from My Law Society. Remember, you only have 140 characters per tweet, so you might want to say something like: Got a legal issue? Find out why you should talk to a #solicitor (add link) Please use the member resources on your own website and in your own social media activity 8

9 NEW WAYS OF ENGAGING WITH OUR MEMBERS Since launching in 2014, we have been delighted with the response #SolicitorHour has had lots of you have joined in, networking and answering questions to help us create an online legal knowledge base. Changes to the campaign With the launch of the Solicitor Brand campaign we re giving #SolicitorHour a makeover. So what s going to change? #SolicitorHour will still run every Thursday 1-2pm on Twitter but will become a space where you or your firm can promote your legal services with no obligation to answer questions or participate in any conversation. This is a consumer facing Twitter chat and will enable us to create a Twitter directory of professional and progressive legal firms. Introducing #SolicitorChat We want to keep a space on Twitter where solicitors can go to network and engage in industry discussion but which provides clients with valuable information that s where #SolicitorChat comes in. Why get involved? NEW! Getting involved in #SolicitorChat gives you the chance to discuss professional matters that are important to you, expand your professional network and learn from other legal experts. Also, if you re the most engaged in any of our #SolicitorChat sessions, you ll get a 10 Starbucks voucher from us! What is it? #SolicitorChat is an online question and answer session on Twitter for solicitors to share their ideas and advice on matters relating to the legal sector. We will collate all the useful information from #SolicitorChat and create content such as blogs, infographics and graphics to help promote the solicitor brand to consumers, SMEs and commissioners of legal services. All of these resources will be available for you to use to help your own clients and we ll credit your answers in our follow up blog. When is it? Every Thursday am How do you get involved? post using the #SolicitorChat hashtag Follow the conversation and answer the questions 9

10 BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT There are so many social media platforms and many ways to use social media and it can be time consuming and overwhelming. We have put together a selection of useful resources we hope you will find helpful, whether you ve already got established social media profiles or are just getting started. General advice Law Society social media practice notes advice/practice-notes/social-media/ Social media crisis management social-media-crisis-management/ Image resources Royalty-free images to use on social media 10 Tips for the perfect LinkedIn profile Guide to image sizes for social media Twitter advice Twitter for beginners downloads/twitter-for-beginners.pdf How to: use Twitter features/how-to-use-twitter/ fullarticle Tweet Like a pro tweet-like-a-pro/ LinkedIn advice Protecting your online reputation practice note advice/practice-notes/protecting-your-onlinereputation/ Power of a profile Social media management tools Hootsuite Buffer Tweetdeck These are just examples of some of the many social media management tools available. We recommend that you do your own research to find what s best for you Campaign specific resources such as graphics, infographics, videos and animations will be available to members. Register with My Law Society to be able to download materials. 10