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A social media style guide
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: July 12, 2019
Social media is at once the boon and the bane of any law firm seeking business.
On the one hand, a substantial percentage of people seeking attorneys refer to some social media—LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter mostly.
On the other hand, one slip-up in fact, grammar, tone, content, etc. and your firm is the next viral sensation for all the wrong reasons.
But most firms still need that presence to keep up with the rest of the market.
Social media may seem somewhat random and haphazard, but it does have rules (which also may be random and haphazard). Because of that, a social media presence can be reduced to a template, and the folks at FindLaw have given that a shot.
Designed to help line up the firm’s content with its brand message with, this template is set up as a PowerPoint Q and A.
It asks questions designed to pull all firm social media accounts into the same style of presentation.
The end product is style guide or set of templates that the firm can use for all its social media across the board.
First up are questions about the firm’s social media itself. Answering these questions will create a list of the URLs of all social media accounts along with the names of their admins, passwords, etc.
Next up is setting the “voice” or online tone of the firm.
This is connected with brand control, which is essential in a sea of similar firm social media accounts.
The result of this line of questions could include instructions, key words, writing examples, or anything else so that all online language for the firm looks and sounds the same.
There are also sections specifically on grammar and firm terminology.
Image and design are next. It makes no sense to have one design for the website and another for Facebook.
All logos and photos need to be consistent across the board, and this will gather up the appropriate designs and photos in one place.
The guide will also include instructions on how to respond to problems like negative comments or difficult questions.
Findlaw’s social media style guide creator is free and is found here: https://www.lawyermarketing.com/blog/social-media-style-guide-for-law-firm/.
Looks like it is well worth a look.