TikTok: The newest frontier of legal advertising

By Laura Brown
BridgeTower Media Newswires
 
MINNEAPOLIS, MN —Lawyers are always on the hunt for new ways to grow their practices. One of the most popular ways, in recent years, has been to use social media. Many firms now use social media platforms such as Twitter to announce victories and outline services offered, helping them to attract clients and build their brand. One of the new horizons for legal advertising is the platform called TikTok.

For those unfamiliar with TikTok, it is a social media platform where users create and share very short videos, generally accompanied by music or even dance moves, and often with interesting special effects. It creates viral trends, searchable by hashtag, which move beyond TikTok and into the real world.

At first, TikTok was written off as a place for teenagers, and certainly not a place for professionals. Eventually, businesses were forced to take notice. Charli D’Amelio, a teenager with over 127 million followers on TikTok, inked a deal with Dunkin Donuts in 2020; in the first five days, the coffee chain sold hundreds of thousands of Charli’s signature drink. Other businesses have since taken notice.

Over the past year, more professionals from a variety of fields—from medicine to finance to, yes, law—have gotten accounts on TikTok. This is because TikTok has expanded to include a large quantity of educational content that consumers enjoy.

Lawyers have been more hesitant to join TikTok, largely due to the platform’s association with a much younger audience. Within the past year—even the past six months—that has changed. Michael Mandell—whose handle is @lawbymike—is a TikTok user who garnered 3.5 million followers in just seven weeks. Mandell is a California trial lawyer specializing in personal injury. Graduating from Duke Law, Mandell is not just a personality but has intelligence behind his videos. He now has over 6 million social media followers.

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A Minnesota lawyer on TikTok

One Minnesota Lawyer using TikTok to build his brand is attorney Cesar Alex Anderson-Cazales, who refers to himself as “El Abogado Mexicano.” He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law. His practice areas are in family law, bankruptcy, and criminal defense. He can be followed on TikTok at @mryassdaddyog.

Anderson-Cazales’ TikToks are a mix of personal (cute cat videos) and professional. In one of the videos captioned “When my friends come visit me at work,” viewers see an attractive office setting. Clients, who are often nervous about meeting with their attorneys, can see the space ahead of time and get a better sense of the environment than they would from a photo on a firm’s website.

Many of the other videos comically portray the “day in the life” of an attorney. In one video, Anderson-Cazales impersonates a hostile witness, himself treating the witness as hostile, and a court reporter barely holding it together while everything transpires. In another video, he is jubilant as he proclaims that opposing counsel gave him all discovery on time and his client has not given him any documents to produce. While Anderson-Cazales’ videos tend more towards the humorous, there are plenty of successful lawyers on TikTok who simply answer questions or give advice.

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Reasons to use TikTok to market legal services

TikTok is a relatively new platform. Therefore, the platform is not as saturated with other lawyers, making it easier for to differentiate oneself and reach users.

It also is not difficult to create a video for TikTok. The length of the videos—sometimes as short as fifteen seconds—do not require the extensive editing that Vimeo or YouTube videos require. Lawyers will not need to create enough content for a full-length video, either.

Despite the artifice of the filters, TikTok has an authenticity that users enjoy. Professionals use TikTok as a “behind the scenes” look. Many of the videos filmed by professionals are in their offices or workspaces, which provides a more relaxed view of the professional.

Many users on the platform are also interested in learning about legal issues. Many professionals provide information about common questions, such as the different types of bankruptcy options or why a will is important from a legal perspective. Audiences enjoy getting the free information.

Additionally, there are many users on the platform searching for an attorney. A quick search on TikTok shows users specifically reaching out for legal advice on certain topics and needing recommendations for attorneys.

It also allows for networking opportunities, which have been curtailed somewhat sharply by the pandemic. While many of the lawyer TikTok videos are aimed at attracting clients, many of them are created to promote camaraderie (or to commiserate?) with other attorneys.

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Tips to market legal services on TikTok

Decide whether practice areas are a good fit for the platform: Certain practice areas will work better than others for advertising on TikTok. Firms with a focus on consumer clients will do best. Practice areas such as bankruptcy, personal injury, criminal defense, and family law may be best suited for the platform.

Make sure the content fits the brand: While TikTok is a platform designed for users to let their hair down, lawyers should be careful to make sure what they share both is still professional but also that it fits the overall brand. While some professionals can pull off talking about a topic while doing a TikTok dance (if you don’t know what that is, don’t attempt it), it may not be advisable for all lawyers.

Be careful about what is shared: While most lawyers would never dream of sharing confidential client information, they may inadvertently share it while filming a video. Lawyers should take care that there are no documents in view with client information. Even if just a corner of the document is showing and the font is very small, users can zoom in.

Exercise caution about “advice”: As with any online platform, lawyers have to take care that an individual does not believe that they have established a lawyer-client relationship. If a user submits a question to an attorney, and the attorney responds, they may believe that the relationship has commenced.

TikTok may not be for every lawyer, but more lawyers are likely to join TikTok. TikTok may just be the way perfect way to build up a presence.