Law firms often turn to LinkedIn or Facebook to market their services, but these are not the only social media platforms that lawyers should use.

Instagram can be an effective way to connect lawyers to potential clients in a matter of minutes.

Here’s how to market your law firm on Instagram:

Search for Hashtags Using Instagram

Log into your business account on Instagram and tap on the magnifying glass to begin your search.

Now, think about the hashtags your potential clients would use in an Instagram post.

For example, a personal injury attorney may want to search for #rearended or #caraccident to locate people who are posting about getting into a car accident.

Perform a search query to pull up every image or video that is tagged with one of these hashtags.

Look For Recent and Local Posts

The next step is to sort through these results to find people who are located near you and who have recently been involved in a crash.

Skip over the “Top Posts” and scroll to the “Recent Posts” so you are only shown posts that have been created recently.

Next, you will need to determine if any of these Instagram users are nearby.

Do this by tapping on each photo and looking under their username to see if there is a location listed.

If not, tap on their username to see if their location is included in their profile.

You can also use two fingers to zoom in on the photo and take a closer look at the state license plate.

It may take a little bit of time to find someone who is located near you, so be patient.

Contact the Potential Client

Once you have located someone who is nearby, reach out to them via a direct message.

Solicitation laws vary by state, so brush up on these first before making contact with a potential client.

Provide them with a tip that they will find useful given their current situation.

For instance, a car accident victim may want to know that talking to the insurance adjuster without an attorney is a bad idea.

At the end of the message, tell them to contact your office if they have any questions.

This is a much better approach to take than simply asking them to call your office to discuss their case.

Using this law firm marketing method, attorneys can make direct contact with people who are currently in need of their legal services.

The example above showed how a personal injury attorney could find new clients, but every type of attorney can use this strategy by making a few adjustments to the hashtags.

You won’t hear back from everyone, but it’s very likely that you will be able to land a few clients using this unique law firm internet marketing strategy.