5 minute read
Professional Use of Social Media: Part I
Tips for Success from an AYLA Panel
INTRODUCING THE PANEL
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Hannah (Hembree) Bell is a solo practitioner offering family law, estate planning, and general counsel legal services for families in the greater Austin and San Antonio areas. Her firm is the Hembree Bell Law Firm, located in northwest Austin.
Hannah (Hembree) Bell
Lisa Marie Bustos is a solo practitioner based in Austin practicing family law within the Central Texas region. Her firm, Bustos Family Law, handles family law litigation in all stages of the case, but her practice primarily focuses on divorce and child custody cases.
Lisa Marie Bustos
Tycha Kimbrough is a solo practitioner at Kimbrough Legal, a compassionate and dedicated family, criminal, and expunction law firm that cares deeply about the Austin community.
Tycha Kimbrough
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
1. Which social media platforms do you use to communicate with the public in your professional capacity, and is there a particular platform that you favor?
Bell: I use Facebook and LinkedIn professionally. Linked- In is my favorite platform for business, hands-down. People have no problem connecting with strangers on LinkedIn, whereas they are more selective with accepting “friends” on Facebook. This allows a much greater reach on LinkedIn. Further, LinkedIn is the “professional” social media platform, so no one is annoyed with you for posting about your work/business all the time.
Bustos: I use Buffer to pre-schedule all of my social media posts across my firm’s Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. However, once your audience starts to reach out to you across those platforms, you really start noticing each platform’s interface. I have found that Facebook is the easiest to post and interact on. It’s also easy to see how many people are viewing my posts and analyze which are the most impactful.
Kimbrough: I use Facebook and Instagram to connect with the public. I favor Facebook because the demographics of its users vary widely compared to Instagram users. I also love that Facebook allows visitors to share posts and write reviews. In addition to maintaining a website, Facebook is a powerful tool for a lawyer and firm to use to build one’s brand. Despite me being a millennial and heavily using social media, I have not jumped on the Twitter bandwagon for my practice.
2. What type of content do you post in your professional capacity? For example, do you post exclusively about your (or your firm’s) work or do you also provide general information about the law? Do you ever post non-legal content (whether it be personal, political, cultural, or just fun “memes”)?
Bell: My general strategy in posting is to provide content I believe my target audience would be interested in while keeping it mostly relevant to the legal space. I typically post short video clips of a few types: “Pro-Tip” videos offer practical advice to people getting divorced; “ALERT” videos point to a specific legal development that could have a real-life impact on my clients, referral sources, or PNCs; and “Family Law Musings” share insight into the more emotional/personal development lessons one learns in the divorce process. In addition to the videos, I share selfie (or selfie-adjacent) photos of me out there, doing this legal thing (think posting from a pro-bono clinic, outside a courthouse, etc.). Occasionally I’ll share a funny meme or video related to being divorced/being a parent/the legal field.
Bustos: Audiences tend to appreciate mixing up the type of content that’s posted. Family law brings in a very diverse clientele. Some members of my audience appreciate parenting articles with the latest food for thought. Other audience members are more focused on how a marriage might impact their finances. Posting news articles that are related to your area of law—while not giving legal advice—helps people understand that you are aware of the problems that they face on a daily basis.
We also regularly post funny memes or lawyer-related jokes at least once a week. Life is hard, but laughter is still a common language that can bring everyone together.
Kimbrough: I post a variety of content on Kimbrough Legal’s social media pages. I primarily post about events I attend, laws that directly affect my family and criminal law clients, Kimbrough Legal’s services, and motivational quotes. I also use the story features on Instagram and Facebook, which allows me to post informational videos and occasionally silly memes. I aim to be my authentic self on social media, and I create content that will interest and educate my audience.
3. How do you decide when to upload content? Do you set aside time every week or do you update it sporadically? What formal or intuitive criteria guide your selection of what to upload?
Bell: Mostly when the mood strikes, and I try to make sure that’s at least once a week and no more than two to three times per week. I go based on feel, not on a formal “posting” metric. I should be better about assessing the correlation between the time of day that I post and the amount of reach/feedback I receive. I recently posted late afternoon on the Friday before Labor Day weekend and expected little to no response. I was surprised to see my little photo do as well as most of my other posts. I am sure someone smarter than me can point to the best days/times to post to get the best ROI. For me, whether I make and post a video is often tied to whether I look more like a lawyer or a soccer mom that day. (Working for yourself has its perks!)
Bustos: I work closely with a marketing contractor who helps me coordinate and post the content that I find applicable to my audience. I have daily Google alerts that hit target keywords for my area of law. I spend about five to ten minutes reviewing the alerts I receive and bookmarking content that I like. I then send it to my marketing contractor who preschedules posts on Buffer. It takes me about half an hour a week to find content and my marketing person about an hour a week to coordinate posts.
Kimbrough: I am a planner and I set aside time at the beginning of each month to schedule posts on Facebook and Instagram. I post on Facebook and Instagram at least once a week. I do not have any formal criteria that determines my selection on what to post, but each month I generally post a legal question and answer, a holiday greeting or motivational quote, information about a legal or community event I recently attended or that is upcoming, and information about legal services Kimbrough Legal provides. AL
(Look for Part II of this article in an upcoming issue of Austin Lawyer.)
