Many law firms have been using social media, particularly Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ to promote legal services. Some law firms are also using Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and others for promotional marketing. But do you really need to promote your legal services with social media and do you need to use all the most popular social media sites?

Social media is helpful for law firm marketing but, as with other advertising and marketing, only if used smartly. Using social media is a large consumer of time, so many businesses outsource this effort. However, outsourcing social media content sharing can be bad for your law practice if you’re using an inexpensive service. Social media marketing is one area where you shouldn’t look to save money if you don’t have time to do it yourself.

If your law firm provides legal services to the general public such as personal injury, social media may be more beneficial and several social media sites may be beneficial. If your law firm is a corporate law firm providing commercial business services, the most important and perhaps only social media site beneficial for your law practice is probably LinkedIn.  John Boitnott, mentioned infra (I know this isn’t a motion but this article is just for lawyers), suggests that law firms only need to use LinkedIn and Facebook.

How much time do you need to spend, how much content do you need to share, how often and at what times are some of the questions you should consider. An article by John Boitnott published at Inc. is a good outline about protecting your brand when using social media. The article also shows the number of times per day and the best times per day to share content on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn & Google+ to avoid spamming or turning off followers.

Another article at Top10GoogleResults.com provides more information about the best days and times of day to post content on social media sites.

This article shows the Top 15 Social Networking Sites You Should Be Using