Going Viral: Is the SMM Holy Grail Attainable for Lawyers?

Paul Saputo is a Texas attorney who specializes in serious criminal defense cases. No case is too difficult for Paul, and his firm is dedicated to ensuring each and every person receive a fair trial, no matter the charges. Paul's tenacity for criminal defense and passion for the law are what make his firm great. Read more about
Mr. Saputo on his website at www.saputo.law

A “viral” campaign, that is, a social media post or account that is shared to more than one person per viewer across a social media platform, is perhaps the most valuable marketing object in 2017. The concept of going viral isn’t new, but marketers are investing more than ever in the achieving of the viral result.

As lawyers are more regularly engaging the internet as a means of marketing themselves and their firms, we are learning the limitations and challenges of the social media medium. As a lawyer who is intimately familiar with online marketing and social media (I am a millennial and learned how to code back when Angelfire was cool), I can attest to these challenges and limitations myself.

The Challenges

Most of what we do as lawyers is relatively boring. I am a criminal defense attorney, so I am in a better position than most. But I can’t imagine that probate lawyers have endless amounts of interesting stories to share. Certainly these fun stories exist, but really, I’ll be the first to admit, we spend a lot of time doing “boring” things like …reading. Who cares what we have to share on social media?

Maybe that is not the right way to think about the challenge, however. Why do people care what designer the Kardashians are wearing today? Because they do. Because the Kardashians make things interesting. Because photos. Maybe what lawyers do could be made to be interesting, and we’re just sharing the wrong things in the wrong way.

That’s not our only challenge, of course. Another problem is that we can’t share everything. Privilege and confidentiality restrictions kill a lot of shareable content having to do with what we do on a daily basis. What’s left over might be further limited by our ethical obligation to try cases in the courtroom instead of the media.

The Limitations

Most lawyers don’t market to the masses. Most of us have an extremely limited group of people who could (or would) possibly ever hire us. Going viral on social media may not have much of an impact on our bottom line. At least that’s what many of us tell ourselves. Even for those of us that do market to the “average” consumer, “we’re not selling widgets,” we tell ourselves. If I received 50 more phone calls tomorrow, there’s still only one of me to do the work. And do we really want more random phone calls?

But maybe we’re not thinking about this the right way either. The value of “going viral” extends beyond getting a few more clients. As lawyers, we have a civic duty to our community, states and countries. And our voice is getting drowned out among the more masterful users of social media – a group of people that are becoming increasingly powerful. While we once had command of the mass media through publishers of big periodicals, books and mass media, the new online social media is not as receptive to giving a preference to the learned voice.

Going Forward

Lawyers have to come to terms with new media. This is the way it is going to be. We cannot hide. The simple act of claiming a Facebook profile and hiring an intern to run it (or leaving it to HR) isn’t going to cut it.

We have to begin demanding more of ourselves and figure out how to answer this question: “Can I explain what I am doing in a way that the world will care to listen?” We will have to think outside the box. Esoteric legal jargon isn’t going to be a part of the plan.

What will be part of the plan? We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but we have to admit that the wheel exists. Photos, videos, memes, 140 character quips: these are the new tools of the trade. We have to learn to embrace them as if they were the new printing press.

Going forward, we need to try to go viral. If not us, then who? Or do you want the next generation to learn about the rule of law from Kanye – or worse – a dictator with command of that which you chose to ignore?