TikTok for Lawyers: How to Grow Your Law Firm Through TikTok Marketing (With Examples)
TikTok for lawyers might not be a concept that’s top-of-mind for every attorney — but it’s becoming a law firm marketing strategy to take seriously.
- Did you know that the TikTok hashtag #lawtok has attracted over 1.8 billion video views and is one of several legal hashtags growing in popularity daily on the platform?
- Or that there are over one billion active users on the platform, making TikTok the sixth most-used social platform in the world?
- Or that the TikTok app has been downloaded over two billion times?
TikTok won’t come easy to all firms, but it’s evolved considerably over the past few years. It’s no longer just about fun and games. TikTok could be the next big marketing channel to pay attention to for attorneys.
Law firms can either ignore this novel approach to marketing and watch as competing firms increasingly take to the platform or brush up on what TikTok can do and learn how to implement a TikTok strategy that builds awareness and attracts leads.
This article looks at all that — with plenty of examples of how some progressive law firms have already used the app to grow.
Table of Contents
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a short-form video-sharing app for iOS and Android that allows users to create and share their content on any topic with other users from their smartphones.
TikTok is available in most countries, with videos ranging in length from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Most are less than one minute.
TikTok’s stated mission is “to inspire creativity and bring joy.”
The app began as Douyin in 2016 (in China) before morphing into ByteDance. It grew mainly through hundreds of thousands of kids worldwide making short low-quality dancing videos from their phones to share.
How has it evolved into one of the fastest-growing social media apps? How can short, entertaining videos help law firms market their businesses?
The answer is through engaging a generally younger audience with content that speaks their language — usually light-hearted, sometimes funny, but also informative, original, and easily sharable.
In fact, short videos seem to strike a chord with most people. And as you’ll see, if you get it right, TikTok can work for almost any legal practice area.
Two of the main strengths of TikTok are:
- It’s very easy to create and share video content — much easier than with YouTube — and it doesn’t matter if videos are a little “rough around the edges.”
- The algorithm that underpins it is smart. When users open the app, they see a For You page with relevant content based on past content that they’ve viewed: either accounts they follow or suggested videos/ads.
As the number of users has exploded, TikTok has attracted more businesses eager to reach out to potential clients who’ve chosen the platform. Law firms are no different, with TikTok attracting their attention as video marketing for lawyers has become more mainstream in the profession.
In recent years, TikTok has become more business-friendly. For instance, you can link your law firm blog and other social media accounts to your TikTok profile, potentially increasing traffic to other online marketing channels like YouTube and Instagram.
Why should lawyers consider TikTok?
Even the most traditional law firm will probably admit that the legal profession speaks too much “legalese” to clients.
It confuses people, and many of the most successful modern law firms have dispensed with it, adopting simpler and more “accessible” language in their marketing strategy.
Consider TikTok as the next step in a more client-centric process. It’s a way to reach out to large numbers of your target clients on their terms, speaking their language, and on their preferred social media platform.
One billion users won’t all want to see legal videos — but a small fraction of one billion is still a lot of users.
Just take a look at how many followers this finance lawyer has — nine million.
TikTok boasts one of the most engaged audiences across all social media platforms. Short, entertaining videos are accessible, easy to digest, and can help your firm stand out from the plethora of others now active on social media.
While most TikTok users are under 40 (with 25 percent under the age of 20), the age of people using TikTok in the U.S. is increasing. According to recent statistics, over 31 percent of users are now over 40.
Think of TikTok for lawyers as an opportunity to reach an audience where few of your competing law firms are currently treading. We expect that to change quickly in the near future, but there’s a very attractive window of opportunity for enterprising law firms.
This has led to the creation of specialist hashtags like #legaltok, #lawtok, and #lawyertok.
Not only has #lawtok garnered almost two billion views of its content, but #legaltok and #lawyertok also have close to 200 million video views apiece.
This demonstrates the popularity of this type of content and the opportunity it presents for free law firm brand building.
But how can you tap into the demand that is clearly there? What type of content can lawyers develop? How can you develop a following and use TikTok marketing most effectively to capture leads and grow your firm?
TikTok is unique in terms of social media platforms, and not every law firm that tries marketing on the platform is successful. It’s important to consider how to get set up and the best practices with law firm TikTok marketing.
3 simple steps to get started on TikTok
Before your law firm can start using TikTok meaningfully, you need to get set up with a free TikTok business account.
1. Download the TikTok app
It takes seconds to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Set up a business account for free
After downloading the TikTok app, open it and follow these steps:
- Tap “Me” in the bottom menu bar.
