I'm the youngest at work. Everyone else is over 60. As part of our work we have to do 2hrs a week of marketing. I used to do BNI business breakfasts. These were ok. we get about 15 to 20 new clients a year.The bni business breakfasts are now attended by my older co-workers.I've been asked to use social media to market the firm but I have no clue.are there any YouTube videos or free courses about this stuff any of you recommend?the firm is a professional services firm if that helps. I much prefered going to bni and eating a buffet continental breakfast at the Novotel once a week. Any other advice?
Boss Asked Me to Handle Social Media
Dr Prepper on 19/07/2016 - 11:48
Last edited 19/07/2016 - 12:06 by 1 other user
Last edited 19/07/2016 - 12:06 by 1 other user
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ask your boss to send you on some training courses.
… some training courses with a buffet continental breakfast. Lol.
All free, dream job.
I used to work in a state government marketing organisation. Man… morning teas and free t-shirts galore. That was the dream.
I used to take Tupperware to load up in my brief case.have you guys been to a Novotel breakfast? Sizzler for rich people.
And then when you load up your bag full of Tupperware (so mum/wife doesn't kill you), your boss things you've loaded yourself with work to take home.
Udemy has plenty of free courses on these subjects.
I would look on the bright side, you can now spend your time making snarky comments on Twitter and getting paid for it.
I think it is useful to have Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin if you can manage all three. Those are ways legitimate customers might seek to interact with you (e.g. a quick tweet - "does your company provide x service?" with an instant reply instead of calling or sending email is quite a legitimate use of the channel.
And Instagram. I'm not in to it, but it seems to be a platform that has a lot of users and engaged ones, at that.
It depends on what you're selling though. My dentist has instagram, and that's weird.
As part of our work we have to do 2hrs a week of marketing.
That works out to be 24 minutes per day (120min/5 days). I'm not in the marketing industry but there are people who spend more than that responding to 1 email.
You're time diminishes the more communication channels you have to manage and the more customers you have.
If you're starting from scratch I think LinkedIn is a no brainer for starting out research. The LinkedIn homepage will annoyingly recommend to you LinkedIn articles/journalists, nearby industry conferences, lectures, interest groups, industry bodies, random people to follow and connect. LinkedIn is heavily geared to networking you with random strangers and competitors. Scam trainers and consultants will regularly try to reach out to you.
Everybody on LinkedIn is so public with their information. Worst comes to worse is see how your competitors are using LinkedIn. Then try not to do like them. LinkedIn is a weird place but I'm not into business.
Just post many many cat pictures
You'll need money in the budget to pay to boost Facebook posts. While they may not see why they should spend the money, trust me, from just $100 for a week the reach your posts will get are surprising.
If you don't boost posts, you won't exist on Facebook!I have been doing a bit of trial and error with this on a business page. It seems to me if you try to sell something in your facebook posts you get very little reach. Provide something interesting like a video or link to a blog post and views increase. My most successful facebook post recently was something distantly related to Game of Thrones even though my business has nothing to do with TV shows.
Also, I have played around with facebook ads and it can be an amazing tool for targeting a specific audience. It can be easy to waste money on there though so you need to have every aspect of the marketing plan thought out before spending a cent. I have seen rankings that show that Australians are the worst and most costly targets on facebook ads in the world.
Just don't do what the craptastic Naked Communications and Woolshed Co. do. (ie. not all publicity is good publicity)
"Can I ask, the sort of clientele you have, would they be ones interested in social media platform (asides from Linkedin perhaps)."
Legal services in the suburbs mainly litigation. Estate disputes,family law , avos,duis nothing glamorous. Last year I made budget from existing files and clients from BNI breakfasts were all gravy. Our ideal client is usually older ,Gen X & boomers. Gen x & y have no assets to argue over and will not be dying any time soon.We've set up Facebook and Twitter one post about challenging a dui got 15000 likes but that equaled zero clients.
What a load of shit.You may start seeing a growing number of Gen Y are probably potentially getting into family law disputes…
Legal services is a bit hard to market on social media, but then I'm no expert! There may be opportunity for you to go on some social media marketing course though?
Ideas: General advice blogs via LinkedIn? Promotion of your business breakfast events, etc via Facebook? I haven't really figured out how best to tap value from Twitter… Instagram works better for inspirational products, services or travel than professional services I find… It's not like you can go put up pictures of an AVO or couple going through divorce? Maybe I'm thinking too limited?
