When you think about social media platforms for law firms, the usual suspects probably run through your mind: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram—but have you ever considered Pinterest? Since its 2010 launch, Pinterest has seen rapid growth and maintained its position as a major player in the world of social media. Many people think of Pinterest as a place to house information about interior decorating, wedding ideas, or recipes for feeding a picky toddler. But Pinterest is more than that. It is an online resource for people looking to plan their next step and, in this regard, it is also a valuable marketing tool for lawyers.
Reaching Your Target Audience with Pinterest
The majority of Pinterest users are women. About 70% of all Pinterest users are female and 42% of American women use Pinterest. This means that if your law firm caters to female clients in any way, a lot of your potential clients are spending their free time cruising Pinterest. This will be especially helpful for consumer-based practice areas that affect adult women which could include trust and estate planning, plaintiff employment practices and family law. But also, business centered practice areas such as intellectual property, outside general counsel practices, and civil litigation.
However, this doesn’t mean that you are out of the Pinterest game if your firm caters to men or equally serves men and women. About 40% of new Pinterest signups are men. However, male users are much less likely than female users to actually “pin” anything on their account. This implies that they are searching Pinterest for solutions to their problems without necessarily engaging directly with the pins or information they find. Getting your firm in front of male users of Pinterest by providing curated information could secure them as clients.
Driving Pinterest Traffic to Other Platforms
For many law firms that successfully use Pinterest as a social media solution, Pinterest is not the final step in the funnel. While you can upload images directly to Pinterest without a link, many law firms use Pinterest to drive pinners to their firm website or Facebook page. If you get them to your website, you can capture their information with an opt-in form. This is especially helpful for client lead generation if you have an ongoing email campaign. If you get them to your Facebook page, you can increase engagement with your firm with targeted Facebook advertising. The best advice for driving Pinterest traffic off that site and to your firm is to figure out what you want your visitors to do after stumbling across your pins and work from there.
Optimizing Images and Calls to Actions
Pinterest is a visually rich social media platform, and if you use subpar or boring graphics, you are unlikely to get the results you want. Optimize your pins by using visually appealing color schemes and fonts that are popular with your target market. You can also optimize your images for direct action by including a call-to-action. This encourages people who discover your pin directly to reach out to your firm, but it also encourages people who view repins of your original post to find out what you have to offer.
Follow Relevant Users and Brands
As is the case with any social media platform, you have to have a large enough audience to get your posts to your target audience. While creating optimized pins is crucial, you also need to start building your list of visitors. You can search for pins relevant to your area of law and follow the users who are sharing them, follow users in your geographic area, or get involved on group boards. If there are brands relevant to your firm’s area of expertise, follow their boards and look into users that repin their content.
Using social media to expand your law firm’s reach is all about developing creative solutions with the technology that’s currently available. Explore what Pinterest has to offer to find out how you can get in front of your target audience. For law firms, starting a Pinterest campaign can help showcase their original ideas and offerings.
Meranda M. Vieyra is the owner of Denver Legal Marketing LLC. She is one of the most visible legal professionals in Colorado law with over 20 years of service in the Denver legal community. Her award-winning marketing firm has earned a strong reputation as the go-to for impactful, cost-effective legal marketing strategies. She has helped her clients secure coverage by well-known publications and has obtained local, national, and international awards on their behalf. Meranda enjoys working with solo practitioners and small law firms helping them attract recognition, promotion, and visibility to their practices. She also advises medium-sized and national law firms on business development and marketing strategy. Meranda is a lecturer and author on issues related to marketing including how lawyers can use LinkedIn effectively, how to develop a personal brand, and the promotion of legal services through community service. In 2018, she was honored to be named to the 40 Under 40 list by the Denver Business Journal and to be given the 10 Under 10 Award by the Metropolitan State University of Denver Alumni Association (top 10 alum of the decade). In 2019, Meranda was named in the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business by the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce and in the Top 100 young professionals in Colorado through the Gen XYZ Awards published by ColoradoBiz Magazine.
For more information, go to www.DenverLegalMarketing.com