Marketing Tips: Social Media & eCommerce Marketing

Depending on your area of practice, eCommerce may be a viable way to market your law firm.

As evidenced by our Social Media Mondays column, social media is an important means and method for marketing for law firms and businesses of all kinds. If you don’t have a social media marketing strategy, you may not be reaching your target clientele. Any series on marketing tips must cover, however briefly, aspects of social media.

Social media uses the power of viral marketing to get your satisfied clients and anyone interested in your business to do your outreach for you. By maintaining a profile on social media sites and contributing to social networks like Digg, Reddit, Tumblr and Stumbleupon, you can connect with people on the Internet who are passionate about the topics you deal with in your business. Even Georgia truck accident attorneys can find Internet denizens who may be interested in your practice.

You can also use eCommerce solutions to get the edge on your competition. Monetizing a website is unusual for law firms, but attorneys who handle transactions like drafting wills or prosecuting patents can transform their sites from only having content into eCommerce service destinations by adding a few simple elements.

How to use social media and eCommerce

There are many different ways to include social media and eCommerce in your marketing strategy. One of the most important factors is knowing where and how to participate and submit your content.

• Invest in a way to post to all your social media and social blog sites at once. Ping.fm is a great way to do this, as is HootSuite.
• Promote content created by your social media visitors. This will create excitement among your followers and make your social page more popular.
• Ask your friends and network contacts for suggestions on what sorts of content they’ve enjoyed, what they would like to see, and what new programs you should implement on your site.
• Issue press releases and link to them from your website. A well-written press release will improve your marketing strategy in a variety of ways, including lending legitimacy to your law firm and getting upvotes and likes for your social media content.
• Read The Ten Commandments of Marketing.
• Remember the golden rule of business, as it applies to Internet marketing as well: the customer is always right! In this case, the potential customer is also always right. You are providing a service, and you should always take customer criticism through social media seriously, as criticism is the just another form of interest. Always thank customers for their input and do your best to meet their needs.

Don’t feel overwhelmed by social media or eCommerce marketing. Like any form of online marketing, they simply take a bit of work to learn about. Once you know how to use these strategies, you will see your law firm’s business flourish.