Snapchat and Instagram for Legal Nurse Consultants

If you are marketing to younger attorneys, chances are they are on Snapchat and Instagram. Many younger professionals and people have left Facebook and headed to these other two social media platforms.

Snapchat

One of the fastest growing social media networks is Snapchat. It offers a quick and interesting way to share information with your audience.

• Offer Exclusive Content – Make your content for Snapchat exclusive and only available on Snapchat. When you tell people about your Snapchat, let them know that the content is exclusive to your Snapchat followers only.

• Surprise Fans – A great way to get Snapchat fans excited is to host contests and provide incentives or perks. Could you, for example, offer a free report or a discount on a case you’d obtain from an attorney? Incentives work well when promoting your Snapchat on other channels. For example, on Facebook, you can ask your followers to “head on over to Snapchat to enter my exclusive Snapchat giveaway.”

It can be easy to lose sight of your brand on Snapchat because everyone is caught up in the interactive fun. But, always make your branding a top priority when you engage with your Snapchat followers. Don’t say or do anything that is contrary to your branding.

Instagram

Many people are not sure about using Instagram for business. But, it’s a very powerful force in the social media community. If you want to use Instagram for business, you’re in good company. Implement these tips to ensure that you stand out.

• Hashtags – Instagram is unique when it comes to the usage of hashtags. On other social networks, more than two or three is overkill. However, on Instagram people often use as many as 20 hashtags.

But, there are valid points about using too many hashtags.

The best way is to use just a few relevant hashtags.

Keeping the hashtag number low for each image makes each tag more relevant. Users can click on hashtags to find more posts with that word; so, it’s a good practice to limit and use relevant hashtags.

• Optimized Images – Like other image-centric social media, sometimes the recommended image sizes change. Check with the source to find out what the most recent recommended sizes are. If an image is the wrong size, it won’t appear correctly or be shared as often as optimized images.

On Instagram, sharing other people’s items, engaging with people’s posts, and being true to your brand is important.

Instagram tries to avoid the rampant automation that is seen on other social media sites. (This refers to using programs to pre-schedule posts rather than to be actively on the site to make the post.)

Instagram does this by forcing you to push out posts with your mobile device rather than automatically. This is a great opportunity for you to engage in real-time with your followers.

Standing out on social media is an important part of expanding your brand, encouraging more engagement, and building authority as the go-to person within your niche. You can leverage social media to help you become bigger and better than ever, if you know how to stand apart from the crowd. By implementing these strategies, you’ll likely meet your social media goals as you build your business and brand.

The jury is still out as to whether these platforms are viable ways to attract attorney clients. But they are fun.

In my next post, I share tips about Google + and Pinterest.

Join Pat Iyer and Gil Asakawa as they talk about using social media for business purposes. Hear Gil’s program, The Magic of Social Media for Attracting Cleints, at this link. Gil is on the staff of AARP writing about issues of interest to the Asian Pacific audience.