Catapult Your Law Firm’s Engagement Efforts with Hashtags
Once upon a time, I scoffed at the idea of using hashtags in my posts.
As a content writer, I now know the error of my once skeptical ways.
Initial mistrust aside, I was unsure of how this strategy even worked. It wasn’t until I did my research and watched other companies reap the benefits of using hashtags that I realized they pack a mighty powerful punch in your social media efforts.
Today, we’re going to explore 5 ways your law firm can use hashtags to up their social media game and expand their client outreach.
How the Hashtag Came to Be
The infamous hashtag first made its appearance in 2007. Chris Messina , hashtag creator and former Google designer, thought it could be a useful tool to help categorize Twitter feeds by topic (this included pictures, content, messages, you name it). By adding a pound sign before certain words and phrases, it made it easier for people to read what others were posting in relation to that word/phrase.
Even Twitter expressed skepticism over the success of this method, but was soon proven wrong when the hashtag became the new IT strategy for exposing your brand name and engage with the masses of the internet. Soon enough, Facebook jumped aboard this fast moving train and allowed users to create hashtags on their site. Now, it’s one of the most widely used methods of engaging with millions of social media users around the world.
Searching for Hashtags for Your Law Firm
The key to engaging your target audience via hashtags is to use relevant words or phrases they would look for. For attorneys, using hashtags like #legaladvice, #lawfirm and #attorney would be the obvious choices. To take it a step further, you can even include your target city within the hashtag for a broader local outreach–like #ftlauderdaleattorney, for instance.
If you’re not sure which hashtags to use to achieve the highest possible outreach, there are tools available to help you along the way:
- Twitonomy is a highly useful tool to help hone in on hashtags you can use based on your content. This site analyzes your Twitter activity and offers detailed analytics to help create personalized hashtags for your firm.
- Facebook also has a “trending” section on the upper right-hand corner of your homepage where you can browse through trending hashtags that are sorted by topic (politics, arts+entertainment, etc).
- Keyhole can also help you find associated hashtags to use when posting.
- Rite Tag is an awesome tool for analyzing hashtags. This site allows you to type in a word or phrase and see how it performs on Twitter. Below, I analyzed the hashtag #immigration:
© Based on Best hashtags for immigration calculated by
There are Rules to Using Hashtags
Hashtags will only work in your favor if you know how to use them.
I’ll admit that I was a bit (ok, very much) of a newbie when it came to using hashtags. I was so clueless to this craft that, at first, #alot #of #my #content #looked like #this, which is not appealing at all. I soon found out that the way you structure a hashtag is just as important as simply using it. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a hashtag for your law firm:
- Do your research. Before posting, research popular attorney hashtags. This will really expose your content to the right audience. You can even search for general hashtags trending worldwide and find ways to weave them into your posts to increase your outreach.
- Keep your hashtag short. The longer your hashtag is, the more difficult it will be for your target audience to find you. It also increases the possibility that someone will misspell your hashtag when using it. The key is to keep it short, but detailed. If you want to coin a hashtag that is a bit longer than most, capitalize the first letter of each word to make it easier to read. For instance:
- There are ways you can “break” your hashtag and render it useless. Social networks do not recognize symbols such as “@” and punctuation marks (unless they are numbers that are complemented with text, such as #summer2018).
- Don’t overdo it. Some companies–social media-savvy law firms included–think it’s ok to stuff your posts with hashtags in an effort to be noticed. This actually works against you and will turn your audience away.
- Keep your profile public. Social networks do not allow hashtags to be viewed on private profiles. If you want your audience to notice you, maintain a public social media profile.
#tipsfromatrustworthyattorney is difficult to read at a glance. However,
#TipsFromATrustworthyAttorney allows your reader to differentiate words for smoother reading.
Hashtags are Also Great for Branding
Many companies have created personalized hashtag campaigns to set themselves apart from their competitors and create a greater appeal. Take toilet paper manufacturer Charmin, for example. While the toilet paper industry may not be on my top 10 list of exciting ventures, they were able to generate attention by creating the hashtag #TweetFromTheSeat. I don’t think I need to go into much detail as to how people used this hashtag, so I’ll end this one here.
The point is, your law firm can create a hashtag campaign to generate exposure. If executed successfully, this strategy can help you rise in search rankings.
Hashtag Your Images
Instagram is a huge social media platform for attorneys to increase exposure via hashtags. Not only are you able to include these hashtags in your photo captions, but you can even include your personalized hashtag in your pictures for branding purposes. The key is to mix in other common hashtags with your personalized one in order to expose your post to others. For example, our team at Clicc Media Inc created the hashtag #CliccTravels to document the places we visit. Here’s a photo of one of our team member’s recent trip to NYC:
Keep Track of Your Hashtags
Because using hashtags and engaging with your audience can be time consuming, your firm can benefit from using a social media management system to keep yourself organized. Tools like TweekDeck and Hootsuite help you monitor your social media accounts and engage with others using your target hashtags.
Make Your Law Firm Stand Out From Competitors
Hashtags are a highly effective way of increasing exposure and revenue for your law firm, but it’s not the sole solution to achieving this growth. Social media is but a small fraction of a much larger internet marketing equation. Think of it this way: if hashtags alone carry this much power, imagine how much your law firm can succeed if it embraces other effective marketing techniques?
At Clicc Media Inc, we assist law firms nationwide by providing tailored internet marketing plans -including social media exposure– to help your firm climb search rankings. Contact us today at 954-271-3111 or fill out our online form to learn more about internet marketing tactics for your law firm.