The days of TV commercial ads and billboards are in the past. And while search engine optimization and search engine rankings do more than their fair share in helping build the client base of law firms, these marketing strategies lack the ability to connect with people who don't use those platforms.
Even Facebook is aging out of the spotlight, much like MySpace did over a decade ago. Many social media users, especially the younger generations of social media users, are using only the "big three" of social media apps: Tiktok, Instagram, or SnapChat. If you've noticed that your Facebook page or Facebook profile are getting less traffic, these three social media platforms are most likely at fault. These platforms can act as extremely powerful tools for connecting you to prospective clients that you would not be able to reach in any other way.
These platforms focus heavily on video and audio content that can be consumed easily via mobile devices, which can be an intimidating idea for some people. Using your picture for billboards or ads is one thing, but having your face and voice plastered all over the internet in videos, especially if they go viral, can be a daunting thought.
While you can do it on your own, managing a successful social media presence is time consuming. Between filming, editing, posting, engaging with comments and messages, and doing all the necessary research to post the right information, it can seem impossible to have time for your real work.
Having the GoEngine content creation and marketing team behind you, helping you create the right content to reach out to this otherwise unreachable demographic of prospective clients, will see your firm, and your name, reaching new highs you may have never through possible through a new legal marketing strategy.
Social Media Following
Some of the biggest lawyers on social media websites like Instagram and Tiktok are individuals who create videos and vlogs (video blogs) centered around current viral events and cases. The "Free Britney" movement is a huge example of this, as is the heart breaking Gabbie Petito case. Through creating video content related to the conservatorship of Britney Spears or other viral cases, dozens of attorneys and law students have garnered large amounts of attention and followers on their social media platforms.
By discussing information released in these viral cases, any updates that happen in real time, as well as giving their professional opinions on possible next steps in these cases, these attorneys and law students connect to a demographic of social media users who want to keep up with the most accurate and knowledgable information on these cases.
If you don't feel comfortable talking about ongoing cases that you aren't personally involved in, there are still ways to reach potential clients through your online presence. Many legal professionals do not feel comfortable discussing current cases that have created a media frenzy, and that is more than understandable, especially out of respect to the persons actually involved in these cases. The best way to create engaging videos that don't involve current events is by providing what, in the past, prospective clients would have to pay for: real legal advice and education.
Free Educational Tips Can Increase Views
One in three adults in the United States have criminal records of some kind, whether they are minor offenses, or something larger such as felony charges. That leaves two thirds of the adult population of the US with very limited knowledge of the legal matters and court systems. Many of these persons may have never even seen a court room before in their life, or ever even spoken with an attorney. While search engines can help with educating the unexperienced, many people have a difficult time deciphering laws or papers written in legalese.
Because there are so many different court systems and fields of study within our legal systems, as well as laws that vary from state to state, and sometimes even town to town, there is always a wealth of information that you can share with your followers, turning them into potential clients. While a blog post or video about what to do at a DUI stop might not seem like a big deal to an attorney who deals with DUI cases every day, it can be a boon of life changing information for someone dealing with their first DUI.
And if you work in a very specialized field of law? Even better! The less information available about your field of practice, the more people are going to turn to your social media channels to find out hard-to-find insider information, tricks to help them in their own cases, and may even reach out to you through these social media platforms to ask you even more questions. Brad Shear (@bradshear) is a great example of this. As a tech lawyer, he has built up a social media following of over 2 million combined between various apps, sharing tips, tricks, and stories about the world of tech law.
Whatever information you think will create engaging videos, the most important part is listening to your followers and providing what they are interested in. Opening up this dialogue with your followers is the easiest way to turn a potential client into a real client.
Is Tiktok Effective for Attorneys?
While Tiktok is a relatively established social media company now, the platform has only been around since 2016, and didn't start to gain popularity until late 2017. However, the platform now boasts over 1 billion users all over the world. But even with that amount of users, the #LegalAdvice hashtag is full of only about 15-20 of the same faces on all of the videos. That's because attorneys using Tiktok to reach out to potential clients is a fairly new idea, and any fresh content you can offer is going to blow up.
Users like Michael Mandell (@LawByMike) or Ethan Ostroff (@EthanOstroffLaw) both joined Tiktok hesitantly, but with great success. By staying consistent, posting videos 1-2 times a week, and offering legal advice for free to followers about common legal issues and questions, they quickly rose to fame on the app.
Mike Mandell gained over 3.5 million followers in just the first 7 weeks he was on the platform, he is currently sitting at just over 5.8 million followers, and now uses his social media account to get in contact with potential clients all over the United States, taking cases for people who would not have known he existed without his videos. Ethan Ostroff has over 7.3 million likes on his Tiktok videos and spends most of his time on the app connecting with followers through comments on his videos and direct messages asking him for additional advice.
