After the wild success of local business listings on Google Maps, Facebook has launched a comparable service called Facebook Place. Facebook Place allows your local clients to “check in” when they arrive at your law firm’s physical location. When your client’s “check in” your law firm and it’s location on the map is mentioned in their friends’ News Feed.
At Internet LAVA, we help attorneys stay up to date on all emerging marketing tools. Often being the first law firm to take advantage of these new technologies gives your practice a huge boost because word of mouth marketing has moved on-line.
Attorneys Facebook Place Page
Many attorneys complain that they don’t understand how to use these new technologies or simply can’t keep up. Other attorneys worry that the new technologies might not be appropriate for a legal practice only to see the success of other attorneys in their area who use these free internet marketing tools. We help law firms create a professional image and control their on-line reputation.
Is Creating a Facebook Place Appropriate for my Law Firm?
Obviously, confidentiality is a big concern for law firms. However, many of your clients already post things about your firm on-line. In fact, expert witnesses, other attorneys and your friends may want to “check in.” Since your visitor is the one that elects to “check in” no confidentiality problem would generally be created. One problem is that Facebook also allows one friend to “tag” another friend who has “checked in” to your place of business. Although this problem is no greater with Facebook Place than with other tagging options that already exist on Facebook.
Certain practices would be more appropriate than others for the Facebook Place. Only time will tell whether this service will be as important for attorneys as Google Places local business listings, but we generally see no harm in claiming your law firm’s place on the Facebook map sooner rather than later.
How Attorneys can Create the Law Firm’s Facebook “Place”
Any attorney can add the law firm’s physical location to the Facebook map in a few simple steps. The entire process takes about 20 minutes. In order to get started the attorney must first open the Facebook application on a touch screen device such as an iPhone to see if the law firm’s location has already been created. After opening Facebook places, just search for the name of the firm. If you can not find your law firm’s place then click the “add” or “+” button, type in the name of the law firm and a description. Don’t worry about getting the description perfect the first time, you will be able to change it later. After you have created the place you can “check in” to test out this new feature.
Claim Your Law Firm’s Place on Facebook
After you have found or created the place, you must claim the listing so that you can add extra information such as the address, phone numbers, profile picture, hours of operation, and administrators. Simply follow these steps:
- Click the “Is this your business” button to claim your law firm’s place;
- After the popup box appears, check the box that verifies that you are a representative of the law firm;
- Facebook will then verify your law firm’s Place by calling the phone number that is listed.
- When you are available to take the phone call, click on the “Call me now” button;
- Then answer the phone when it rings and enter the four digit pin number that you receive from the automated operator.
Merge Your Law Firm’s Facebook Place with the Law Firm’s Facebook Pages
Although this last step is optional, perhaps the most important feature of the new Facebook application works by connecting it with your law firm’s Facebook Page. You will be prompted with a “merge notification.” Use the merge notification option to upgrade your law firm’s existing Facebook page with an updated map and check-in option.
Our Solutions for Busy Attorneys
Like it or not, Facebook is becoming the new search engine. Managing your law firm’s online identity has become more important than ever. Take control of your law firm’s reputation by effective managing your online reputation.
Contact Internet LAVA to discuss your on-line marketing goals. We help busy attorneys get the most out of their marketing budget by showing them how to effective utilize these new technologies in a way that promotes a professional image for the firm. Find out more about Local Business Listings on the major search engines (such as Google Places, Bing Maps, and Yahoo! Local, and now Facebook Places.
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