/>iA report from Pew Research Center found that 67% of Americans surveyed said they get at least some of their news on social media — and more than half of those (55%) are over the age of 50.
The report was based on a Pew survey of almost 5,000 U.S. adults conducted in August 2017. Facebook is by far the preferred social network for news, with 45% of those surveyed saying they got their news from the site:
In addition, the report found that 26% of all U.S. adults get their news from two or more social media sites, up from 18% just one year ago. The demographics of these news users vary among social media networks, with Facebook and YouTube skewing older and LinkedIn having the most college-educated news users:
So how can law firms leverage social media users’ appetite for news to generate leads?
First, think about creating ads for your law firm that leverages trending news. For example, if you are an employment attorney, this is a key period in time to talk about sexual harassment and other discriminatory practices that occur in the workplace. If you’re an immigration attorney, now is the perfect time to help disseminate information about current and potential future laws that may affect those confused about their immigration status.
What makes Facebook really ripe for this type of targeting advertising is the ability to narrow the audience that sees your ad on the site to match your typical or ideal client. You can target Facebook users by location, age, sex, relationship status, income, likes and interests, education level, schools they attended, name of company where they work, fan pages they like, groups they have joined, and much more.
Another opportunity is Facebook’s Instant Articles publishing tool. You can sign up for Instant Articles on Facebook, customize your articles with your logo and then submit articles for review. Once they are approved, they can be scheduled on your law firm’s Facebook page.
Lastly, you can address trending news topics on your blog and publish those posts on your social media networks with a link back to your blog.
