2018 has been a year of changes for digital marketing. The only constant has been never-ending change in everything from algorithms to privacy regulations. It is easy to ignore such rapid-fire changes or to dismiss them as not applying to your firm. After all, you might be thinking, why should my law firm care about changes in algorithms and social media management tools? At PSM, we understand that as a firm, the last thing you should have to worry about is LinkedIn points and Facebook traction. In this post, we cover what you need to know about the social media platform changes and a few easy tips for making sure your content isn’t left behind.
Social Media Strategy
We’ve outlined below a summary of changes on the big three social media platforms, along with suggestions for working with the changes. Of course, each individual firm has a different voice, brand, team, and goals, so you should think of these suggestions as a launching point for a fresh approach. Keep in mind that your current strategy isn’t bad, but that adjusting and shifting to meet new challenges is key to keeping your marketing fresh and relevant.
Facebook changed their algorithm to make the platform pay-to-play for businesses. This means that posts from businesses receive lower priority and therefore decreased reach – unless they have a pay per click ad budget set up OR have a high amount of engagement. Engagement is usually categorized as likes, comments, and reports. Business pages with posts that don’t get much engagement will see the biggest drop in distribution, i.e., their reach and their placement at the top of newsfeeds.
Additionally, if you have used Buffer, Hootsuite, or any of the other social media management tools to post to your individual page – you will no longer be able to do so. That’s right, you can no longer post to your individual Facebook profile using a third-party app. Posting to a company page or a Facebook group is still allowed.
So, what can your firm do?
- Prioritize engagement to boost reaction and therefore reach and distribution.
- Advocacy: Ask employees of your firm to follow the company page and engage with the posts.
- Create opportunities for engagement with questions and polls in the text you post.
- Always use an image. You should have been doing this already, but now is a good time to remember!
While other social media channels have been struggling, LinkedIn has made huge strides in marketing options, tools, and integrations. Recent changes to LinkedIn allow an individual to show more of their background image, put more parts of an individual profile front and center, and share more personality via GIFs and video. Now, a user can post native and linked video content to their profile or company page.
The most significant change, however, is the way in which LinkedIn assigns points, i.e., reach and visibility of content. Video posts have a high number of points, while posts with just text receive fewer points. Engagement with a post boost points. Thus, a video post with decent amount of engagement (likes, repost, comments) will receive even more points and increased visibility on a user’s newsfeed.
The point breakdown for LinkedIn is here:
- +15 points video and long form text
- +13 points video and short form text
- +12 points videos (uploaded natively– not from YouTube or Vimeo)
- +10 points long form text post (> 3 lines)
- +8 points per short form text post (< 3 lines+5 points per article
- +5 points per comment received
- +3 points per like received
- +2 points per share received
So, what can your firm do?
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- Post original firm videos directly to your firm’s page
- Publish short form content to personal team profiles
- Create clear guidelines for LinkedIn engagement among the team such as:
- Re-posting firm content
- Liking firms posts at least twice per week
- Comments on firm content at least twice per month
Based on efforts to reduce fake accounts, it is not possible to post to multiple Twitter accounts from one SMMT. The impact of this change will be felt mostly for firms that have multiple Twitter profiles tied to them. There’s no need to worry if you are a sole proprietor or posting to just one Twitter profile!
So, what can your firm do?
Use one SMMT account per Twitter account.
Consolidate efforts and time to focus on one Twitter account.
Create clear guidelines for Twitter engagement among staff such as:
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- Re-tweeting company content
- Liking posts at least twice per week
- Comments on content at least twice per month
Summary
Take stock of your current digital marketing plan and identify where and when you can implement the suggestions above. Then, make an appointment with your PSM Project Manager to discuss next steps, strategy, and budget. Be sure to talk about concerns surrounding social media changes and ask questions about how to start using video to increase your visibility.