Justin Kistner, an analyst at Webtrends said that social media websites like Twitter and Facebook would likely diminish in popularity by 2012. Our law firm marketing consultants have been involved with Web marketing for 11 years and have seen the rise and fall of many popular websites. We agree that social media is likely to peak around 2012 and that the next big thing is right around the corner probably likely to appear some time in 2015. This is consistent with some other observations about specific sites.
Other exerts in the field of web traffic and usage analysis such as Compete, say that the number of Twitter users has flat-lined. Compete, a Web analytics firm, says that the microblogging website’s number of visitors hasn’t changed much since June and that its roughly 22 million visitors in December 2010 was about 770,000 fewer than its highest number, which was in August 2010. And other analysts paint the same picture, raising the question: Has Twitter peaked and what does this mean for lawyer advertising and marketing effectiveness?
Although it appears that the “Twitter fad” may have indeed peaked, another social media website, Facebook, continues to see steady growth in both visits and new accounts. In January 2010 Facebook drew 133.6 million unique visitors which out ranked the grandfather website Yahoo that garnered 132 million visitors. Another important statistic is that Facebook is the number one website when it comes to the amount of time people actually spend online using the website.
Compete.com, the popular Web analytics firm stated, “In January, 11.6% of all time spent online was spent on Facebook (compared to 4.25% for Yahoo and 4.1% for Google. Google still holds the number one spot with 147.8 million visitors, or nearly half the U.S. population.”
The question becomes, what does this mean to attorneys and law firms when it comes to their Internet marketing strategy? We believe that social media marketing for lawyers is here to stay and will continue to grow in importance as these social media sites learn how to turn their massive membership in to business opportunities.
I particularly like websites or social media sites that take in detailed information or demographics from their user. The user can add personal details such as their favorite movies, books, career, job title and more valuable information for marketing purposes. Unlike Twitter, this enables advertisers to zero in on specific demographics or groups that offer the best match for their services making pay per click advertising very attractive and targeted.
Call Lawyer Success, Inc. to discuss any questions you have about marketing your law firm online or on social media sites like YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter or others. Call (769) 218-6099.
