Best Free Social Media Tools for Lawyers

william-iven-19844-unsplash

Are you struggling to find the time to update your firm’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ pages? Here are the top apps and tools I use that help streamline and speed up my day-to-day social media tasks. BONUS: These are all free tools (but to gain access to the fancy features, some do require an upgrade/payment).

Hootsuite

The struggle I probably hear most often is not having enough time to go to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ daily to post content and address replies/comments. There are several social media management systems that allow you to not only update all your channels with one click but also to see your channel activity in one web-based dashboard.

Hootsuite lets users link Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ accounts to its dashboard, with the capability to create multiple streams for each account. It helps you track and manage your many social network channels. You can even set up hashtag and keyword searches in the dashboard to monitor what people are saying about your brand and respond instantly. With so many networks for law firms to manage, Hootsuite is a great tool to streamline work and reduce extraneous tasks. It also provides analytics and reporting tools to measure the success of your social media efforts.

Feedly

Feedly is not only an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader, but also so much more.  Rather than bookmarking all your favorite blogs, or subscribing to them via your email, you can add them all to a Feedly account.  You can group your content by interest (i.e. law, marketing, Houston news).  In addition to allowing you to input your own content, Feedly suggests popular blogs and journals on topics of interest to you. Feedly interfaces with social media, making it easy to share blogs you like directly to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and more, positioning you as a knowledge sharer and influencer.

Buffer

Sign up for Buffer, and share webpage or digital content that you find interesting or “share-worthy” from your desktop or mobile phone directly to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn … but wait there’s more.  Buffer integrates with Feedly, so rather than sending a lot of tweets or updates at once inundating your followers and risking the unfollow/unlike or having to spend an extra step scheduling the update in Hootsuite, Buffer automatically schedules to share the content based on optimal timing.

Canva

If your law firm does not have a graphic designer and you don’t currently use graphics in your social media updates or presentations, Canva is going to become your best friend.  Canva has predesigned social media image templates for Facebook cover images, as well as basic social media update images that you can customize with your own text, pictures, and logos in less than two minutes. Images are powerful tools in your social media arsenal, as image-based content is shared so much more often on social media channels.


Social media does not have to be a time consuming initiative in your marketing strategy, but it can be overwhelming if your firm is just getting started.  In today’s digital marketing landscape, you have to do more than connect your blog to auto-update all your social media platforms.  You must manage your channels. If you are interested in learning more about how law firms are using social media, drop us a note.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share with friends