Featured · Social
What to actually post, and where it comes from
Firms rarely abandon social media because the strategy was wrong. They abandon it because on the second Tuesday nobody had anything to post, and that repeated until it stopped.
So this is about supply rather than strategy: seven formats that work for law firms, where the raw material for each already exists inside the practice, and a routine that produces a fortnight's posts in about an hour.
Seven formats, and where each comes from
Every one of these is sourced from work the firm is already doing. Nothing here requires inventing content from nothing.
The question you answered twice this month. If two clients asked it, several hundred people are searching it. Source: your own inbox.
The thing that changed. A rule, a threshold, a deadline — what changed, who it affects, what to do. Source: the updates fee-earners already read.
The misconception. Something clients routinely believe that is wrong, corrected plainly. Source: first meetings.
The process explainer. What actually happens, in order, when somebody instructs you for a common matter. Source: your own file-opening procedure.
The person. A short introduction to somebody at the firm and the work they do. Source: the team.
The referrer note. Written for accountants or agents rather than clients: here is how to spot this problem early. Source: the referrals you already receive.
And the occasional firm item — a hire, a move, a result you may lawfully describe. Source: obvious, and it should be the rarest of the seven.
Notice that six of the seven come out of ordinary practice. The material problem firms describe is almost always a capture problem rather than a scarcity one.
Keep a running note — a shared document, a channel, anything — where fee-earners drop the question they were just asked. That single habit removes the Tuesday problem permanently.
What makes posts not work
Format aside, these are the things that reliably make a firm's social output ignorable.
Announcements about the firm, which interest the firm and almost nobody else.
Case-law summaries written for other lawyers, on an account whose audience is clients and referrers.
Posts that end without saying what the reader should do, so even an interested person does nothing.
Links out with no substance in the post itself, which most platforms suppress and most readers skip.
Anything that needed a committee, because what survives that process has had every specific opinion removed.
And bursts: fourteen posts in March and nothing until September, which reads as a firm that started something and stopped.
An hour a fortnight that sustains it
The routine matters more than any individual post. This one is designed to survive a busy month.
Keep the running note of questions clients actually asked. Ten minutes a week, spread across whoever is asked them.
Once a fortnight, take an hour: pick three items, write them, schedule them.
Write each as a short answer that is complete in itself. Assume nobody clicks anything.
End each with a plain next step — what to do, or who to contact.
Have one person write and one partner check only for accuracy and regulatory risk, never for tone.
Film the video items in one sitting, several at a time, on a phone. Batching is what makes video sustainable for a practice.
Keep the never-post list beside you: case outcomes unless plainly permissible, client-identifying detail, and replies engaging with anybody's specific facts.
Then review quarterly on whether referrers mention it and whether candidates cite it — not on followers.
An hour a fortnight, sustained for two years, produces something no burst of activity matches. The design constraint is not ambition; it is what still happens in a month when three matters go wrong at once.
FAQs
What should a law firm post about?
Seven formats sourced from work you already do: questions clients asked twice, what changed in a rule, common misconceptions, process explainers, introductions to people, notes written for referrers, and occasional firm news — which should be the rarest, not the most frequent.
Where does the material come from?
Six of the seven come out of ordinary practice — your inbox, first meetings, the updates fee-earners already read, your own file-opening procedure. The problem firms describe as having nothing to post is nearly always a capture problem, solved by a running note of questions actually asked.
How much time does it take?
Ten minutes a week to capture questions, and one hour a fortnight to write and schedule three items. The routine is designed to survive a month when three matters go wrong at once, which is the only test that matters.
Should posts link out to the website?
Write each post complete in itself and assume nobody clicks. Link-only posts with no substance are suppressed by most platforms and skipped by most readers, so the link should be a bonus rather than the point.
How do we make video sustainable?
Batch it. Film several items in one sitting on a phone rather than trying to produce one a week. A practice that films monthly in a single session keeps going; one that films weekly stops by March.
End Note
Social media fails at law firms for an unglamorous reason: on the day something had to be posted, nothing was ready. Every strategy discussion downstream of that is beside the point.
Capture the questions you are already asked, write three of them every fortnight, finish each with a next step, and batch the video. That is the whole system.
Key Takeaways
Firms abandon social because of Tuesday, not because of strategy.
Six of the seven formats are sourced from work you already do.
Keep a running note of questions clients actually asked — it ends the supply problem.
Write each post complete in itself; assume nobody clicks.
Batch video in one sitting, or it will not survive the quarter.
