Thinking of fun, easy ways to boost engagement and increase your law firm’s following? Look no further than a law firm social media giveaway.

Whether you’ve already established your firm’s online presence or are just starting a new marketing campaign, doing a social media giveaway is a fun, fast, and effective way to generate new leads and expand your clientele. With minimal effort on your end, you can re-engage your existing clients and even incentivize them to bring new clients to you!

Sounds interesting? Let’s take a look at how you can design a social media giveaway of your own…

Identify the Goals of Your Social Media Giveaway

Before you get started on your social media giveaway, it’s important to identify your firm’s primary strengths and weaknesses. From there you can align your goals accordingly. 

Does your law firm lack client testimonials? Has your newsletter engagement plateaued? Are you expanding your range of services? 

Figuring out your “why” is a key element of all decision-making, and your social media giveaway is no different. Your motivations behind the giveaway itself will guide your design and choices.

Establish a Budget, then Choose the Rewards

One of the beauties of an online giveaway is that it is extremely customizable: you can adjust your budget and effort based on your goals. 

For example, if the primary purpose of your giveaway is to encourage more referrals on LinkedIn, an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe would be a generous offer…but not at all necessary! 

Determine how much you’re willing to spend to meet your goals– just make sure that the rewards you choose still attract participants.

Some common “prizes” in law firm social media giveaways are:

• Gift cards
• Tickets to sporting or other entertainment events
• Branded merchandise (free promotional items are especially useful to law firms)
• Electronics
• Exclusive access to products or services

If you’re trying to minimize spending, don’t shy away from cross-promotions. Many businesses would jump at the chance to market to your audience for free in exchange for a small donation, such as a “dinner for two” or a store gift card.

Also worth consideration is bundling tangible and intangible prizes in the giveaway. This not only keeps costs lower, but it also allows your firm to interact more directly with the giveaway winner(s). A free one-on-one consultation with a partner is one of many intangible prize possibilities.

Set the Giveaway Contest Rules 

Now that you’ve determined your goals for the giveaway and rewards for participation, your next step is to set the contest rules.

The actions required for entry into the giveaway should be simple and relate in some way to your initial goals. If your goal is to increase your law firm’s visibility, select rules such as joining an email newsletter or referring a friend. 

These actions should also be appropriate in relation to the prizes you set. If you ask too much from participants without proper reward, you may discourage them from even entering. Scale is everything!

Additionally, be sure that you clearly communicate eligibility requirements, contest start and end dates, and methods used to select a winner. Each social media site varies slightly in its guidelines for giveaways, but the general rules are consistent across platforms.

Choose the Right Social Media Platform(s)…then Promote, Promote, Promote!

Once the framework for your social media giveaway is complete, you must decide on the right platform(s) for your law firm. 

What dictates what is “right” for your firm could be the type of content you use to promote the giveaway. Instagram, for instance, lends itself well to posting eye-catching images and less so to attaching large blocks of text. Don’t be afraid to experiment across platforms, but let social media work for (not against) you!

Alternatively, the volume of traffic on one social media account relative to others may determine where you should post. If your firm’s Twitter following is relatively low, you may find more success by posting on Facebook instead. For help finding where your target demographics spend most of their time online, Pew Research Center has compiled an internet fact sheet that can be a useful resource.

Aside from identifying the platform most appropriate for reaching your audience, be mindful of the specific promotions guidelines set by social media sites. Some platforms allow you to ask participants to like, comment, and share your content, but others enforce stricter standards. 

Promotions guidelines for commonly used social media platforms:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Twitter

Once you announce the giveaway on one social media account, don’t forget to follow up with reminders and updates on your other accounts. Gently encourage followers from one platform to view and interact with your other social media accounts. And if a portion of your clientele isn’t present on any major social media platform, spread awareness of the giveaway through newsletters and more direct forms of communication. 

Analyze the Results of Your Social Media Giveaway

You may be tempted to stop reading there, but that would neglect the most valuable aspect of a social media giveaway: the opportunity for analysis!

Once your giveaway concludes, you’ll likely wonder if your outcome was worthwhile. Start by reminding yourself of your initial goals, then compare results to see how you did. 

Broadly, if your goal is to increase general awareness of your law firm, you can choose from a wealth of online tools that sort through analytics and track social media engagement. Check whether a paid or unpaid service is better suited to your needs. If your goal is more straightforward (such as increasing referral count), then a software package may be unnecessary.

Using your findings you can then identify successes and failures and track progress toward your goals. 

Don’t be discouraged if you fall short of your desired outcome–celebrate small achievements, too. Your social media giveaway should be a learning experience that can set your law firm up for future promotions…or even more giveaways!

With these recommendations in mind and a willingness to experiment, you’ll be enjoying the hard-earned fruits of your giveaway labor in no time.