Cracking the Social Media Code: Insights from a Seven-Figure Sales Journey Part 1

Last week I spoke about figuring out what you can and cannot control and told you this week I was going to go deep into one example from my recent life.

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I'm going to get real and raw here when it comes to my social media (and what I have done about it).

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In my best year, I did about $1,000,000 in sales just from social media. That was pretty evenly split between the law firm and my former company LegalEase Marketing (60/40 legalease). To be 100% honest, I didn't actually figure out the specific case values I generated PI wise, instead I looked at the # of cases I could tie back to social and then multiplied that by my average case value.

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I also didn't look at already existing referral sources who might have referred us more from my social media...so it could be somewhat lower or way higher.

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And then, like the Empire losing a giant Death Star due to 1 shot from an X-Wing it all kind of went to heck and I am trying to get back to those sorts of results. Thankfully I wasn't dumb enough (yet) to allow this to happen twice...or maybe three times.

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The Story

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At the time I was doing 7 figures in sales from social media, I had a weekly live show supported by a video editor/graphic designer, and then an assistant in the Philippines doing engagement and my social media with me. Plus obviously some help and insight from the LegalEase team but none of us would call ourselves social media experts, and none of us were or are Martin Scorsese's daughter Francesca.

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So (and if you know my LONG story about my firm) I figured hey...we/I can bring in some more expertise and make this even better...so I tried a few different things and like Dr. Strange trying to make everyone forget who Spiderman was or Tony Stark thinking Ultron was a good thing, or... well Superheroes do this a lot... it didn't make it better:

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I hired graphic designers, social media strategists, outside vendors, social media managers, other companies, local, not local, big companies, smaller shops, heck at one point my business partner was managing the live feed to see where he could add some awesome input...and honestly...I have NEVER been happy with my social media.

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And as we know insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results is one of my favorite quotes, even if Einstein might not have actually ever said it.

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Time to Make a Change

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Since leaving LegalEase, the live show has gone away, so it's possible that was the biggest change to the impact of my social media...but I doubt it, because to the extent that I can track results...the live show posts were never the best performing, and the I still get leads from most of the guest who ever sent us leads.

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It's also possible that because this was 2021-ish COVID and it's keeping people inside also impacted my social media #s in a way I could not (and do not want to) recreate.

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So I went back to the drawing board...more  Zach Galifianakis in the Hangover than Kevin Spacey in A Beautiful Mind.  I tried to make the most simplistic rundown of social media guidance hoping that as long as we nailed the basics...we would have the baseline to work back up from.

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So here I present to you - and feel free to use them for your benefit too...my law firm Social Media SOPs.  This is NOT my personal social media which is a whole different beast.  This is the law firm only.

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Warning, these are simple and straightforward.  That's the whole point.  You will need to add some insight and wisdom to them for you and your team, but again...my focus was on being as simple as possible.  This is intentionally Youngling training, not the test for a Jedi Knight (and hopefully you don't have an Anakin Skywalker to cut right through this/you after Order 66 goes into effect).

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First off, a HUGE thank you to Kendra Niiro for being a second set of eyes and a huge help on this. One day I will convince her to take me on as a client, in the meantime...if you're looking for someone to do this with you/for you I would start there.

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The Purpose of Social Media

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Here is where I wanted to start.  From this, the right person could take the vision to the next level but like Loki...you need to start with a glorious purpose right?

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The purpose of our social media is to generate business for the firm.

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Social Media can help up generate work by helping:

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- Potential clients find our firm (I actually DON'T think this is going to happen for us...but it's still an option)

- Referral sources think of us for leads (this is BIG for us)

- Clients remember us for future cases (this is BIGGER for us)

- Media uses us as a source for publicity

- We get asked to speak at different events

- People think of us for other helpful opportunities

- Recognition for the work we have done to give back to our clients 

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Your purpose of social media might be the same or totally different, but start here and see where you go.

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How to Write As US

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Now that we know what we want...let's see how we get there.  I am big on starting big and broad and then getting more specific think the opposite of Rambo 1 to Rambo 2 or Alien to Aliens.

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Remember you are writing as a law firm and while we tend to be pretty approachable and fun…there are some lines we don’t want to cross

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Do

Don’t

Write as a team (we, our)

Write as 1 person (I, my, me)

Follow Ethical Rules

Violate Confidentiality

Be fun and funny

Make fun of other people (especially people having mental health issues in Florida man stories)

Use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation

Lolz @ me bro

Share wonderful things clients say about us (without violating confidentiality)

Brag about ourselves (however we can as a team highlight the great work of people ON the team)

Talk about how we help people get the recovery they deserve

Make it all about the money

Show true care, empathy and compassion for the situation

Be “that” lawyer…the asshole who only cares about the money

Write for an intelligent 13 year old (if we use legalese or acronyms (PI/PIP/UM/BI)…define it…which should be the whole purpose of the video or post in those situations)

Write in the style of caselaw or Bar Journal articles, but also, don’t curse or use slang

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Write in the style of caselaw or Bar Journal articles, but also, don’t curse or use slang

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I thought the do/don't made for a pretty good boundary on either side of what to do for each post.  Feel free to amend as needed for you.

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I realize this might be stretching out longer than anticipated, so stay tuned next week for more insights on Cracking the Social Media Code: Lessons from Seven-Figure Sales.

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Hope you have an amazing weekend!

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Jordan

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