Lawyer Social Media Marketing
How should lawyers approach social media marketing?
What social media advertising actually works for law firms?
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Episode 10 · Listen now
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Brief summary of the show
What social media advertising actually works for law firms? In this episode we break down the most effective strategies for lawyer social media marketing, including LinkedIn ads, Facebook advertising, and YouTube marketing for attorneys. Learn how small law firm marketing works in the real world, why most firms struggle with consistency, and how content, credibility, and visibility work together to attract clients. If you’re considering hiring a law firm internet marketing company or want to understand digital marketing for law firm growth, this guide explains the process step-by-step.
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Andrew Colsky: Most lawyers waste money on social media advertising. Not because social media doesn't work, but because they start in the wrong place. If you're a solo practitioner or small firm, the real question is not, should I advertise on social media? The real question is how do you do lawyer social media marketing in a way that actually produces clients? Because running ads is easy. Turning that attention into trust and then into signed clients, that's the hard part. So today I'm going to explain what actually works, what most lawyers get wrong, and why the firms that succeed approach social media completely differently. Let me start with the reality most lawyers eventually discover the hard way. Social media advertising by itself almost never works. You can spend thousands of dollars on Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, or YouTube ads. But if someone clicks your ad and then looks you up online and they don't see credibility, they don't call. They keep scrolling. That's why effective small firm marketing isn't really about advertising. It's about building credibility first and then using advertising to amplify. So let's walk through the three social media strategies that actually work for law firms. The first one is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is incredibly powerful for lawyers who work with businesses. Think employment lawyers, business lawyers, contract lawyers. How about consulting attorneys? The reason LinkedIn works so well is targeting. You can literally show ads to people based on their job title. or their company, or their industry, even the size of their organization. So if you're an employment lawyer, for example, you can run ads directly to HR directors. If you're a business lawyer, you can target business owners. But here's where most lawyers make a mistake. They run ads asking people to hire them. That almost never works. What works is promoting authority. Instead of advertising your services, you advertise your expertise. You run ads that promote things like a short video explaining a legal risk, an article answering a business question, or a short webinar about avoiding lawsuits. When business owners see useful information from you, something important happens. You move from being another lawyer to being a trusted expert. And that's when people start reaching out. The second major platform for law firm social media marketing is Facebook and Instagram. These platforms work best for consumer facing law practices. Things like personal injury, for example, or family law, or how about criminal defense? There's immigration attorneys, estate planning. The people who need these services are not searching LinkedIn. They're scrolling their phone. So the strategy here is different. You want visibility and familiarity. That means short videos answering common legal questions. For example, three mistakes people make after a car accident. What to do if the police ask to search your car? Or what parents should know before filing for custody? When people see these types of videos repeatedly, something interesting happens. They start recognizing you. And when a legal problem eventually appears, they already trust you. But here's the challenge. Successful lawyer advertising and marketing requires consistency. Posting videos, testing ads, writing articles, answering questions, responding to comments. Doing this week after week after week. And most lawyers simply don't have time for that. Now, the third strategy that's becoming incredibly powerful for digital marketing for law firms is YouTube. YouTube is different from other social media platforms because YouTube is also a search engine. When someone searches a legal question like, what happens if I refuse a breathalyzer test? Or how about, do I need a lawyer after a car accident? YouTube videos often appear in the search results. And that means that a single video answering a legal question can attract potential clients for years. Not days, years. And that's why many law firms are now investing in YouTube as part of their online marketing for lawyers. But here's the reality most attorneys discover once they try it. Creating effective YouTube content requires keyword search, scripting, recording, editing, search optimization, publishing, promotion, and consistency. That brings us to the real problem that most solo lawyers face. They realize effective small law firm marketing requires LinkedIn content, YouTube videos, SEO blog posts, social media engagement. and targeted advertising. All of those have to work together. That's why many attorneys eventually hire a law firm internet marketing company. But those agencies often cost $5,000, $10,000, even $15,000 per month. And even then, you're often relying on someone else to build your credibility. There is a smarter approach. Instead of outsourcing everything, the most successful lawyers build a credibility system. A system that consistently produces educational videos, LinkedIn authority posts, and SEO blog articles. All based on the same core idea. When you consistently answer the questions clients are already searching for, three powerful things start happening. First, you start showing up in search. Second, you start building authority. And third, your advertising becomes dramatically more effective. Because now when someone clicks your ad and researches you, they see expertise everywhere. They see videos. They see articles. They see posts. They see answers. That's when advertising finally starts working. Because advertising amplifies credibility. It doesn't create credibility, it amplifies it. And that's the big secret that most lawyers eventually learn. The lawyers who dominate online marketing aren't the ones running the most ads. They're the ones building the most credibility. If you're trying to figure out how to build that credibility without hiring an expensive law firm internet marketing company, that's exactly why I created the BPICC Credibility Generator. It helps solo professionals and small firms automatically create the kinds of videos, articles, and LinkedIn Authority content that build trust online. Because getting found online isn't the real goal. The real goal is getting picked by the client. And the lawyers who build credibility first are almost always the ones who win.
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