How Law Firms Can Thrive in a Swipe-Right World
I have a friend who took her four year old on a cruise and referred to the experience as being on a floating prison.
Having taken my son on two cruises, I cannot say it was THAT bad. But I think of that quote every single time we get on the water.
Every. Single. Time.
This past weekend, we made an eight mile canoe trip in the Ozarks, which is VERY different from Eminem’s 8 Mile, and my son absolutely rocked it.
In fact, we did a great job. We finished an hour earlier than planned and did not even need to break out Paw Patrol on the iPhones.
That is where we hit a slight snag.
The company picking us up took us at our word on timing, no one was there, and we had no cell reception.
So instead of waiting it out, I walked back into town to get reception so I could call them. Along the way, I listened to one of the best sections of Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek.
A Very Brief History Lesson
I Promise I Will Make This Quick
I was a history major. I am a nerd. I will keep this short and hopefully entertaining.
Before the Industrial Revolution, nearly all marketing was one on one. We could not produce goods at scale or travel far enough for services to require massive companies.
After World War I, the United States emerged as a global superpower. The economy boomed, consumerism exploded, and in the 1920s we went from one radio station to over 500. This was the birth of mass media. Companies could now sell the same products coast to coast, market them broadly, produce at scale, and ship nationwide.
Then came the stock market crash and the Great Depression.
As we headed into World War II, many Americans were old enough to fight but young enough to have missed the prosperity of the 1920s. About a quarter of the country went to war, which made it nearly impossible not to be personally connected to the conflict.
Spoiler alert. We win.
Troops returned home, and society began to value hard work, stability, long careers, and retirement rewards. And then we made babies. A lot of babies.
Those children grew up and eventually rebelled. Drugs, hippies, counterculture.
For the first time in history, we had more than enough. We moved from survival to surplus. This era became known as the Me Generation.
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan banned air traffic controllers from the FAA and replaced them. Simon Sinek argues this was a major moment when profit was prioritized over people. Gordon Gekko noticed. Cocaine happened. Money became king. We also began mass producing disposable products.
Then came the 2000s. The tech bubble burst, followed by the housing crisis.
Boomers experienced massive economic highs, cultural rebellion, financial crashes, and shifting political priorities. Many emerged frustrated and distrustful, even as they voted to expand benefits like Social Security.
I digress.
The key point is this. The Me Generation pushed businesses toward profits over people, and toward undervaluing things because they were abundant.
The book ends around here. So I am going to pick it up from there.
Jordan’s Take
For kids of the 80s and 90s, we were probably too young to be deeply affected by the tech bubble, too young to fully understand Y2K, and often too young to be devastated by the housing crisis.
Now, we are trying to swing the pendulum back toward caring about people, often labeled as fragile snowflake millennials. Okay, boomer.
Our generation straddles the internet age. We remember life before it, but we are not just tourists in it. We remember Facebook when it was only for college students. We also remember riding bikes to the park to meet neighborhood friends.
Now consider the generation after us.
If you were born in 2000, you missed Y2K, probably do not remember 9/11, and were likely shielded from the housing crisis. You also do not know a world without social media.
Here is my concern.
Just as we began undervaluing things in the 1980s, are we now undervaluing people because of social media?
TikTok Is Life
Love it or hate it, TikTok is winning social media.
Since August 2020, it has had the highest watch time of any video platform on the internet. YouTube dominated this space for years and is now playing catch up.
Facebook shifted heavily toward Reels.
YouTube launched Shorts.
Instagram is still trying to figure itself out.
And for your law firm, today’s TikTok users either are or will become your future clients.
So what are the three biggest lessons they have learned?
Lesson One: There Is Always Another Video
These kids have zero patience.
They never waited for a movie to be returned to Blockbuster. They never mailed away for CDs. They never had to make sure no one picked up the phone so they could use the internet.
If they do not like a video, they swipe to the next one.
And honestly, it is not just them.
We all get frustrated when Amazon does not deliver instantly or when we have to drive to pick up food. We have become accustomed to near instant gratification.
For your law firm, this means people have no automatic loyalty to you. You cannot rely on being the only lawyer in town. There are over 400,000 firms competing for attention.
You must earn trust, confirm fit, and prove value. That process is branding. If you ignore it, you are slowly drifting toward mediocrity.
And to be clear, I do not care whether you are on TikTok or not. But this mindset is spreading everywhere. This is the future. You can fight it or embrace it.
Lesson Two: Be Entertaining
When my child was between two and three years old, he explained how garbage trucks use hydraulics to lift trash into the hopper.
He is not a savant. He watches Blippi.
Blippi is part Pee Wee Herman, part Mike Rowe, part Bill Nye. And he works because he is entertaining and educational.
Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this constantly. People who dominated Instagram with pretty photos struggle on TikTok because now personality matters.
People want to be entertained and informed, often in that order.
Lesson Three: Get to the Point
I know. I am 1,500 words in and telling you to get to the point.
But seriously. Get to the point.
You are not David Copperfield. You do not need five minutes of rambling setup for a five second payoff.
Many major social media accounts have eliminated intros entirely. The first two to three seconds matter more than ever.
Share your expertise. Be human. Be helpful. Explain how you can help in sixty seconds or less, preferably thirty.
The same applies to writing. This is why I have become more active on Twitter. Twitter is TikTok with words.
How do you compress a 1,500 word newsletter into 140 characters?
No, seriously. How can I?
Next week, I will dive deeper into video marketing, why it matters, how to use it, and how it shapes trust and perception.
Until next Friday.