A Beginner's Guide to Boost Your Social Engagement with Brendan Ruane
Gaining traction on social media and other websites is hard, especially if you do not know how to market your firm. With a pot of unique marketing strategies available today, expanding your firm’s authority and reputation in the digital era may be confusing as well. It’s a great thing experts in the field can always help you boost your brand in the most optimal way possible.
In this episode, Brendan Ruane, a website designer, digital marketing specialist, and founder of Light Switch Advisors, talks about how social marketing should not always be expensive, tiring, and time-consuming. He shares the dos and don’ts in social marketing, including various techniques he gained from working with an array of law figures and agencies.
If you want to know more about how you can propel your brand by boosting your social engagement the right way, make sure you tune in to this episode.
Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode
- Discover the first steps to boosting your company’s social media presence.
- Understand why radicalizing people and the community benefits your brand’s outlook.
- Learn how to measure the effectiveness of your social marketing strategy and when to change paradigms.
Resources
- Interested in widening your business perspective? Grab a FREE Law Firm Expansion Coaching Session with one of our coaches. Slots are limited, so grab yours before they’re gone!
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- Want to implement what you’ve learnt in this episode? Download the Action Guide, a workbook designed to help you process and implement the knowledge gained from this interview.
- Connect with Brendan Ruane: Email | Facebook | LinkedIn | Phone: (203) 302-9986
- Light Switch Advisors
- FirmFlex
Episode Highlights
Brendan’s Journey to Digital Marketing
- Growing up with a solo parent, Brendan made it his goal to help people use their budget efficiently.
- Brendan’s crusade in the legal marketing space is from a recommendation by his brother Jay, who is at the time working in their family’s law firm.
- His newfound interest in working with clients in the digital space gave birth to his company, Light Switch Advisors.
- FirmFlex is a separate social media company for lawyers managed by Brendan and his brother.
FirmFlex Services
Moshe: “Finding the right marketing solution, I think, is one of the biggest struggles that most law firm owners work with on a daily basis.”
- FirmFlex offers three different products centered on increasing the marketability and social media presence of law firms.
- DIY Plan is one of FirmFlex’s products that sends daily text messages to client accounts, which will send them into a private Facebook group. Once launched, the company will provide three different ideas, hashtags, and stock images for the client’s use on their platforms.
- Brendan shares his company’s social supersystem, a cloud-based platform that makes for a full graphical editor. He recommends it for smaller firms not planning to hire a social media company or personnel.
- FirmFlex also does Facebook funnels, which is a five-step built-in system within client accounts. It runs by engaging potential customers on Facebook with similar activities and ads on their feeds.
What Law Firms Should Do First
- Brendan believes the first agenda for marketing a firm is to increase its website’s competency.
- The strategy involves preparing the website for a big first impression instead of a new and flashy design.
- Most people don’t understand the proper way to use social media. Some lawyers only rely on their track record and referrals to engage with leads.
- Brendan’s experience in the industry made him realize two important factors in driving engagement: staying consistent with the law-related branding and letting people know the legal services you offer.
Brendan: “I really do believe that social is one of the most cost-effective ways to build your brand.”
Radicalizing People to Your Brand
- Radicalizing people means engendering some debates.
- When a person interacts with a post, the algorithm that drives engagement leads similar posts to be suggested to the same user.
- Social media marketing is two-fold. It works not only on the algorithmic side, but also on the personal side.
Brendan: “The personality type that is going to be engaging with a lot of your stuff is the perfect referral source for you.”
Most Optimal Workflow When Posting Content
- The best and most optimal workflow is to post on your business page and then share it on your personal page.
- Posting the content on your personal page contributes to the algorithm at work.
- Personal posting also allows people connected with you to see your content, activity, and the other posts you interact with as well.
The Ripple Effect of Facebook’s Algorithm
- To gain traction on Facebook, a business page must first get initial engagement and likes.
- One question often raised in social engagement is how companies can build an initial movement that will campaign their business page.
- The first step in social engagement is to invite everybody you are personally connected with to follow your page.
- There is no secret sauce to gaining social media followers unless you have something that goes completely viral.
Brendan: “Part of the problem with socials that most people have is that it isn’t instantaneous.”
Consistency Is Key
- You need to be consistent to market your services effectively.
- Brendan’s supersystem platform can provide clients with topics that are relevant and consistent with their business.
- Showing a little personality in your posts gives your potential clients the impression that they know your staff well and can trust them.
Brendan: “The more personalized you can make the posts, the better responses you’re going to get.”
How to Measure Your Progress
Brendan: “The people that follow you on social media are the people that are going to refer your business going forward.”
- For Brendan, the first line in measuring progress is looking at the engagement you get from your posts.
- Engagement metrics refer to the number of likes, comments, and shares in proportion to the number of followers on your page.
- Facebook analytics show you the topics driving your engagement, which are also the posts you would want to focus on.
Brendan: “When you get one of these posts that blows up, it’s great. But, really, what you’re looking for is just the consistency of people interacting with your stuff.”
Engagement for Non-Geographically Centered Firms
- Non-geographically centered firms refer to companies that serve minority groups or areas of the law that may not suit the general public.
Brendan: “Marketing any practice nationwide is a challenge compared to anything local.”
- One way to apply engagement is to go state-by-state or focus on posting in areas where there is a larger potential to draw interaction.
- Brendan recommends posting non-business-related content for media engagement if you have the budget.
The Correct Way to Post Content
- Always include a call to action in your post.
- Relating your business to another local one through tags and following can increase public familiarity.
- A realistic video post is a powerful tool that can generate more interaction than a plain image post.
About Brendan
Brendan Ruane is the founder and CEO of Light Switch Advisors, a small digital marketing agency in Connecticut, USA. Brendan came from a family of attorneys and built his first legal website while studying in college at Loyola University, Maryland. He also became the Director of Marketing for a small law firm while learning in the presence of respected professionals in the marketing field.
Throughout his career, he has helped various law firms and law figures enrich their social media presence by applying his skills in the social and digital marketing niche. His expertise centers on custom WordPress design, SEO marketing, social media marketing, PPC, marketing funnels, keyword research, press releases, and Google Analytics, among many others.
If you wish to get in touch with Brendan and want to know more about his company’s services, you may send him a message at [email protected], or call him at (203) 302-9986.
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Author
Moshe Amsel
Author
Moshe Amsel the host of the Profit with Law podcast is not an attorney. As the owner of a successful accounting firm DreamBuilder Financial and Law Firm Growth coaching organization Profit with Law, Moshe has proven that there are better and different ways for a law firm to do business and be successful.