- Tap “Sign Up” to register with your phone number, email address, or registered social media account.
- Tap “…” on the top right of the “Me” page.
- Tap “Manage Account” and select “Switch to Business Account.”
3. Optimize your profile
As with all social media accounts, you need to optimize your TikTok profile. Add a description of your law firm using your main keywords and a link to your website.
Your description can be a little playful depending on your practice area and the type of audience you’re trying to attract. You may be able to connect with a younger audience by making the law more engaging and “accessible” to them.
Make it easy for followers or newcomers to get in touch with you. Include links in your bio, and make sure that you’re clear on how to contact you (through your website, phone, email, DM, etc.).
Here’s a good example from @husbandandwifelawteam.
8 of the best ways to market your law firm with TikTok
After you’ve optimized your TikTok profile, the next step is to start populating it with content you create. That way, you’ll develop a branded channel with specific videos covering your practice area and more.
Ask yourself what value you can provide potential followers through your content.
Your law firm’s Tik Tok channel can raise awareness of your firm and connect and engage with potential clients. Here are eight great ways to start using these short, engaging videos for legal marketing.
1. Answer your audience’s most frequently asked questions
What are the main questions you get asked by prospective clients?
Video is great for answering FAQs. It works on YouTube and just as well on TikTok if you pitch it right to your target audience.
Sharing your expertise of the legal system in your jurisdiction in a way that makes sense to those outside the legal profession will win you plenty of followers. TikTok is a place to flaunt your expertise but in the “lightest” and most entertaining way possible.
So, how can you frame legal issues and answer them in a way that engages your audience?
Here’s a great example from @thelovelylawfirm in South Carolina about motorcycle accident insurance coverage.
2. Share legal tips for use in everyday life
The audience on TikTok is made up of everyday people going about their everyday lives. Visitors to your law firm’s TikTok channel probably have some sort of legal issue they need help with.
What may seem obvious to a legal expert like you is rarely obvious to the average person. You’re a trusted voice and can use this to connect and engage with your audience.
Your TikTok videos can pass on tips and insight for handling legal issues in people’s lives — whether it’s what they should wear during a court appearance or what to do after a car accident, like in this example from a national personal injury law firm (Morgan & Morgan).
3. Give followers legal challenges/questions/problems
The name of the game on TikTok is engagement. How do you get your followers to engage with your videos?
One great way to do that is to set legal problems/questions/challenges and request responses from your followers.
For instance, @ugolord shows a video of a pedestrian crossing the road and a car accident resulting — and he asks the question, who’s liable for the damages?
The lawyer actually creates two engaging videos for each legal problem: one to set up the challenge and the other to reveal who’s liable.
This lawyer’s short, engaging videos get hundreds of thousands or even millions of views.
4. Pass on legal insight and opinion on current events
Legal news is often headline news in the media — important legal cases that capture people’s attention are common.
Providing legal insight and opinion on such cases is a great strategy, as is providing a legal perspective on any trending news story.
On the channel @lawyerlimor, a lawyer analyzes celebrity legal news, such as this post about Kanye West and his recent legal issues.
But your channel doesn’t need to feature exclusively legal videos. You can blend your legal videos with other types of content that are lighter or more amusing. By keeping things entertaining and educational (rather than too heavy or political), you’ll tick many boxes for creating engaging TikTok content.
5. “Stitch” a trending video and add reaction and commentary
Stitching is a TikTok creation tool that allows you to combine another video on TikTok with the one that you’re creating.
Videos that are already trending and have caught people’s attention are a good place to start. As a lawyer, you can stitch a trending video to the one you’re creating and provide a reaction or add voiceover commentary to it from a legal perspective.
@thelawyerangela stitches videos on her feed, providing legal insight on the content of other videos, such as the legality of washing people’s cars without a license in NYC.
It’s a great way to remain current, relevant, and top of mind with your audience.
6. Share advice for aspiring lawyers
As well as connecting with potential clients, TikTok for lawyers can be used to connect with other legal professionals, including youngsters studying to become professional lawyers.
As you already know, TikTok is not LinkedIn, so you’ll probably not connect with thousands of other professionals on the platform. But TikTok can be a place for learning, and by passing on your advice to aspiring lawyers, you generate goodwill in the legal community while also broadening your network.
Personal injury attorney Matt Dolman from the Dolman Law Group does this well in his videos, with honest and upfront views on topics of interest to aspiring lawyers.
7. Repurpose popular content
If a video of yours works on other social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, it may well work on TikTok in a repurposed format. And vice versa.
