One of the best reasons for attorneys to use social media is that it is a very cost effective business development tool. Below is a description of the steps you can take to harness the effectiveness of social media for your law firm marketing efforts.  (This is how we are using social media to build our business):

1. Set up a targeted landing page. Your landing page should always discuss the specific need of your target market. 

2. On the landing page offer them something of value.  You could offer web visitors a free special report, audio CD or white paper on a topic of interest to them. For example,

The Top 10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Divorce Attorney

The 7 Deadly Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Personal Injury Case

The 5 Reasons Why Business Owners Get Sued and How to Avoid Them

3. Drive traffic to your landing page by promoting it via your social media outlets. You can announce your free special report on your Facebook fan page, post a Tweet or promote by including the link to your LinkedIn account.

4. Visitors to your landing page can only obtain your valuable information if they give you their contact information (name, phone and email address) and by agreeing to opt into your database and be contacted by your law firm for further follow-up.

5. Use their contact information to follow up with them. When you connect with them, you qualify them to see if they are a good prospect for you and then offer them a complimentary consultation, if that's part of your business model.