How Lawyers Can Create a Facebook Profile that Will Attract New Clients

Facebook is the most visited website in the world. It should therefore come as no surprise that your Facebook profile is an incredible tool to attract new clients.

As both a practicing attorney and social media marketing consultant for lawyers, I’ve worked with many attorneys who successfully use Facebook to connect with friends, colleagues, and connections from across the globe to attract new business and referrals. These attorneys first create a Facebook profiles that are designed to attract new clients, and then use their profile to share both personal updates that connect with their colleagues on a personal level while also sharing occasional professional updates or using their law firm’s Facebook profile to post their professional marketing messages.

I’ve also worked with attorneys who use Facebook for personal reasons but who have no idea how to use it to market themselves and their practice. And to them I say, “Don’t worry, I totally get it.” For years, I saw Facebook primarily as a website to share my day to day experiences with friends, comment on trending topics, and share way too many posts about Crossfit. I didn’t realize it was also a powerful marketing tool for business development in the sense that people spend so much time on Facebook anyway, why not use this to my advantage by sharing updates about my practice that they would find interesting and occasionally posting about my professional engagements or achievements so that when the time was right to hire an attorney – they thought of me as opposed to someone else in their personal or professional network.

For those of you who think you might benefit from attracting clients through their Facebook profile, you first have to make sure that it is set up in a way that will attract new or potential clients. That is, you must have set the basic foundation for your Facebook presence in place and then you can make the most of Facebook’s features to attract attention. So let’s start with the basics – and then work our way up to more advanced techniques (feel free to skip ahead to the sections most applicable to you):

The Basics: How to Build Your Personal Facebook Profile

Step 1. Create a Personal Facebook Profile

Facebook offers two types of profiles: personal and business. Personal profiles are designed for lawyers to connect with friends and colleagues. Business profiles (referred to by Facebook as “Pages”) are for law firms. In order to create a law firm Facebook profile, you must first create your personal profile. To do so:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com
2. Complete the necessary fields under the heading Sign Up (i.e., first and last name, email, password, gender, and birthday), then select Sign Up.
3. An e-mail will arrive at the registered e-mail address, which will allow you to confirm the account and complete the registration by selecting the link provided in the email.

Step 2. Upload a Profile Picture and Cover Photo

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Your profile and cover photo will be the first thing potential clients see when visiting your Facebook profile. Make sure you select good ones.

1. A Profile Picture is commonly displayed at the beginning of both the Home and Profile pages. You should select a recent professional photograph of yourself, such as your law firm’s headshot. The Cover Photo is only displayed on the Profile page and can depict anything of interest to you.
2. To upload a Profile Picture from a computer hard drive, you should access your Profile page by clicking on your picture or name on the Home page. Then, place the cursor over the current Profile Picture and select the Camera Icon that appears.
3. Select from among the following options to find a picture to upload: Choose from Photos (already uploaded on the page), Take Photo, or Upload Photo.
4. Then select Upload Picture. The picture will display if it is an acceptable size and file type.
5. To upload or update the Cover Photo, repeat these same steps.
6. For more information on how to manage photographs, go the Help Center and select Getting Started on Facebook or Sharing and then Photos.

Step 3. Complete Your Basic Profile Information                                   

Facebook allows you to easily add and edit information about yourself, your work, and interests. You can choose the amount of information you want to share with the Facebook community. At a minimum, you should input employment information so that your friends and colleagues on Facebook can easily locate you, learn about your practice, and easily contact you when the need arises.

1. To add this information, select Edit Profile in the top left corner of the Home page, or click on the Update Info link located in the Cover Photo area on the Profile
2. Select Work and Education from the left menu.
3. Provide employment history and type in the name of the employer into the Employer If a Facebook page exists for the employer, the profile will link to it.
4. Provide applicable cities to complete the Places You’ve Lived and Current City fields.
5. Provide basic contact information including telephone number, email, and website address. The lawyer may also include other information such as their birth date, relationship status, religious views, political views, etc.
6. You can link their profile directly to their spouse, partner, family members, and relatives by entering their names in the appropriate places.
7. You can also provide a short description of yourself, elaborate on your practice, hobbies, interests, or any other information you wish to share. You may also limit the visibility of these fields to close friends and family members in the interests of privacy and safety.

Intermediate Level: How to Build Your Law Firm Facebook Profile 

1.  Login into your personal Facebook profile.
2. From the Home page, click on the downward arrow located in the top right-hand corner of the page and select Create Page from the drop-down menu.
3. A new web page will open with the heading Create a Page. Select the appropriate category from the six icons presented on the web page (Local Business or Place; Company, Organization, or Institution; Brand or Product, etc.). Select Company, Organization, or Institution.
4. Select Law/Legal from the drop-down box and enter the name of the law firm. You must accept Facebook Page’s terms of service to continue. Click Submit.
5. Complete the About portion of the page, typing in a brief description of the law firm. Add a link to the firm’s website in the space provided.
6. Add a Photo of the firm logo to serve as the firm’s Profile Picture and consider a firm wide photo or other picture that resembles your law firm’s website as the cover photo. Ideally, you would like your law firm’s Facebook page to be an extension of your law firm’s brand.
7. Click Add to Favorites to link the firm’s page back to your personal page, providing easy access and allowing the lawyer to quickly move between these pages.

Advanced Techniques: Develop a Plan to Leverage Your Profiles to Attract New Clients

Your personal and law firm Facebook profiles that will serve as the foundation to attract new clients and referrals. Once this foundation is built, you should develop a social media marketing plan will serve as a road map for planning, preparing, and executing your social media strategies to enable you to achieve your marking goals.

I recommend that you “start with the end in mind.” First consider your ultimate goals. Identify who are the types of clients or referrals you want to generate. Set forth the specific area of law in which you want to become a well-known expert. Set forth the specific business development objectives that you want to accomplish. Think of these goals as your mountains on the horizon – the success you ultimately want to achieve. Then, begin identifying the steps you need to take in order to accomplish those goals. And if you need some assistance, I’m always here to help.