Key Takeaways from the 2024 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference – Part Three
Blog Post
Next up in our series on the key takeaways from the 2024 Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Annual Conference is a post on the final pre-conference session our strategists attended on April 3rd.
Solo/Small Team - Small Budget, Big Impact: Cost-Effective Tools and Sustainable Strategies
Designed for legal marketers in smaller firms, this pre-conference program addressed the diverse range of skills and competencies essential for leading intentionally, confronting challenges, embracing opportunities, and leveraging business development strategies that produce success. Alexandra DeFelice, Director of Marketing and Business Development for Payne & Fears LLP, and Shelly Dhingra, Director of Marketing & Business Development for Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP, successfully co-chaired this interactive session.
Our takeaways focus on the sub-session Social Media Strategy for Legal Professionals: Maximizing Impact, Minimizing Costs, led by Stefanie Marrone, Founder of Stefanie Marrone Consulting/The Social Media Butterfly. A more detailed summary of her sub-session can be found in her blog article “Social Media Success Strategies with a Limited Budget and Resources.”
Stefanie expressed that, given their limited resources and budgets, it is imperative for small and medium-sized firms to strategically leverage their social media accounts, maximizing the impact as well as the return on investment (ROI) for branding and business development. Outlined below are some of the effective social media strategies that Stefanie shared.
Optimizing Social Media Presence
Rather than trying to maintain a presence on every social media platform, Stefanie suggested selecting one or two where your audience is most actively engaged. As the primary social network for professional services firms, LinkedIn should be included as one of your chosen platforms; clients, referrals, recruits, alumni, and employees regularly browse LinkedIn for valuable content and advice. When using LinkedIn, be sure to share valuable insights and information to keep your connections engaged – simply reposting content from others is not enough.
Another recommendation for enhancing your social media presence is to create a robust content strategy. Compelling content attracts and retains your audience; try incorporating diverse formats, such as explanatory videos, informative infographics, and insightful articles, to foster engagement. AI can be used to streamline this content creation, as it can assist with generating ideas, optimizing posts for engagement, and keeping your social media strategy aligned with your audience and the latest trends. Stefanie also emphasized the importance of setting a clear objective for your social media efforts so that you can monitor your progress along the way and adjust your approach as needed.
Creative Ideas for Engaging Content
It can be quite challenging to generate ideas for creating engaging content; however, Stefanie offered a comprehensive list that can help get you started:
- Special Occasions: cultural and historical celebrations, professional observances, and service honours
- Showcasing Your Firm: employee Q&As, practice group spotlights, alumni profiles, CSR initiative highlights, and nostalgic posts
- Leveraging Creativity: behind-the-scenes (BTS) content, expert insights, webinar/workshop invitations, and legal updates and commentary
- Celebrating Success: employee achievements and milestones, client success stories, and partnership announcements
- Lifestyle and Relatability: book recommendations and team-building activities
Additional Steps for an Effective Social Media Strategy
Stefanie presented a few final considerations when creating an effective social media strategy with limited resources and budgets:
- Audit Your digital footprint
- Craft a content calendar
- Engage with your network daily
- Try out an AI tool
- Dive into social media analytics
To read about the other pre-conference sessions our strategists attended, view posts one and two in our 2024 LMA Annual Conference key takeaways series.
What is the LMA Annual Conference?
The LMA Annual Conference is a premier event in the legal marketing industry, bringing together professionals from around the world to explore innovative strategies, forge meaningful connections, and learn about industry developments. It typically features keynote presentations, breakout sessions, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, skill development, and professional relationships among attendees.