Updated 2/28/2024

Because LinkedIn has managed to go the way of Facebook in recent years, having drummed up its own version of unwarranted drama and politics, I find myself browsing it less and less (perhaps I could stand to just take a half day to clear my contacts that perpetuate the parts I don’t find helpful). Either way, what I’ve seen the most is a generalized push towards professionals and experts needing to be on social media more often. For brand awareness, for e-commerce, B2C, B2B, blue collar white collar, it’s never often narrowed down. It’s emerging, so it’s the place to be, evidently. 

There isn’t a “see if it works for you” notion, nor any effort to specify what industries or professions. Everybody needs to be spending an indiscernible amount of time on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and (of course) TikTok. There’s probably data to back it up on their end, but I haven’t seen it. Data is a pretty major factor in making decisions, I’d typically say. So I ran a few surveys to get a better idea. 

A Survey About Specific Social Media Platforms

In this survey, I wanted to use distinct platforms that were based off of what I felt was an established, reputable social platform, our favorite search engine, and what emerging social media looked like today, aka TikTok. I conducted this survey exaactly one year ago for the first time.  Now we can compare after 366 days. Here are the results: 

Let’s say you had a legal issue and you have different online platforms available to look up information on before researching a lawyer. Answer the following questions:

  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up legal information on Instagram? 2023- 7.13  2024-3.11
    Change- 56.4% decrease     
  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up a lawyer to handle your legal issue on Instagram? 2023- 6.63  2024- 2.73
    Change- 58.8% decrease     
  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up legal information on Google? 2023- 8.04  2024- 7.75
    Change- 3.6% decrease     
  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up a lawyer to handle your legal issue on Google? 2023- 7.25  2024- 7.64
    Change- 5.4% increase     
  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up legal information on TikTok? 2023- 5.71  2024- 2.35
    Change- 58.8% decrease     
  • On a scale 1-10, how likely would you be to look up a lawyer to handle your legal issue on TikTok? 2023- 6.59  2024- 1.96
    Change- 70.3% decrease

My initial reaction to this is “Wow. These people last year really didn’t take this survey seriously.”  But considering that it was split up by age group, we were using SurveyMonkey which has been reliable for these surveys.  So it makes you wonder if there really is a huge departure from professional information being heeded on platforms like IG and TikTok.  A response of 1.96 for handing a legal issue from a lawyer on TikTok is a “Strong Disagree”.  That would give me huge pause for my emphasis on that platform.  And yet Google still inches up for the same question.

The Big Questions When It Comes to Advertising on Socials

We don’t need any graphs or statistics to show us that social media has been growing consistently for years. Some platforms come and go, like Clubhouse (?), but some stay, such as TikTok, even though I’m not sure if their data mining policies have changed much over the past couple years. We do need more specific information for our law firm for reasons such as:

  • Do our potential clients want to socially validate us on social media? If so, which platforms?
  • Are there platforms that can be positive and others that are negative? For example, is sharing legal information on YouTube or LinkedIn going to give me the perception of being professional, but if I do the same content on Facebook or TikTok, will I look tacky? 
  • Am I doing this for brand awareness or actual lead generation? It’s important to know that lead generation from an organic standpoint for law firms has been almost non-existent up until recently, and even recently it can be hard to measure unless the client tells you specifically.
  • Who will create the content, and how many resources should really be allocated to this and for how long?

These questions could certainly be endless. But without overcomplicating this process prematurely, let’s look at some data that was gathered during these surveys. These ones are now a bit more dated, but definitely paint a picture for a trendline. The first survey was conducted in anticipation of 2023, on November 22nd, 2022.  The second was February 20th, 2023.  So just about 3 months apart.  The difference in 3 months are staggering, so read on to see how much has changed already.   

A Survey About Consumer Views of Businesses on Social Media

The first question was determining if people both research information and hire services via social media. It was then measured if there was a difference depending on who the information was provided by, such as a handyman versus a lawyer. 

The details belows are during the November 2022 survey.

Out of about 275 respondents (and a 1-10 range with 1 being “not likely at all” and 10 being “very likely”), the average respondent was 7.53 for looking up general advice on social media, and 7.15 for professional advice.

