How to Develop Your Law Firm’s Brand Voice on Social Media
Social media offers quite a few benefits for attorneys and law firms. One of those benefits is the ability to speak directly to your target audience. But in order to make the most impact, it’s critical that you develop and maintain a strong, consistent brand voice.
Here’s how to do just that.
What Is a Brand Voice?
First things first: what exactly is a brand voice?
Your brand voice is the distinct tone you use to communicate with your audience. Ideally, it should represent the “personality” of your law firm.
You demonstrate that personality through the words you choose for your content, the images you upload, and the videos you produce. Every piece of content you post to social media should become a thread in the overall tapestry of a consistent, distinct brand voice.
Of course, reaching that goal takes some serious thought and effort. But once you put in the effort, the results will be well worth it.
By developing a strong brand voice, you can stand out from the crowd, connect with potential clients and referrers, and grow your business.
How to Develop Your Law Firm’s Brand Voice on Social Media
1. Identify Your Brand’s Mission and Values
Before you can settle on your brand voice, you need to understand your brand. The guiding light for that decision will be your law firm’s core values and mission statement. If you don’t have those hammered out yet, now is the time.
Get everyone involved. Sit down as a team and work through the defining values of your law firm, as well as your end-goal. Add in some “personality” traits, too—the way in which you want to present your law firm to your target audience.
Are you polished and serious? Casual and light? Bold and edgy?
Just remember to be authentic. This isn’t about putting on an act. This is about showing the world who you really are, humanizing your business, and resonating with prospects. You want to demonstrate honesty, credibility, and a willingness to help others.
As you figure out your brand’s identity, be sure to document every step of the journey for everyone in the firm to follow. This will help maintain consistency later. With a central, comprehensive brand guide for a reference point, you can make sure everyone is on the same page.
You can even include lists of common vocabulary, phrases, and general tone of voice that suit your chosen brand personality.
Don’t forget to take your audience into account, either. What demographics are you trying to reach? How do they communicate, and what sort of communication will they respond to?
For example, if your clients tend to skew younger, you might want to adopt a more casual, laid-back tone. If your clients are primarily high-level business types, on the other hand, you’ll probably want a more serious and professional persona.
2. Audit Your Current Voice
You don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel here. It isn’t always a matter of starting from scratch. And because you’re trying to demonstrate the “real you,” there are probably already elements of your ideal brand voice in your existing content.
So take a look at what you’ve already said—and how you’ve said it. How did your audience react? What status updates or tweets got the most engagement? Which one barely made a fizzle? Are there any recognizable patterns that might explain the difference, and what can you learn from them?
In short, before you start talking, stop and listen. Your audience may already be telling you what works and what doesn’t.
By the end of this process, you should have a thorough picture of your brand’s personality. Now it’s time to introduce yourself to the world.
3. Stay Consistent
No matter what personality and tone you settle on, it’s essential that you be consistent across all your social media platforms.
Odds are, a good share of people who see one of your accounts will check out the others. If they see an abrupt change in tone from one to the next, you may come across as confused or even inauthentic.
Think about it like this. If you had a friend who spoke and behaved in completely different ways depending on who they were with, would you be likely to trust them? How would you know which version of them was real—if any? You would probably perceive them as fake.
It’s impossible to form a meaningful friendship under those conditions, and the same is true for your prospects’ relationship with your law firm.
Your brand voice shapes how your audience perceives you. If that voice is inconsistent—if you sound completely different on Facebook than you do on Twitter—it will hamper any chances of connecting with them on a personal level.
And that personal connection is the heart and soul of developing a brand voice.
Of course, it may take a while to get the hang of your voice, but eventually, it will become natural.
4. Review, Refine, and Adapt
Getting your brand voice right won’t happen overnight. It takes more than a few swings of the hammer to hit the nail just right.
As you implement your new strategy, keep an eye on how your audience responds—exactly as you did when auditing your previous content. What works? What doesn’t? What feels authentic to you, and what feels like a charade?
Refine your approach and don’t be afraid to evolve. Patience is key.
Keep at it, and in time, you’ll find your true voice.
Get More Out of Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Establishing a brand voice is one of the most important steps you can take toward strengthening your reputation online. When done right, it will help you reach your target audience, connect with prospects, and network with your peers.
But getting it right takes time, energy, and focus—three resources most busy lawyers have in short supply when it comes to marketing. Your days are packed enough with running a law firm and practicing law without adding more hassles to your plate.
If you’d prefer to pass those hassles on to someone else, we’d be happy to dive in.
At Let America Know, we help trial attorneys across the nation improve their online marketing strategies through social media and email. In fact, we’ll even help set up and brand your social media campaigns for you, giving you the best results without the usual headaches.
Are you ready to start growing your law firm to the next level?
Click here to learn more about our done-for-you social media program for attorneys.