July 25, 2021

The Benefit of Facebook Lawyer Groups for Your Firm

There are many social media platforms available today, and many of them have distinct advantages. However, law firms that choose to start a Facebook group can reap the benefits of the unique advantage provided by this platform.

Starting a Facebook group provides you with an effective opportunity to build your firm’s following. It’s even more helpful to create a group first before a Facebook page, though having both is best. Keep reading for an in-depth look at Facebook groups and how they can benefit your law firm.

What Is A Facebook Group?

A Facebook group allows people to gather in one place focused on a topic, interest, or organization. Many businesses use them as a channel of communication that keeps their members up to date. It provides an area to build relationships, network, and support clients. You can create a group to cater towards a specific location, your firm’s specialization, or your practice in general.

Facebook makes it easy to create your group from the website. It’s easy to navigate, and you can manage it like you would your other profiles.

Not yet convinced? Here are the reasons why you should begin building your Facebook group.

Customer Service Platform At No Cost

Creating a Facebook group costs nothing. You don’t have to allocate much of a budget, only a schedule so that you always have a presence. You can even have some team members focus on the group to make it so that there’s always someone online. Now you have a platform where you can promptly answer questions and address the concerns of the group.

As you assist and answer people, you create an informative resource for your clients. Other people will see your dedication, bringing a more positive outlook to your firm. Facebook already has a built-in chat tool and all the resources you need to manage the group.

Facebook Continues To Develop Groups Further

Facebook likes the growth and direction of their Groups feature. It creates more communities and is a center point for activity on the site. Being an edge they have over other platforms, they want to develop Groups further. According to Mark Zuckerberg, some of the plans they have for groups include:

• Fresh design
• Simpler interface
• New tools to engage and share
• An easier way to discover groups

An Avenue To Build Trust

For users, joining a group is one of the best ways to know and understand a company. They’ll begin to understand your values and your culture. People will also start to learn more about you based on how you engage and interact with them. It’s a place that benefits both existing customers and prospective clients.

As a law firm, you have the opportunity to build your brand. The more you interact, the more your group members will like and trust you. The improved credibility can make you their leading choice for any legal help they need.

Here are some ways you can build trust and client relationships using Facebook groups:

• Respond promptly to group questions
• Provide valuable content and engage with group members
• Promote free events like webinars
• Use Facebook Live to talk about popular topics the group finds interesting
• Hold Q&A sessions on the group page that people can refer back to

Integrate Paid Membership

You can set up your Facebook group so that it becomes an alternative avenue for income. It’s a relatively new feature, but iOS and Android are now testing subscription groups. You can charge anywhere from $4.99 to $29.99 a month for people to join the paid membership. However, it does pose the risk of diminishing the number of people in the group.

You can offer it as an add-on to the group, but the payment must be something justifiable. You can provide exclusive content or the opportunity to interact with specialists on your team. The good thing about this new feature is that Facebook handles all the payments and the back-end for you.

Promotes Your Legal Practice

As you offer value through your presence in the group, you are also promoting your business. You can even post any marketing materials you may have or promote your services directly. However, don’t do this too often, as it can end up backfiring.

The best way to promote your services is to do a small plug as you’re doing other activities. Here are some examples of how to do this:

• Share blog posts that funnel people to your website
• Do a small promotion at the start or end of a Facebook live session
• Share a bit of information about a case you handled in the past to promote the work you do

Facebook Groups Allows You To Connect With Millions

Groups are one of the Facebook features that has been experiencing fast growth. The website now has over 200 million people who are a part of different groups, more than half of the population. With a group, you provide yourself the opportunity to connect with these millions. Not everyone will want to join, but there will always be those who will realize they need it when the opportunity arises.

Groups are also experiencing the most activity and engagement compared to other parts of the site. You want to be in the place where your clients and prospects are the most active.

An Opportunity To Increase Your Email List

A Facebook group can grow your email list and help you avoid cluttering your group with marketing plugs. By encouraging email sign-ups through your group, you can let your email campaign do the marketing and keep the group focus on being helpful to members.

You can invite people to join your email list through several methods:

• Promote your email newsletter in a group question post: you can entice group members to sign-up by offering a freebie. This can be a PDF, guide, workbook, or other exclusive content.
• Link any new blog posts to the group: the posts will lead to your website that members can explore. You can also promote your email newsletter and your freebie within the content.
• Make an announcement: promote your freebie through the post. Make sure you invest enough time and resources to make it enticing for group members to sign-up. You’ll often get an idea of what they’re looking for as you interact with them.
• Create a welcome post: the post can include your lead magnet, which leads to your email sign-up. Promote a bit about the freebie in your welcome post so that people are aware and can click through your link.

Facebook Prioritizes Group Posts On A Member’s News Feed

Even as group members, many people don’t often directly go to the group page as the first thing they do after logging in. They’ll usually spend time scrolling through their news feed to find a few interesting posts. Facebook knows this, and as a part of their promotion of groups, they often sprinkle group posts throughout the feed. It allows you to stay visible to group members without putting any extra effort into it.

When you post a message, blog, or Q&A, it will likely appear on group members’ news feeds. Any posts by other members can appear, too, especially if they have enough engagement. It helps keep the group alive and keeps you on people’s minds.

Unique Free Features

Groups get new updates that other social platforms would charge for. Here are some recent features Facebook has integrated specifically for groups:

• The mentorship feature creates an opportunity for group members to get support from your team. You can set up a mentorship program depending on what you want to offer or how much demand you have. Mentorship can last for ten weeks, and you don’t need to interact anywhere else apart from the group.
• Social learning groups allow you to organize content into modules. This way, you can make the group an e-learning platform. Coupled with organization updates, you can set up mini-courses for your members.
• Watch gives your members the ability to view and comment on content. You can organize the videos you want to show or even link to other related videos. You can also go live with the watchers and interact with them.

The Biggest Selling Point Of Facebook Groups

One of the advantages of Facebook is that it is a free platform. All you need to do is spend some time to make sure that your group page looks presentable. Have some rules ready, and begin inviting people to the group. As an alternative form of marketing, Facebook groups are a priority that all lawyers should consider.

With all the benefits of groups right now and Facebook’s plans to improve them further, you don’t want to miss out. Not many law firms understand the impact that an active group can provide. You can gain an edge by having a head start over your competitors. Starting a Facebook group is in your best interest, and we can help.