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Joining us for Episode #50 of the Personal Injury Marketing Minute is Allison Johs. This podcasts covers why you may or may not want to spend your time on social media. Some common goals include visibility, engagement, obtaining clients or gaining media attention.
Metrics measured depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. We also cover popular content types used on various platforms and how to best reach your target audience, who could be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Reach Allison on her consulting site here: https://www.lawyermeltdown.com/.
Read Allison’s blog here: https://www.legaleaseconsulting.com/.
View the 2022 ABA Tech Report, mentioned in this podcast, here: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/publications/techreport/2022/.
See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.
Lindsey:
Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world. I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. We’ve had some cool guests on the show like Anthony Barbuto, the lawyer on TikTok. We’ve seen some other lawyers out there who have an incredible amount of followers on Facebook and Instagram. Seeing this success, we’ve had lawyers approach us and ask how they can emulate their viral competition. We recommend taking a step back and first assessing the effectiveness of social media campaigns, then moving on to whether or not they have the time, persona and financial resources to make it happen for themselves. Here to help us sort through the unknowns is Allison Johs, the author of the 2022 ABA TechReport on web marketing. Thanks for joining us again.
Allison Johs:
Thank you so much for having me again.
How Many Lawyers Use Social Media?
Lindsey:
The TechReport is always a great read every year, so thank you so much for putting that together. In it you had a section on social media, can you tell us how many lawyers are currently using social media?
Allison Johs:
Yeah. This year, according to the ABA tech survey, which is what I base the TechReport on, 82% of respondents said they’re using social media for professional purposes. Over 90% of respondents said that they’re on LinkedIn, which most people are using LinkedIn for professional purposes and not for other purposes anyway, because it’s not really a social network per se. 31% are using Facebook, 20% on Twitter, and then 13% each on Avo and Instagram. Although I would say it’ll be interesting to see what the number for Twitter looks like next year, with everything that’s happened with Twitter.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media Campaigns
Lindsey:
Yes, absolutely. There’s so much going on between Twitter and TikTok, and even Facebook with the Metaverse stuff. It seems like there’s a lot up in the air with the different social media platforms themselves. LinkedIn seems to be fairly stable at least, so I’m guessing that most people are going to be sticking to LinkedIn. But I also want to jump into the effectiveness of social media for lawyers on a professional level, but first we need to define what effective means. What metrics should we be looking at?
Allison Johs:
I’ll give you my typical lawyer answer, which is it depends. Typically when I’m talking to lawyers about using social media, whether they’re already using it or they’re just getting into it for their practice, that they really need to think about what their purpose is. It seems like everybody would have the same purpose at first glance, but that’s not really necessarily true, it may depend on where you are in your career and what you’re looking to accomplish. Just to give you an idea, maybe your purpose is just more visibility for your firm. You want to just get more eyes. You want people to see the name of your firm over and over, and associate it with your practice area. Then metrics that you would want to look at would be things like impressions, mentions and things like that. Are the eyes getting onto your content or the name of your firm?
Well, maybe your main purpose is really more engagement, that you want to converse with your audience, you want to build your network, and that may be not just with potential clients, but it could be with referral sources too. Then the metrics to look at there, you want to see am I getting new connections or friend requests? Are people commenting on… Are they engaging with me? Are they liking or am I getting more offline invitations for coffee, what have you? Or invitations through just an email inquiry, or even a telephone call? That shows, okay, I’m building my network, I’m engaging with more people.
Or if your main purpose is getting new clients, then again, you’re mainly looking at, okay, I ramped up my social media, am I starting to get more inquiries? Am I getting people filling out the form on my website? Or are they emailing me to ask me if I can represent them? Am I getting phone calls? Or maybe your purpose is I’m really on social media because I want to get attention from the media, so then am I getting journalists connecting with me? Am I getting people calling me, asking me for quotes? So the metrics that are important to you will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Pros and Cons of Visual Social Media for Personal Injury Lawyers
Lindsey:
Absolutely. It seems as though every social media platform is designed for a different type of engagement. So on LinkedIn, being a professional networking, it’s designed for one type of engagement and maybe has effectiveness in one channel, whereas Instagram is very much more visual as opposed to conversational. What are some of the advantages and drawbacks to the Instagram or Facebook for social media campaigns for personal injury lawyers?
Allison Johs:
For personal injury lawyers specifically, assuming that you’re on the plaintiff’s side, you’re wanting to engage with the public. You want to get to the people who have an injury and need a lawyer, and you’re not necessarily looking for businesses, although you could be if you’ve got some referral sources that are good businesses. So the visual… Everybody’s attention span has gotten… I had somebody say something the other day, that their attention span was like a fruit fly on caffeine or on Red Bull. That’s what he said, “A fruit fly on Red Bull.” I was like, “That’s about right. That’s what everybody’s attention span is now.” And video and visuals are what people are looking at now, they’re not necessarily reading text, especially on those platforms like Facebook or Instagram. So you want to make sure that that’s the kind of content that you’re putting out on those platforms because otherwise people are just going to keep scrolling past.
Then you have to look at the typical drawbacks that we have with any other online activity that you do, which has to do with the ethics issues and confidentiality, and making sure that you’re not breaching any of those issues. You want to think about whether your target audience is even on that platform. Again, who are we trying to reach, depending on what we’re trying to do? Then you’ve got these potential privacy issues with a lot of these platforms. But what I would say with respect to that is what I advise my clients, regardless of what they’re doing on online or on social media, which is if you wouldn’t say it in public, in front of a whole group of people, then don’t put it online. Then pretty much the privacy concerns you shouldn’t have to worry about, other than how you have your settings set up on those platforms.
