A Less Time-Consuming Approach to Instagram for Law Firms

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, and it is no secret that it has a significant impact on the way businesses interact with their clients. This is especially true for law firms, which rely heavily on their reputation and credibility to attract new clients. In 2023 with a wide variety of social media platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to have a strong and frequent social media presence on every platform, especially if you don’t have someone dedicated to managing your social media accounts. 

Why Law Firms Should Have an Instagram Presence

As a marketer, it is easy to say every business needs an Instagram account. To back up this claim as it relates to divorce and family law firms, let’s consider the social media engagement statistics for a few different target markets. To start us off, 42% of the entire world’s population is on social media. As younger generations take up a higher proportion of the population, social media will continue to increase in power, and businesses that effectively communicate via their social media presence are more likely to gain the business of social media users, which is only increasing as time goes on. 

Age of internet users who use Instagram

• 67% of people ages 18–29 use Instagram
• 47% of people ages 30–49 use Instagram
• 23% of people ages 50–64 use Instagram
• 8% of people that are 65+ years old use Instagram

In addition to higher Instagram usage with younger groups, in 2022 about 71% of businesses have Instagram accounts. Chances are your direct competitors have an Instagram account that your potential clients may come across before finding your website online. 83% of Instagram users report finding new products or services on the platform, indicating a massive consumer behavior shift from the early days of Instagram with limited functionality relative to what we see today. 

Year after year, the amount of Instagram users has consistently trended upward since January 2013. Between June 2018 and December 2021, Instagram users doubled in size from 1 billion to 2 billion. The data indicates a continual increase in Instagram’s popularity and value as a marketing platform for businesses. 

I hope the data and statistics above have convinced you to create an Instagram account for your law firm if you haven’t already. This brings us to why your law firm should have an Instagram presence. Instagram accounted for 17% of the time US adults spent on social media in 2022. Since the majority of businesses are on Instagram, it is important for your law firm to consider your target market’s user journey starting with the first search. Algorithms are powerful, and Instagram may show you posts based on your behaviors and interests, so you don’t want your competitors taking up all the traffic related to divorce and family law services in your city. People also may use Instagram to do some research on your brand identity, customer satisfaction, and your overall authority in the field. With the increase in internet scams in recent years, Instagram users may be hesitant to visit your website link outside of the platform. Even if they are not hesitant to scams, we live in a time of easy access to copious amounts of information- if you don’t make it easy for people to learn about your law firm’s principles and services, you risk losing a client to a competitor that does make it easy for the consumer to be informed. 

The Nine-Post Instagram Strategy For Your Law Firm

If weekly Instagram maintenance is not currently an option for your law firm, consider a nine-post strategy with a designated plan to effectively update your Instagram grid. For Instagram, nine is a magic number because when someone visits your profile the nine most recent posts are in easy view. Instagram also allows you to pin up to three posts to the top of your profile which should impact your overall strategy. 

I recently went through the process of designing a low-maintenance Instagram page for a client and will walk you through that process to hopefully better understand the benefits of following this model. Let’s get started. 

Identify The Information You Need People To See Every Time They Visit Your Law Firm’s Profile

I approached this step by thinking about potential clients that will only see the top row of posts, what information should be prioritized? After analyzing questions in direct messages and identifying information that is generally helpful to know, I began to plan the top row of three posts to pin indefinitely to the top of the profile. My motive for the following three graphics was to answer the who, where, and what of the law firm, and one of its free resources that facilitates lead generation:

The next step is to create your graphics with a strong focus on the aesthetic of each visual both on its own and in relation to the other posts in the same row. When using a limited amount of posts, focusing on the overall aesthetic is extremely important. Canva is a wonderful tool for inspiration and template designs that you can adjust for your marketing needs. 

Determine Goals For Rows 2 and 3 On Your Grid

This step will vary depending on what business goals you set out for your Instagram page. Now you’ll want to consider the options Instagram provides- carousel posts, reels, videos, and solo posts- and also what media assets you have available to work with. From an aesthetic perspective, it is important to consider how each row will look on its own and how each row looks in relation to the others. 

For this particular client, the goal for the second row of the profile is to share informative reels about the attorneys at the firm and one reel about one of their practice areas.

Within Canva when you are editing a video, you have the option to save the video as a png in order to customize the cover thumbnail of the reel. As shown above, this gives you the opportunity to standardize the view and tie the whole row together. 

For the final row of information in this grid, the goal is to highlight your law firm’s subject matter expertise: 

This row came together with highlights of frequently asked questions, the firm overview video, and the blog posts the firm published in the previous quarter. 

Updating Your Law Firm’s Instagram Grid

The ability to pin up to three posts on your Instagram feed allows marketers more design freedom when it relates to updating the social account. Remember the first row of the grid should be reserved for crucial information for marketing your law firm, and the pin function allows for this information to stay on the top of your feed even if you delete or add new posts. 

The amazing thing about using this type of Instagram strategy for your law firm, other than saving time, is that you can customize if, how, and when the content shifts around. For some, a monthly update makes sense, for others, a quarterly update may be more practical. If resources are extremely tight and you design your grid effectively, you may be able to avoid making updates for up to a year, although we wouldn’t recommend this. Remember, 71% of businesses are on Instagram, so any curated marketing strategy to build your firm’s Instagram presence is preferable to no strategy at all. 

For this client their desire is to refresh the second and third rows for each quarter, updating and adapting content to reach their business goals. In addition to a quarterly update, this Instagram profile will reshare posts to their story and run interactive stories about twice a week. While this isn’t necessary, depending on your level of resources it could be an effective way to stay on the top of your follower’s minds and feed. 

Does This Strategy Make Sense For Your Law Firm? 

In this day and age having a social media presence should be a part of every business’s marketing plan. Having a stellar social media presence should be a high priority for every divorce and family law firm in 2023. If resources are limited, try a low-maintenance approach to Instagram. Even having just nine carefully curated social media posts can help you stand out amongst the competition and give a competitive edge on client acquisition. You may not be able to hire an attorney as a feature on Instagram yet, but should that day come, your law firm’s low-maintenance Instagram account will be an important stepping stone to your firm’s future growth. 

If your divorce and family law firm needs a boost, reset, or creation of your social media accounts, Cardinal Concepts is here to help. Whether you are interested in a one-time project or ongoing marketing services, get started today.