Surprisingly when it came to hiring someone on social media, both services were almost equal: 6.73 and 6.75. It’s also worth noting that 6.75 isn’t too far above neutral, and social media in this study included Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and even YouTube (since there is a high level of social engagement in channels and comments). The last question of “are you going to use TikTok more or more often in 2023” came in at 7.09, which is a decent increase.

Now here are the results updated in February of 2023 after gathering data from another 225 respondents in this survey.

Out of about 225 respondents (and a 1-10 range with 1 being “not likely at all” and 10 being “very likely”), the average respondent was 7.19 (less than November 2022) for looking up general advice on social media, and 7.09 (very slightly less than November of 2022) for professional advice.  When it came to hiring someone on social media, the difference was much more stark: 7.08 and 5.78 respectively. While this was an uptick for the common household services, this is a significant drop for professional services, nearly almost complete indifference.  The last question of “are you going to use TikTok more or more often in 2023” came in at 5.7 opposed to 7.09 just 3 months ago, which is a markedly significant decline.

The notable decline in a short time span is worth considering for firms that have already kicked off the year with initiatives in certain areas.  You may want to consider how consistent you’d want to be on any platforms with waning interest.

I found this survey important to break into ages groups as well, so the following is what that looks like (first number is November 2022, second is Feburary 2023):

18-29: 

Look Up Information on General Issue: 7.22 (7.28) – Less than percent increase
Look Up Information on Professional Issue: 7.12 (7.13) – Less than percent increase
Hire a General Service Provider Via Social Platform: 6.78 (7.16) – 5.6% increase
Hire a Professional Service Provider Via Social Platform: 6.72 (6.70) – Less than percent decrease
Use TikTok More Often in 2023: 6.51 (6.21) – 4.6% decrease

30-39:

Look Up Information on General Issue: 7.61 (7.32) – 3.8% decrease
Look Up Information on Professional Issue: 7.24 (6.00) – 17.2% decrease
Hire a General Service Provider Via Social Platform: 7.06 (6.92) – 2% decrease
Hire a Professional Service Provider Via Social Platform: 7.11 (6.30) – 11.4% decrease
Use TikTok More Often in 2023: 7.17 (5.72) – 20.2% decrease

40+:

Look Up Information on General Issue: 7.31 (6.39) – 12.6% decrease
Look Up Information on Professional Issue: 7.10 (7.95) – 12% increase
Hire a General Service Provider Via Social Platform: 6.65 (6.86) – 3.2% increase
Hire a Professional Service Provider Via Social Platform: 6.42 (7.08) – 
Use TikTok More Often in 2023: 6.99 (6.83) – 2.3% decrease

According to the survey, the 40+ was by far the most willing to utilize social media to engage with a professional service, though the outlook of TikTok was more on the decline. For 30-39, the decline was precipitous.

This survey may have created more questions than it answered. First of all, Gen Z was not going to use TikTok more often in 2023 relative to the other demos. Perhaps because they had adopted it earlier and didn’t plan on using it “even more”, when the other demos were now on track to become Late Adopters?

Also there was nothing really discernable about how much one platform meant compared to another—mostly just that all demos have no issues using platforms other than Google to find information, and they may also hire a company on these platforms (besides maybe the 40+ demo which is less likely). This led to the next survey.

Thoughts on TikTok and Other Socials

All in all, TikTok’s presence as a place where consumers may be interested in looking up legal advice is very close to neutral, and if it aligns at all anywhere with the previous survey, interest may drop off very quickly as your ideal client passes from Gen Z to Millennial to beyond. That being said, my goal here isn’t to discourage any form of marketing; it is to be considerate of the limited time you have as a professional with valuable time. Those that have been first to jump on the platform have seen some progress from what I’ve heard, but I’ve actually heard a lot more praise recently for efforts in YouTube and dedication to podcasts and blogging. 

If you have the resources and support to cast a wide net next year and beyond, take some of this information as a framework of potential prioritization. Otherwise if you have to pick your battles, you can let some of the data do the talking instead of the self-serving social maven segment of your LinkedIn feed. 

Contact Market My Market for All of Your Social Media Needs

Social media can be play a crucial role in helping expand your law firm’s digital marketing efforts. Finding different ways to put your law firm in front of people who are looking for your business is an important step to being found by more local clients. 

To secure top-notch social media for your firm and to discover what social media channels and other digital marketing techniques can work for your practice, contact us at Market My Market today. The experts at our legal marketing agency will help you develop a plan to maximize your social media lead generation.