How to Get More Social Media Attention
Lindsey:
Sure. Well, and going back to what you were saying about the fruit fly on Red Bull, I mean social media can be such a challenge in this attention-based economy because there is so much competition for that engagement, for those eyes to be looking at you. And one of the challenges that we’ve seen with some of the lawyers that we’ve talked to, is how do you make those videos that are actually going to get somebody’s attention? We’ve had attorneys make video and video and video, sitting around and talking about some of the most boring things in the world, in a very boring way, but they’ve made a lot of it and they are just dumbfounded by the fact that nobody’s watching these things, or that it’s not leading to cases. So what advice do you have for lawyers who are creating that visual content, to try to attract some more attention?
Allison Johs:
The first thing I would say is think about what it is that your audience wants to know and how your audience wants to consume that information. Keeping it short is a really good suggestion because nobody wants to watch a long video. Script it out if you have to. Cut out all the gobbledygook in the beginning. Answer one specific question at a time, and try to make it engaging. Change it up, speak as if the client is in front of you, not as if you’re trying to make the argument to a judge about why X, Y, or Z is the case.
And be genuine. I think one of the mistakes that I see lawyers make when they start doing some of this content, is they start trying to emulate what somebody else is doing, and it doesn’t come across as genuine because it’s not them. If you’re starting to do this visual content and it’s you and you’re on camera and you’re not used to it, you just have to practice. You’ve got to do it over and over until you get comfortable. You’ve got to get feedback from people, “Does this make sense to you?” Ask a client that you’re friendly with, or ask your mom or your best friend, “Take a look at this video and be brutal and tell me what you think. Is this something that you would watch? And if not, tell me why not so that I can improve.”
Lindsey:
Absolutely.
Allison Johs:
You have to find your own voice and the topics and the niche that you’re comfortable talking about. And don’t be afraid to make it a little personal because that’s what people really respond to. They’re responding human to human. Of course they’re looking to see that you’re demonstrating your knowledge, but that’s not necessarily the most important thing on social.
Lindsey:
Right, they’re wanting to connect with a real lawyer that they can trust, and they can’t trust you if they don’t know who you are.
Allison Johs:
Exactly.
How Much Should Lawyers Invest in Social Media Campaigns
Lindsey:
Yeah. But with all of this practice and all the time that you put into it, what type of time and financial commitment should a lawyer anticipate to creating an effective social media campaign?
Allison Johs:
I’ll give you my it depends answer again, based on your goals, but also based on the platform, and if you’re talking about a solo doing it as opposed to getting some help. You don’t necessarily have to spend any money because these platforms are free to join, but then you’re probably going to be putting in a little bit more time. I would say that you need to think about putting in the time for not just creating the content, but for planning the content so that you’re taking a strategic approach, thinking about who is my audience? What is the information that they want? What are the questions my clients ask me all the time? How can I answer them in an engaging way? And then where is it appropriate for me to post that content?
I would recommend, if you’re starting out, don’t try to do Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and LinkedIn. Pick one platform that you’re comfortable with, that you think your audience is on, and focus on that platform first. Then when you start to get that built out, then maybe you can branch out and post into other platforms as well. It’s relatively inexpensive to boost your posts, like on LinkedIn, and even on Facebook, to do some sponsored posts. So if you put limits on it and create a budget around it, you don’t have to spend astronomical amounts of money.
I would say on a lot of these platforms, it’s the engagement. Whether that engagement is just liking or building out your network, that’s going to bring you the results, more than it is having necessarily 900 videos, or having videos that you think are a hundred percent perfect. If they’re genuine and they’re answering clients’ questions, or providing information that your clients or whoever your target audience is, wants, you’re going to get results.
Where to Start
Lindsey:
That’s great. If you were to start out on any one platform, as a personal injury lawyer, which platform would you go to if your main metric is really just to get more cases?
Allison Johs:
I can’t say that I would pick one for every personal injury lawyer because some of it is really personality. So for some personal injury lawyers, they’re getting a lot of their cases from other professionals, and then I would say LinkedIn is definitely the way to go. If you’re a more straight-laced person, I think that LinkedIn is probably a better platform for you to start off with. Facebook and Instagram, if you’re more of a visual person, if you’re comfortable with the idea of video, if you have the time to go out and find images, or you can hire somebody to say, “Get me a library of images that I can use for my posts,” because that’s a time-consuming thing. For personal injury, because you’re getting to consumers, Facebook and Instagram are really great platforms for that. And Instagram with the stories, you could do a quick little video and you can really capture attention that way.
Lindsey:
Right. Well, and the other piece of that is the intent of the user. When I go to Facebook or Instagram, usually it’s because I have five minutes to kill, I want to look at something entertaining or funny, but also relevant to my life in general. So what I recommend to attorneys who are choosing to go down that path, is if they have a sense of humor, to leverage that. If they’re creative, leverage that. Do something that is going to be different from everybody else out there, but is also going to tie into what people are naturally wanting to see when they go to any of these platforms. I mean, I wouldn’t do standup comedy on LinkedIn and I wouldn’t have a straight-laced tie video on Facebook or Instagram, so meeting your audience where they’re at.
Well, thank you so much for all the insights that you’ve given us today. How can attorneys get in touch with you if they want to learn more about social media?
Allison Johs:
Sure. I’m always open to email and my email is allison@legalease… Which is E-A-S-E, consulting.com. Or there’s lots of information on my website at lawyermeltdown.com, and on my blog, which is at legaleaseconsulting.com.
Lindsey:
We will also make sure to put in the links for your social media on our page. Thank you so much, Allison.
Allison Johs:
Thanks Lindsey.
