How to Achieve Brand Consistency on Social Media: Part 2

In part one of this two-part series, we covered the necessity of maintaining consistent branding across social media, which can be achieved with the right organization and tools. Utilizing brand kits, style guides and ensuring firm-wide accessibility are essential strategies. In part two, we will explore these tools and how they can help your law firm succeed in creating a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. By implementing these resources, you can streamline your branding efforts and ensure that your firm's messaging remains consistent across all platforms.

Tools to Help You Succeed

Creating a comprehensive style and branding guide is essential for establishing clear criteria for the usage of all brand assets. Developing a detailed brand guide provides your team with the tools and guidelines necessary to maintain a consistent and professional brand identity across all platforms. This guide should include:

• Primary and Secondary Logos: Outline the main logo and any secondary logotypes. While the firm may have multiple logotypes, it is ultimately up to the marketing team to decide when it is appropriate to use variations that deviate from the primary logo.
• Core Color Palette and Secondary Colors: Define the primary colors that represent your firm, along with secondary colors that complement the core palette. Include the HEX, RGB, CMYK and PMS codes for the design team to easily replicate.
• Logo Usage: Provide guidelines on how to use the logo within a design space, including buffer space and legibility requirements.
• Improper Logo Usage: Specify what not to do with the logo, such as distorting it or changing its color.
• Fonts and Typography: Detail the fonts to be used for marketing collateral and external communication, including font leading and tracking (letter and line spacing). Ensure you have backup or alternate fonts in case the primary fonts are not compatible with certain software.
• Examples of Marketing Materials: Include examples of marketing materials and collateral to illustrate proper brand asset usage.
• Firm Mission and Values: Clearly state your firm’s mission and values to ensure that all branding efforts align with your core principles.

With a Canva brand kit, you can streamline consistent branding across all teams by organizing logos, colors, fonts, photos, graphics, icons, and even your brand voice in one accessible place. This tool helps ensure that everyone in your firm has easy access to the correct brand assets, making it simpler to maintain a cohesive brand identity.

Using templates, whether in Canva or other platforms, provides a foundation for creating content that remains consistent. These templates allow for differentiation through various primary and secondary colors and imagery while still adhering to your brand guidelines. You can even set brand controls and restrictions to ensure the team is staying within brand parameters. When you leverage Canva brand kits and templates, you can ensure that all your content aligns with your firm's branding.

As social media becomes increasingly fast paced, leveraging AI can be a way for firms to share content effectively and efficiently while staying true to its brand. Applications like Chat GPT allow you to customize the program to lay the foundation for prompts by inputting your firm’s background (including key practice areas, industries, locations, and client types) and style guides. To further enhance outputs, it is crucial to focus on what you input. To achieve the best possible output, you can support your prompt by instructing the chatbot to assume a role, like a marketing manager, and uploading previously used branded content. Incorporating these techniques tailors the output to fit your use case and align with your desired tone and voice. These robust features of AI expand your opportunities in firm communication without sacrificing brand consistency.

Scheduling tools not only give you ease in automating posts, but they also offer a means to visualize your feed to limit gaps and inconsistencies in your brand. As a result, you can determine if your brand is being communicated well by balancing content pillars across each platform. Additionally, scheduling tools give you an idea of what assets look like next to one another, ensuring you adhere to the brand’s voice, tone and aesthetic. For example, instead of sharing graphic after graphic, you may opt to post photos of your people to bring a human element to the brand. Leveraging scheduling tools is crucial to give you a big picture view of your social media feed so your firm creates a cohesive and engaging brand presence online.

Adapting to Trends While Staying True to Your Brand

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, adapting to trends can be a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness. However, it's important to ensure that your brand remains consistent through all trends to maintain brand integrity. One prominent example is TikTok. While TikTok can be an effective platform for brand awareness, it's important to align your content with your firm's brand identity.

If your law firm's brand is centered around professional external communication with important legal updates or announcements, participating in viral TikTok trends may not be appropriate. However, if your brand is more fluid and open to less serious content, TikTok trends can be a great way to reach a large audience quickly.

When introducing new concepts and content types, always consider how they align with your brand. The same principle applies when exploring current trends. For instance, a "day-in-the-life" vlog might align well with firms that focus on showcasing their company culture, but it may not be suitable for all firms.

Using trends strategically can also serve specific purposes, such as recruiting attorneys through social media. For example, personal injury law firms might find TikTok a suitable platform, while business or corporate law firms might not. Ultimately, the key is to adapt to trends in a way that enhances your brand's messaging and maintains consistency across all platforms.

Conclusion

Your brand deserves to be at the core of every decision you make as a legal marketer. While there is no secret formula or one-size-fits-all approach to brand consistency, you will be amazed at the results when you leverage even just a few of the tools mentioned. Whether through the strategic use of logos, a unified color palette, or adapting to social media trends while staying true to your brand, your content will spark interest, your followers will become advocates, and your firm will achieve its mission.

Learn More About Communications at the LMA Annual Conference Join your colleagues at the largest global meeting exclusively for the legal marketing and business development profession at the LMA 2025 Annual Conference (LMA25) April 23-25! Curated education sessions, international networking opportunities and a myriad of solution providers offer attendees the opportunity to propel their practice forward. At LMA25, we'll also be celebrating LMA's 40th anniversary, recognizing our proud legacy and exciting future! Learn more about LMA25 and view the detailed education program on the LMA website.