Perhaps a popular blog post or graphic can be worked into a short video?
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel each time you want to put content out there. You can repurpose your most popular content and post it across multiple social media platforms to squeeze every last drop of engagement out of it.
8. Pay to advertise on TikTok
Your branded law firm channel should help you build a good following on TikTok organically, raising awareness and trust by engaging and educating your audience. That takes some time, and some firms may want to press the “fast forward” button with lead generation.
As an alternative to PPC campaigns like Google Ads, law firms can consider paid advertising on TikTok. This will help you show up more frequently on your followers’ feeds (For You pages).
TikTok ads can be in the form of in-feed videos that appear on For You pages, brand takeovers, sponsored influencers, image ads in TikTok’s news feed apps, hashtag challenges that show up in the Discovery section, and more. There are no banner ads and no text options, though.
Some ideas for ads include client testimonials, free legal tips, or even one of your lawyers doing a silly dance.
Remember your audience: the predominantly young audience on TikTok is likely to respond better to an ad that is rough around the edges but authentic and/or funny than a highly produced commercial ad.
If you’re unsure about TikTok ads, it may be best to dip your feet into TikTok first and try to gain a following organically.
Best practice tips for TikTok law firm marketing
Now you know how to approach TikTok through your branded channel and advertising, let’s consider a few best practices for attorneys and law firms on TikTok.
The following tips will help you produce content that hits the right notes with the right people.
Be clear on your firm’s target audience
All good marketing starts with targeting the right people. Your target audience on TikTok may differ from those you target with organic search, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, or email marketing.
Create client personas that consider your target audience’s age, gender, profession, marital status, occupation, language, income, etc., and build content with these people in mind.
For instance, if your content is mainly designed to educate young, new male drivers about car accident claims, it will need to strike a different note than content designed to educate families about how to make a claim against nursing home malpractice.
Research other legal content
Before launching your channel, check out how other law firms and attorneys use TikTok to promote their businesses.
Read comments on #LawTok videos to find unanswered comments or requests (for content ideas). You could even reach out to other lawyers or organizations on TikTok who complement your firm’s business and collaborate on a “duet” (two videos on a split screen that play at the same time).
Here’s a good example of a duet from @attorneyryan, an employment lawyer in California with over 1.6 million followers.
More legal videos are being added daily on TikTok, so by the time you read this, the platform will already have evolved further.
Create and share original content regularly
The TikTok algorithm rewards regular contributors. The more high-quality and original content you create, the more likely you are to show up in your followers’ feeds.
Try to be consistent by posting something every few days as you build your following. Create a content calendar with a list of topics to cover in advance. With good planning, you should be able to create multiple videos in one “sitting.”
The great thing with TikTok is that to get traction, your videos don’t need to be long or even very polished. You don’t need a script or mood lighting as you might for longer YouTube videos.
@lawbymike has accumulated 6.9 million followers by regularly posting informative videos like this one about fighting parking tickets.
Show personality and behind-the-scenes glimpses
Part of the beauty of TikTok is that you can show personality. You can give people a “window” into a lawyer’s life and what you care about.
Most of the success stories with law firm TikTok usage are from progressive attorneys who use the platform in a more playful way than traditional lawyers. Successful attorneys come across as both personable and knowledgeable.
For instance, showing your humorous side when you’re “out of the office” or “out of the courtroom” is fine — it’s even kind of expected on TikTok.
Anthony Barbuto (TheLawyer), for instance, is an attorney who purposely makes TikTok videos that throw out the traditional approach to how lawyers should be. He claims to be the first lawyer on TikTok and has 2.2 million followers.
Barbuto’s fun approach to law includes videos that go behind the scenes, with his wife and/or children often featured, like in this one.
Many firms still shun the marketing potential of TikTok because it requires a departure from the “comfort zone.” That’s the very reason why TikTok works for many other firms that delight in taking a different approach to traditional firms.
Experiment with your content
TikTok is a great place to experiment with ideas before you unleash them elsewhere. Perhaps you have an idea for a video on a particular subject and you’re not quite sure if you should post it on your firm’s Facebook page.
TikTok can be your testing ground. Failure is OK. Businesses can release experimental content on the platform using its regularly updated features and functionality to create ever-more engaging content.
@lawbymike asks some interesting legal questions and is very experimental with his content. This post has garnered over 650 comments from followers.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone, and you may just discover an entirely new audience.
Keep up with trending topics
As you saw in the TikTok for lawyers marketing tips above, following trends and current events on TikTok and adding your voice to these topics is a good way to engage your audience.