We get a heap of tyre kickers from Gen Ys & Xs for family law but overall it's piddly shit, no asset pool ,low incomes,or the relationship is too short to really spend the time and effort it takes to analyze how to carve shit up.Silver 25yr divorces that is what always goes quadruple platinum.
Gen x & y are still baking.The oven isn't even warm.
Maybe some sort of idea to keep them baking, so they come to your firm when they are toasty. Or potentially child referrals for those Silver divorces?
Something about your post seems morbid to me.
Oh this shit will make anyone cynical & misanthropic as f£&#. I've spent the last 15 yrs dealing with wife bashers,drink drivers, dementia sufferers,getting kids taken off drug addict mothers,people who are 100% upstairs, but have been shitting their pants for for the last 45years.The 20% of the population with no problems don't ever need us. We are society's condoms.
Put lures at the PokeStops nearest to your office
Take at look at how Jimmy McGill marketed himself for some tips.
"If you're not talking to your partner then maybe you should talk to one of ours" -best family law billboard I've seen.
anyway - have a look at what other law firms are doing.
e.g. http://fisherdore.com.au/ this firm has some reasonable ideas. check out the links at the bottom of the page for social media.
explanations of how aspects of law work is always interesting (for me at least). throw in some examples of clever arguments that have been used. think of all the interesting things learnt at Uni whilst studying law and use them.
but don't explain too much. give the viewer some food for thought.
don't tell them about the family law website where they can find DIY kits for family law matters and examples of how to complete forms/subpoenas etc.
Facebook is still king, especially in Australia. If you only have two hours per week then focus your time there. You will need to provide content to build a following rather than selling services. For the most views/reach these days short video clips are best. If you have a bunch of emails from clients then you can invite them to like your page and away you go. Fiverr.com is also a good website to get simple things done cheap such as a nice banner for the facebook page.
To be upfront I'm not business savvy and don't use social media much. But I wouldn't take a advert in FB about a law firm seriously. I'm a person who would still use Google. That being the case, maybe (not sure on your budget) promote your Facebook page/site through Google. So when someone in you PMA is searching for what your business has to offer, it comes up on the top of the list. Then the user may check out your FB page for reviews, happy/unhappy customers etc. Don't make things too long or too short either. Too much info bores people but not enough annoys them. Try and promote the usage of FB Messenger e.g. - PM us for any questions. I'm sure possible clients will feel more comfortable sending a pm rather than email/phone call, especially if they're a bit timid.
Just how I would feel. I hear Linked In is the way to go business wise these days but I'm not that interested. But maybe comment/post on everyone and everything with a link to your FB page so heaps of people may click on it. Lol.
Thanks I might revisit Linkdin.
The 2hrs/wk is just the minimum amount of marketing. My colleagues & I put in way more including volunteering at a community center giving free advice to seniors.This works quite well if you look at costs& time spent vs client conversion.
As a firm we are fish out of water when it comes to the brave new world of practice. Our firm was founded in the 1850s and in many ways it is still run like it is the 1850s.Most work is for existing clients or younger generations of the same families.
We only started advertising of any form in 2005 when I started working here because the older partners considered any type of advertising tacky including the Yellow Pages.I think they want a social media presence because you cannot rely on client loyalty any more because the net has turned modern practice into a tinder dating site.I'm with Soundwave and your older partners. First thing I do is rely on word of mouth. I'm skeptical about law firms that advertise since it makes me wonder why they need to advertise. I've never heard of a real person or TV actor finding their divorce lawyer on Facebook.
My personal opinion is that Australian baby boomers are very hard to reach electronically. Most are retired or retiring. Hate spending time with screens because of failing eyesight and short attention span. When they're online its for a routine set of tasks/websites Eg. eMail, Facebook, dating, national news.
If your firm had LinkedIn profiles I'd probably look up the resumes of all associates (Eg. qualifications, employment history, durations).
Finding a random solicitor is a process that's fearful, worrisome, has lots of unknowns, mentally exhausting. The internet just compounds and makes self research increasingly exhausting and frustrating for the elderly. Very few are tech savvy.
Don't let me discourage you. I think like an old fuddy duddy. Since the outlay is minimal there's no harm in trying. Good luck.
The way I've used LinkedIn & BNI was not to network directly with retirees but to their advisers like accountants & financial planners.
Looks like you've been pigeon holed. They assume as you are young, you know what to do.
Can I ask, the sort of clientele you have, would they be ones interested in social media platform (asides from Linkedin perhaps).