Posted by Herman K Mallhi Online Marketing Manager

Social networks like Facebook, MySpace and others are being used more and more. Recently, Facebook topped Google to become the most visited U.S. Web site, indicating a shift in how Americans are searching for content (http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/16/technology/facebook_most_visited/).

As these social networks grow, and their services, tools and capabilities expand, they are steadily revealing themselves to be viable marketing channels for local businesses, including law practices.

Creating Your Profile:
The first step to build your law firm’s presence on Facebook, is to create a personal profile. Sign up for Facebook, upload a picture and add contact info in your profile. Then you can also upload your existing contact database to see which of your contacts are already on Facebook and ask whichever ones you want to become your Friend. This can get you started off the bat rather than leaving you to start cold in building your own little community.

Creating Your Company Page:
After you have a personal profile, you can create a Company page for your law firm. You can populate the page with company information, news, upcoming events, photos, etc. You can also add applications that increase the functionality of the page.

Even if you already have a business website, having a business profile page on Facebook is still important in that you want to have a presence where your existing and prospective clients are spending their time online.





Joining and Creating Groups:
Another way to network on Facebook is through the use of Groups. It shouldn’t take you long to find a Group or Groups that are likely to include good prospects for your law firm, but if you can’t, no problem: Simply start a new Group yourself and get the ball rolling by inviting some friends and fans to join it.

Paid Advertising:
In addition to the options above, you can expand presence on Facebook with paid ads. To learn more about these paid advertisements, simply visit: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

Happy Facebook Marketing!