Your law firm must use social media to increase its online visibility. Managing multiple platforms is often time-consuming, and you also need a certain level of social media expertise to succeed. Your strategy will require careful research, planning, and scheduling, and you may consider hiring a virtual assistant.

Social Media Assistants for Law Firms 

A social media virtual assistant focuses on time-sensitive social media tasks while working remotely. Then, you can spend your time focusing on core business activities. Examples of tasks include:

• Connecting with audiences through social media channels
• Curating and managing social media campaigns
• Developing high-quality content and images for social media platforms
• Planning and starting social media profiles

If you spend your own work hours or personal time managing your law firm’s social media, you may let potential clients look through the cracks or face burnout. Virtual assistants solve those problems for you. If you are considering hiring one, it is essential to understand your options, as well as the hiring process.

Note that virtual assistants are different than full-time employees. In many instances, virtual assistants are part-time, but you may choose to hire them for more hours per week. While they will not be physically present in your law firm, they can manage your social media from anywhere and typically have flexible schedules depending on your firm’s needs.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Firm’s Social Media 

To hire a virtual assistant, you have two options. You can either hire an individual or go through an agency. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options. Which route you choose depends on the number of candidates you want to choose from, as well as the level of security you are seeking in terms of hiring.

Individual Virtual Assistants 

If you want to hire a virtual assistant on your own, you can seek out an independent worker. It may take time to pick the right assistant for your needs, but you will have complete control over your hiring. You will most likely find an individual virtual assistant using a freelancer network or Marketplace. Individual virtual assistants may be more flexible in terms of payment and schedule than someone who works through an agency. As such, it is essential to weigh your options to determine which hiring method is most suitable for your Law Firm.

Virtual Assistant Agencies 

If you want to remove the burden of finding a virtual assistant on your own, you can choose to hire through a virtual assistant agency. When you do so, you will likely have support options in the event you encounter a problem. Agencies that hire virtual assistants ensure they are up to the task of working for their clients. Some agencies even perform regular quality checks to confirm their contractors perform adequately. You may also be able to ask the hiring agency about a replacement guarantee in the event you receive an assistant that is not right for you.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Assistant?

Depending on the size of your law firm in the employees you currently have, you may not feel as though you need a remote social media assistant. However, most law firms will benefit from hiring one. The most common benefits include improving your firm’s productivity, expanding your firm faster, and reducing hiring and training costs.

Boost Your Firm’s Productivity

Even if you can manage your firm’s social media presence, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice crucial time doing so. Social media assistance can handle repetitive tasks and will likely be able to do so in a time-efficient manner. As a result, you will have more time on your hands to boost your productivity during working hours and continue to service clients properly.

Expand Your Firm  

Social media tasks are often time-consuming and unrelated to your core business activities examples include researching popular topics, creating quality content, and replying the comments, and interacting with users. When you have a virtual assistant handling posting and campaigns, you can focus more time on core activities that fuel your firm’s growth.

Minimize Hiring and Training Expenses  

It is no secret that hiring and training are both expensive and time-consuming. If you want someone to manage your social media presence but are not looking to screen, interview, recruit, or train candidates, a virtual assistant could be the right call for your firm.

What to Expect From Your Virtual Assistant  

The tasks you assign to your virtual assistant will depend on your firm’s needs. There may be a transition period as they learn your different social media channels, target audience, and overall goals.

Depending on your firm’s needs, you will likely be able to find a virtual assistant who can handle any required tasks. If you work with an agency, you can have them vet the right candidate for your firm. If you choose to hire an individual virtual assistant, you can review their experience and determine if they are right for you. 

While communication can be a challenge when working with a virtual assistant, it does not have to be. To ensure you can adequately communicate with your remote assistant, you need to ensure you have the right communication tools in place. 

To start, you should have a messaging tool. Online tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams let you share files and create dedicated channels for communication. You will also want to implement a video calling tool like Zoom or Skype to explain tasks more effectively. If need be, you can also utilize an employee monitoring tool to ensure your remote workers can track their time and pay based on hours or projects.  

Digital Marketing: Next Steps 

Hiring a social media virtual assistant can help you grow your online presents faster and ensure you do not have to take time away from your firm’s core business activities. Even researching, creating, and scheduling content for a single platform is time-consuming and requires a particular set of skills. With a dedicated expert managing your social media presence, you can continue to meet your firm’s goals. 

Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is now the CEO & Owner of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that provides unique, SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content, and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at annette@lawquill.com.