Attorneys can browse the Discover page to see trending content and be inspired — probably a dance challenge or something musical, but that’s OK.
Maybe you can add a humorous take on a topic from your unique legal perspective or comment on a current case in the news like @lawyerkelly does on the recent Amber Heard/Johnny Depp defamation lawsuit.
Respond personally to comments and questions
If your content gains momentum, be ready to answer their questions, respond to comments, and thank people for liking your videos.
While this may sound time-consuming, assigning the task to someone should be relatively easy.
Family lawyer @galawyer (Calina Plotky) personally responds to many comments on her posts.
Use relevant hashtags to attract more viewers
Hashtag usage is just as important on TikTok as it is on Instagram. Hashtags are an accepted way to group content on social media and most people understand them now.
The best practice is to use an umbrella hashtag like #lawtok as well as hashtags that cover your niche or topic, such as #criminaldefense or #self-defense, like this one from @attorneyalan.
Measure, analyze, and adjust
You need to know what’s working and what isn’t with your TikTok legal marketing strategy. The number of views and likes are good indicators of how awareness of your firm is building.
Your firm’s practice management software should keep track of where new clients originate from. For instance, automated client intake forms can contain questions for new clients about where they heard about your firm, with a dropdown menu that includes TikTok.
Stay open to the idea of updating your TikTok strategy as required when you discover what works and what doesn’t — or if the TikTok algorithm changes.
How are these 5 types of lawyers converting TikTok followers into leads?
Does it matter if you’re a criminal defense lawyer, personal injury lawyer, or business lawyer when it comes to TikTok marketing?
There’s no argument that TikTok currently works best for lawyers when your target audience is younger. Law firms that deal directly with the public are also more likely to use TikTok for marketing than B2B law firms.
Many types of firms have developed a winning recipe for success on TikTok, from personal injury and car accident attorneys, to family and divorce lawyers, labor/employment firms, immigration attorneys, and more.
Here are five success stories from lawyers in various practice areas who’ve cracked the code on TikTok by creating engaging and informative content.
Personal injury lawyer
Personal injury lawyer Tom Kherke has over 700,000 followers on his @attorneytom TikTok channel.
His short videos discuss major lawsuits in the personal injury sphere. He frequently uses stitches and duet videos for extra engagement in his videos, with many garnering over 100,000 views.
As well as the serious stuff, this lawyer provides balance with plenty of glimpses into his personality in more lighthearted videos.
Immigration lawyer
@immigrationtv is the TikTok channel of immigration lawyer Julio Oyhanarte, based in California. He has over 66,000 followers, and his short videos provide great insight into the latest immigration news and address many of the common topics that people with immigration issues want to know about (in both English and Spanish).
He uses text overlays in his videos to break down complex topics and make them more accessible to his audience.
Family lawyer
We’ve already featured @thelawyer (TikTok’s self-proclaimed “first lawyer”) above. Anthony Barbuto is a family lawyer practicing in California, Florida, and New Jersey.
His is a great TikTok success story, with 2.2 million followers. Anthony completely breaks the mold of how lawyers act. Most of his videos are simply about having fun with his family, though often with a family law angle.
This video alone has attracted 250,000 views and over 800 comments, not unusual numbers on this channel.
Employment lawyer
Employment lawyer @lawyerpaige has over 285,000 followers on her channel. She combines short how-to videos and legal tips with commentaries on high-profile legal cases. This provides great insight into employment law.
Paige frequently uses stitch and duet videos on her channel to increase engagement and add variety.
Criminal defense lawyer
Criminal defense lawyer Mike Mandell runs the incredibly popular @lawbymike channel, which has almost 7 million followers.
He claims to be the most successful lawyer on social media, and that includes TikTok. Using his knowledge of criminal law and a keen sense of humor, his short and engaging videos address a range of topics that affect his audience — from parking tickets to whether you can make a citizen’s arrest on a cop.
TikTok for lawyers: Create and stand out
We don’t expect every law firm to suddenly set up a TikTok account and start marketing on the platform.
Traditional firms, especially in the more sensitive practice areas, will doubtless give it a wide berth. But a growing band of more progressive law firms is ready to try different marketing channels as audience preferences change.
Video marketing has been growing for law firms for a long time, and, in many ways, TikTok for lawyers is just the next step. It’s a potentially important and free way to generate leads.
If you’ve read this far, you now know the best practices with TikTok marketing for law firms and may be ready to start reaching out to your audience. There’s a bit of a learning curve with TikTok for attorneys, but starting now could give you a head start on competing firms.
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