Most lawyers struggle with social media for a simple reason: they don’t know what to do. Lawyers post their settlements and verdicts and law firm announcements, but they forget one thing: NO ONE CARES! That’s right, no one (other than your mother and maybe your spouse) cares that you won a big case.
Give Value and Ask for Nothing
Your friends on social media only care about one thing: WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR THEM. Give as much value as you can and ask for nothing in return—this is the key to becoming a star on social media. Think, what actionable advice or pearl of wisdom can you share that will make the lives of your friends/followers better?
St. Louis immigration lawyer, Jim Hacking, Esq., has a daily blog that offers his best tips for life, i.e., overcoming failure, hanging with high achievers, etc. Jim’s tips are simple, but inspirational, and I read them just about every day because they deliver value (BTW, Jim’s and Tyson Mutrux, Esq.’s podcast, The Maximum Lawyer, is loaded with fantastic interviews for lawyers).
The king of social media, Gary Vaynerchuk (“Gary Vee”), posts 1-2 videos a day with his best tips for social media. Gary Vee’s video are laden with obscenities and most are not professionally edited, but who cares? Gary Vee delivers a ton of value for his fans and the results are predictable: he has over a million rabid Facebook followers and has built a media empire in just a few years.
How You Can Become the King of Social Media
“Facebook Live” changed the game dramatically. Live video on Facebook catches the attention of your audience more than anything else. Simply click and broadcast video to your audience—anywhere, anytime. Livestreaming is the closest you can get to talking to someone face-to-face.
There are no fees for live broadcasting (other than data charges). No video editing or production is necessary. “Facebook Live” is the streaming platform to beat. Unless they are tech savvy, most of your audience may never have heard of Periscope or Meerkat. Facebook has a user base of 2 billion.
The cost is not just free to you, but also free to those consuming your content. All you need for a live broadcast is your phone and the right app. “Facebook Live” from the Facebook app is the easiest way to go live. The “Live Video” button on your personal profile, fan page or group is all you need to go live.
With the Facebook Live feature on the Mevo live event camera (getmevo.com), you can bring in someone from another location right into your Facebook live event.
It’s Not About You
Hate being on camera? Too bad–You don’t have a choice if you want to become a social media rock star. You have to allow yourself some leeway to be imperfect. No one is thinking about you—they are watching to see what they can get out of it. Don’t worry what you look like; people want to see the real you. Tell a story, talk like you would with your best friend, smile and have fun (perfection is boring).
Above anything else, DELIVER VALUE. Think of ways that you can change the lives of your fans/followers and get right to the point. Deliver snippets of golden information without wasting a word. The duration of your video is unimportant; what matters is that you give all of your best secrets away.
How to Build Your Fan Base
Set a Facebook Live Event ahead of time so you can promote it. Have a planned start time and end time and tell people when you are going to finish the live broadcast. You need to broadcast when your audience is most likely online.
Nothing beats an email list. Tell the fans on your email list when you’re going live and tell them when you are live. An email list is always the best way to get your content seen by others.
There is no limit to where you can share your stream. Facebook Live allows the embedding of Facebook steams on other websites and blogs and broadcasting to a closed Facebook group. This allows you to stream to a specific audience on a free platform and interact with your audience live and in real-time.
Share a live stream across multiple Facebook groups and share the link on other Facebook pages, profiles or groups. Ask your audience to share your broadcast if they think it would be of benefit or ask them to register for your podcast or webinar. Anyone watching your content is associated with an average of 155 friends. End the broadcast with a call to action, i.e., explain how to join your email list.
Host a Q&A event on your Facebook page on a regular basis, i.e., St. Louis injury lawyer, Tyson Mutrux, Esq.’s “Monday Morning Q&A”. Educate and fill your viewers with knowledge. Teach your audience what they want to know and you become a hero.
Leverage Live Video to Expand Your Audience
Facebook live streams become re-playable moments after you are done broadcasting live. Keep a copy/archive of all of your live content and make the content available after the stream. By making the content available, you will reach more people.
The majority of consumption of your live content with happen when you aren’t live. When done with broadcast, you have great material to reach another audience through redistribution. The people who watch the replay will be the fastest growing segment of your audience. Add the live stream to your podcast and YouTube channel.
Link the live stream video to your YouTube channel and get a unique domain for your YouTube channel (www.JohnFisher.Video). YouTube has a replay option for your live stream content and YouTube analytics provides the number of views for each video.
Build Your Brand with a Unique Domain Name
Redirect the domain to the platform of your choice, i.e., YourName.live (www.JohnFisher.Live). YourName.Live is unique and professional. Register your domain name and redirect it to your page. Each domain registrar has a different process for redirecting a domain—their support staff should be able to help.
photo credit: ePublicist Social media wordcloud via photopin (license)
