Having managed marketing and business development in the legal field for over a dozen years, I have a good idea of how hard lawyers work. So it’s disappointing to see that many lawyers’ websites aren’t working hard for them.
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say that a lawyer wrote an article or blog post about a new regulation that will affect their clients. They write, they edit, they get the article up on their blog, and then it’s shared on social media and email channels. Job done, right?
And then something extra happens: someone else shares their article to their networks.
And yet, that sharing doesn’t produce results – no engagement, no further sharing, no responses. Why? Because their website was not built to include the necessary social media preview – an image, a title, and a description of the article. In short, it looks something like this (if it was shared on Twitter):
I’m sure you will agree with me that very few people will click on this link, much less share it to their own networks. Why should they? Who knows what lurks behind that ugly link? When I see a lonely link like this, I pass it by.
Now, if the proper metadata was placed on the page, then that shared blog post, or web page, or article might look something like this:
Much better! EVERY website should have this built-in functionality. So when I see fairly large law firms whose websites and blogs don’t function this way, I regret that those hard-working lawyers aren’t getting the best that tech has to offer.
Most web development platforms offer the ability to create this kind of social preview, be it Wix, or WordPress, or Shopify, or Drupal sites, and so on. Even if the technology is built-in, then it is the webmaster and marketer’s (or lawyer’s) job to make sure the social preview metadata gets inserted.
There are two key metadata modules that should be implemented on the back end of your website: Open Graph, Facebook’s metadata tool that is also used by LinkedIn, and Twitter Cards, which is used – obviously – by Twitter. Once these modules or plugins are installed, it’s a matter of making sure that every page on your website includes a featured image, title, and description, so that if someone does you a huge favor and shares your web page on their social network, you’ll look as good as you deserve to.
The process may add five minutes to the process of publishing your next blog post, but it’s a must step!