Tiktok isn't the only available social media platform. Instagram comes in second for popularity, after Tiktok, and Snapchat is a close third. Instagram also has video features and instant messaging like Tiktok, but focuses mainly on sharing photos and captions. Snapchat, on the other hand, is mainly used for sending videos and pictures directly to certain people, or posting them on your Snapchat Story for everyone to see.
For video content, Tiktok is king. Instagram is better for photos, and Snapchat is the best for brief conversations. Having all three, however, can help followers find you even easier than ever, turning your social media visitors into clients in the blink of an eye.
Learn More: 11 Successful Ways of Advertising a Law Firm
Viral Videos and Trends
Offering up legal advice isn't the only way to gain a following on social media platforms. There are many law-related social media accounts that have gained followings from offering up different content than just education. Several lawyers have built followings off of telling stories about their time in law school, or even about crazy or unique cases they have worked. One user, @RebMasel, a 26 year old female attorney, has gained a huge following by reading funny or strange exerts from court transcripts. Many other users have found fame talking about cold cases and True Crime, which has become a massive generational obsession with younger millennials and generation z.
Even simple "fun fact" videos about niche sub-genres of your field of law, such as the best thing to wear to court, insider knowledge of loopholes, or even a sure-fire way to get out of a driving ticket, gain tons of attention on these apps. Also providing information to viewers about what they should be looking for in their legal representation can make engaging videos. Self-promotion is not a popular marketing device on Tiktok, but teaching potential clients what they should expect from their attorney, while also subtly proving you have those same qualities as a legal representative, can do wonders to build your brand.
Adding a legal twist onto viral trends is also a way to connect with followers. Attorney Ethan Ostroff first experienced a social media following boom when using a viral TikTok trend centered around the song Choices (Yup) by E-40 to dispel some common myths about being an attorney. What this means is that your social media efforts don't always need to be serious videos.
Creating an engaging video, such as joining in on a dance or sound trend, that brings people to your page to view your other videos is just as valuable as creating real content about the legal profession. When you show your followers that you are just a normal person behind your career, they are more likely to share your videos and your name through word of mouth or by messaging family and friends. Opening up a network of engaged viewers like this can see your potential client base growing exponentially.
Include Multiple Platforms
The best part about creating high-quality video content is that you have the option to post this content in multiple places. Linking your Facebook page, Tiktok profile, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube together means using one video to reach out and create an emotional connection with the billions of users on all of these platforms.
While many people have several social media profiles, a majority of people do not use all available social media platforms. Making sure that your content is available on all forms of social media guarantees your content will be accessible to any and all social media users, no matter their preferred platform.
What Not to Post
As a note of caution, we urge you to remember that most large firms have social media policies for a very specific reason: sometimes mixing business and social media does not work well. The internet has grown and transformed so much in the last two decades, and while social media is a creative networking tool, you have to have realistic expectations when it comes to your return on investment and the time you put into creating your content.
Actions such as sharing your opinions on politics or other current events, or any other inappropriate content, can backfire quickly. Sometimes referred to as a "cancel culture", many users on social media are quick to perceive insult or injury from other users content, and will respond in kind. Some people won't always stop at posting inappropriate and unacceptable comments, many will search for your personal information and "dox" you.
Doxing is the act of finding your personal information, such as your phone number, email, personal social media accounts, employment information, and even your address, and posting these online for others to see and use. This can cause your family, friends, and employees to receive harassment from unnamed strangers trying to get a rise out of you, or trying to cause actual harm to your job and relationships.
This is why it is important to do the proper research into the kind of content you want to post before you do so, or to hire a marketing and social media management team to make sure that nothing you are posting can elicit these kind of responses.
GoEngine is Here to Help With Video Marketing for Law Firms
Whether you're trying to make a name for yourself within larger firms, or you're planning on branching out on your own and need a new legal marketing strategy, social media video content is the way to go when it comes to online marketing. Larger firms do tend to have pretty strict social media guidelines for their attorneys, but our content creators at GoEngine are more than capable of working around even the strictest social media policy.
Our experienced marketing team and content creators are ready to help you begin building your social media presence now. Through a social media audit, we'll show you where your social media dilemmas and setbacks are, and help you build a solid social media strategy to market your firm and expertise to a whole new demographic of specialized target clients. After your initial consultation with our marketing team, we will provide you with monthly audits of the progress of our social media marketing efforts, through video and audio content and blog services.
The modern law firm marketing strategy is online engagement with informative videos. Creating valuable connections for our clients to these online communities is something that we at GoEngine, as law firm marketing experts, pride ourselves in. Don't let the fear of the new and unknown leave you and your firm in the past. Contact us today at (864) 300-0344 for your initial consultation.