If your law firm is active on social media, or considering making more of it, Facebook will almost certainly have come up in conversation. It tends to divide opinion more than LinkedIn, which many in the legal sector consider the natural home for professional content. But for firms with a consumer-facing client base, Facebook deserves a serious look.
This guide is designed to help you make an informed decision: is Facebook right for your firm, and if so, how do you use it well?
Is Facebook Right for Your Law Firm?
Before you invest any time or budget, it’s worth re-considering who you’re trying to reach. Facebook is only ever one part of a wider approach to social media for law firms, so be deliberate about the role you want it to play.
When Facebook Works Best for Law Firms
Facebook works best for firms advising individuals on personal legal matters — areas where people are navigating significant life events and often turn to social media for reassurance, information and referrals. If your practice areas include personal injury, family law and divorce, wills and probate, immigration or criminal defence, Facebook is well worth considering.
When Facebook Is Less Effective for Solicitors
If your target clients are businesses, in areas such as commercial, corporate or banking and finance, Facebook is unlikely to be an effective channel. Your audience simply isn’t there in a professional mindset.
So your first step is to check your law firm’s marketing strategy. (What do you mean you don’t have one?! Our guide to creating a law firm marketing plan sets out a straightforward framework to get started) Be clear on who your target audience is and where they spend their time online; that decision should drive everything else.
How to Build a Facebook Content Strategy for Your Law Firm
Once you’ve confirmed Facebook is the right channel, the next step is building a realistic, sustainable content plan. Consistency matters far more than volume. Posting two or three times a week on a reliable schedule is more effective than sporadic bursts of activity.
Plan your content across a rolling monthly calendar and aim for a mix of the following:
Legal news and updates
Flag changes in the law or policy that may affect your clients. Keep the language plain and always ask yourself: “So what?” Why should someone reading this care? If you can’t answer that clearly, the post isn’t ready. For example, a change to intestacy rules is only interesting to your followers when you explain what it means for someone who dies without a will.
Firm news
Promotions, new hires, significant anniversaries, qualifications and awards all perform well. People engage with people, and this type of content builds familiarity and trust. Posts introducing individual team members, with a photo and a few lines about their background, consistently generate high engagement on law firm Facebook pages.
CSR and community activity
Charity fundraising, pro bono work, volunteering days and community sponsorships all resonate with a consumer audience. These posts tend to attract shares, which extends your reach organically beyond your existing followers.
Social events and celebrations
Office celebrations, team days and seasonal posts help humanise the firm. They don’t need to be polished, in fact, informal and authentic often outperforms highly produced content on Facebook, and anyone can snap a few photos on a smartphone that will work perfectly well.
Educational content
Q&As, myth-busting posts, short explainers and top tips work particularly well in consumer practice areas. “Five things to know if you’re going through a divorce” or “What happens if you die without a will?” are the kinds of posts people save, share and return to. Carousel posts (a series of swipe able image slides) are a strong format for this type of content and typically generate above-average engagement.
Facebook Post Formats That Perform Best
Video content, including short clips and Facebook Reels, consistently outperforms static images in reach. You don’t need a production team – a solicitor speaking to camera for 60 seconds on a topical issue can be highly effective. Images with text overlays and bold visuals also perform well.
Plain text posts with no image tend to have a much lower reach. Because Reels sit at the heart of Instagram too, the short-form video you produce for Facebook can usually be repurposed straight across. Our guide to Instagram for lawyers covers how to get the most from that format.
What to Avoid on Your Law Firm’s Facebook Page
Steer clear of overly promotional posts that push services without providing value. Hard-sell content (“Call us today!”) tends to be scrolled past. Avoid content that uses legal jargon without explanation, and posts without a clear relevance to your audience’s lives. And don’t share articles without adding your own commentary or angle.
6 Tips to Grow Your Law Firm’s Facebook Following
Building a Facebook following takes time, but there are practical steps that will accelerate it:
1. Invite your contacts
Facebook allows page admins to invite people from their personal profile to like the firm’s page. Encourage all fee-earners and staff to do this, even a few hundred connections per person can make a big difference early on.
2. Cross-promote across channels
Add a Facebook follow button to your website, email newsletters, and email signatures. If you send a client newsletter, include a prompt to follow you on Facebook. Mention your Facebook page in any other social channels you use.
3. Engage, don’t just broadcast
Comment on local news pages, community groups and relevant public conversations. Follow and engage with complementary local businesses (estate agents, financial advisers, accountants) as they serve similar audiences and reciprocal engagement helps both parties.
4. Join and participate in Facebook Groups
There are often active local community groups or groups relevant to your practice areas (for example, expat groups for immigration firms, or bereavement support groups for wills and probate practices). Participating genuinely, answering questions, offering helpful information, raises your profile without advertising.
5. Run a targeted campaign at launch
A modest paid campaign to build your initial follower base when you first launch your page can give you the foundation you need. Even a small budget directed at people in your geographic area can help.
