Attorney Marketing Blog

Social media marketing is seemingly unavoidable in this age of marketing. While there are valuable new marketing opportunities created by social media and the internet, there are many gimmicky marketing schemes that just don’t work. Specifically, social media packages. These packages are pitched constantly to attorneys promising incredibly high numbers of page interactions for hundreds of dollars a month.

Now, I do have to put in the disclaimer that there are legitimate social media packages out there and if you really are interested in social media marketing, do a lot of research and read several reviews before committing to a company. And you should only be using these services for paid social media campaigns, not organic social media posting and interactions.

What these packages promise is a certain number of impressions for a law firm’s social media pages. Impressions are the number of views and/or interactions on a social media page or post. For example, I could pay a service a few hundred dollars a month and be guaranteed 200 interactions with the BenGlassLaw Facebook page. Or, I could pay one flat fee and receive 10,000 impressions on a single Facebook post.

Here’s the problem. While seeing hundreds of likes on my Facebook may make me feel good, it doesn’t lead to new clients.

The Truth About “Viral” Lawyer Videos

There are a few lawyer videos that go viral that I can think of (you can choose for yourself which number of views equates to virality). One is the Texas personal injury attorney who screams at the camera while doing ridiculous stunts. Another video that comes to mind is two criminal defense attorneys advising potential clients to “shut the f— up” when talking to police.

These videos do have a significant amount of views, but are they actually getting these attorneys valuable clients?

I doubt it. Clients don’t want silly gimmicky lawyers. They have a real, serious problem and they want real, serious help. This doesn’t mean that you cannot be entertaining or show your personality in your social media posting, in fact, I encourage that. But you shouldn’t post in a way that will cause people to not take you seriously as an attorney. While I’m sure that these attorneys are getting recognized for these videos, and are probably seeing an uptake in call volume to the law firm, advertisements like this, with the main goal of virality, will land you a high volume of low-quality leads.

Impressions on a Law Firm’s Social Media Page

To cut to the case: Impressions don’t get you a positive return on investment. They just don’t. The reality is that these likes on your Facebook are not authentic, they come from either bots or people in other countries who are paid to do this, not people interesting in hiring your services. And if you believe that having a large number of likes will impress potential clients that come across your Facebook page, it really won’t. Facebook is not often, if ever, the deciding factor for a potential client to hire you. In fact, many of your potential, active, and past clients have likely never been to your Facebook page.

When push comes to shove, it’s not the number of likes your Facebook post gets or views your YouTube videos get. It’s about converting high-value clients with your advertising. If you can find a way to prove that impressions lead to high-quality clients, then, by all means, invest in that strategy. It’s okay to build a presence on social media, just be smart with where you spend your money, track your return on investment, and track the amount of time you spend on social media.

Ben Glass

Ben is a nationally recognized expert in attorney marketing and the owner of Great Legal Marketing.

Most attorneys start their firms assuming that being a really, really good attorney should, in and of itself, be a marketing advantage. Those attorneys believe that joining a whole bunch of committees and putting their name in lawyer directories is “marketing,” and they never bother to ask if there is a better way.

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