6. Post consistently
Facebook’s algorithm rewards consistent activity. Pages that post regularly are more likely to appear in followers’ feeds, which in turn drives organic follower growth.
How to Manage Your Law Firm’s Facebook Page
Notifications and responsibilities
Decide who owns the page and make sure that person (or people) has the Facebook app on their phone with notifications enabled. Unanswered messages and comments reflect badly on the firm. Allocate a named backup so cover is always in place.
Responding to comments
Always respond to comments, even a simple acknowledgement. For sensitive queries (someone asking for legal advice in the comments), have a standard response ready: something like “Thanks for reaching out. We’d recommend getting in touch with us directly so we can help properly.” Never provide legal advice via a public comment.
Responding to reviews
Facebook allows users to leave reviews. Respond to all of them, positive and negative. For negative reviews, remain professional, acknowledge the concern, and take it offline. Never argue publicly.
Following and engaging
Follow local businesses, charities you support, local news outlets and relevant professional bodies. Commenting on their posts extends your visibility beyond your own followers.
Publishing times
For a consumer legal audience, mid-week posting (Tuesday to Thursday) between 9am-12pm and early evening (6-8pm) tends to perform well. Use Facebook’s built-in scheduling tool to plan posts in advance.
Messaging
Turn on Facebook Messenger for your page and set up an auto-response for out-of-hours messages. This ensures enquiries are acknowledged promptly even when the team isn’t available.
How to Measure Your Facebook Marketing Performance
Tracking the right metrics will tell you whether your Facebook activity is actually working and help you make the case for continued investment. Monitor:
Followers
Your baseline growth metric. Track month-on-month, not just the total number.
Reach and impressions
How many people are seeing your posts, including those who don’t follow you. High reach on a particular post is a signal that the content resonated or was shared.
Engagement rate
Likes, comments, shares and saves as a percentage of reach. This is more meaningful than raw follower numbers. A smaller, engaged audience is more valuable than a large, passive one.
Link clicks
If you’re posting links back to your website (blog articles, service pages, contact forms), track how many clicks those generate. This connects your social activity to website traffic.
Website traffic from Facebook
Set up Google Analytics (or ask your web agency to) so you can see how much traffic arrives at your website via Facebook, and what those visitors do when they get there.
Enquiries and conversions
This is the hardest to track but the most important. Include a “How did you hear about us?” question in your new client intake process and note Facebook specifically. If you run paid ads, use a dedicated landing page or phone number to track leads directly.
Benchmarking
Review your metrics monthly and quarterly. Look at what your best-performing posts have in common and do more of it.
Should Law Firms Use Paid Facebook Advertising?
Organic reach on Facebook has declined significantly over the past decade. If you’re serious about using Facebook to generate enquiries, not just awareness, a paid advertising budget will make a meaningful difference.
Facebook’s ad targeting is highly sophisticated and particularly well-suited to consumer legal services. You can target by location, age, life events (recently engaged, recently moved, recently bereaved), interests and behaviours. For example, a family law firm could target people in a specific postcode who have recently changed their relationship status.
Start with a modest monthly budget, test two or three different ad formats or messages, and review results after four to six weeks before scaling what works. Meta’s Business Manager platform (which manages Facebook and Instagram ads) allows you to track cost per click, cost per lead and other metrics that help you understand return on investment.
If paid social is new territory for your firm, it’s worth working with a specialist legal marketing agency or consultant for at least the first campaign, to set up your targeting and tracking correctly from the outset. If you’re weighing that up, our guide to choosing the right legal marketing agency explains what to look for.
Practical Tips for Running a Law Firm Facebook Page
- Add your Facebook page link to your website footer, contact page and email signatures so it’s easy for clients and contacts to find you.
- Look at what your competitors are doing – how many followers do they have? How often do they post? What gets the most engagement? This can inform your own approach and help you identify gaps.
- Encourage fee-earners and staff to share work-related photos with whoever manages your account (with their consent) – team moments, community events and behind-the-scenes content are consistently popular.
- Make sure your Facebook page information is complete and up to date: opening hours, address, phone number, website link and a clear description of your services.
- Check your page’s response rate and response time, which are displayed publicly. Aim for a response rate of 90%+ and a response time of under an hour during working hours.
Is Facebook Worth It for Law Firms?
For firms in the right practice areas, yes, but only if it’s done consistently and with genuine intent to be useful to your audience. A neglected or sporadically updated Facebook page can do more harm than good, suggesting to prospective clients that the firm doesn’t follow through.
Start small if you need to: commit to two posts a week, respond to every comment and message, and review your metrics monthly. If it’s working, build from there.
How we can help ease the burden
Facebook also works best when it’s joined up with the rest of your marketing. Our overview of legal digital marketing fundamentals shows how the pieces fit together. If you’d like help developing a social media strategy that works alongside your other marketing activity, take a look at our social media services for law firms.
Call 01903 530 787 or submit an enquiry via our contact form below and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.