And it’s a message every change-averse law firm needs to accept and incorporate into the ways they message and reach their clients and target audience.

Video has become an essential advertising platform for businesses of all kinds, and we’re not just talking about businesses with tangible goods to feature in sales ads. We’re talking white-collar, niche service providers. The more highly technical your service, the better suited for video messaging your communications are – looking at you, law firms!

Many professional service firms are now releasing communications to clients, including in-depth client alerts, in the easiest and most digestible format possible: short-form video. Don’t believe us? Seriously, there are some legal pros dropping truths and raking up followers – take a look at 10 attorneys who have taken full advantage of the reach and power within law firm video content.

Why Are Attorneys and Professional Service Firms Turning to Video Marketing?

The bottom line is the data for us (data is our favorite), and video advertising is powerful. Consider that this year alone, Americans spent 23 hours a month on YouTube, and that’s just on their phones. In addition, a desktop or laptop computer user can almost double that amount of time spent poring over YouTube video content.

If you’ve spent ANY time on other social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, you know firsthand that the 23 hours of screen time a month on YouTube is additive to the amount of time social media users are spending consuming video content.

No matter the platform, you can’t escape the prioritization of video.

Video has proven to be a powerful brand-building tool, ensuring that firms can establish trust and build credibility with established and potential clients through its use. If you are speaking to your target audience in any way, that messaging can be more optimized and promote your firm’s brand better when video content is your medium.

One of the biggest reasons that video is so successful at boosting your ROI and converting prospects is its vast reach and place on every single platform, and half of online users say that video is the most engaging form of outreach (and that number is growing).

We’ll dive deeper into the various video platforms and formats for best practices, but rest assured that this is not a fleeting trend. Video is here to stay, and you’ll likely be seeing much more of it as the platforms continue to prioritize video, pushing your target audience back to your website and ultimately to you for service needs. It’s a no-brainer.

Truthfully, we believe more law firms will look back on video like they look back on the old days of SEO and wish they had started sooner.

Do We Need to Hire Someone for Law Firm Video Marketing?

Most savvy legal marketers have been urging their practice groups and C-suites to think outside of the box and make use of law firm video for a while. While we have seen an increase in the use of video marketing to create law firm videos, we can’t help feeling that there’s a huge opportunity to shift how law firms approach video marketing.

In our analysis of the Am Law 200 firms with YouTube Channels as part of the Law Firm YouTube Index 2022, we found that many firms are making video marketing content to help elevate their brand visibility and engage with clients and prospects. However, the way law firms use and develop video content as a part of their digital marketing efforts feels like an afterthought driven by what’s currently available in a firm’s repository of video content (which is typically webinars).

Over 80% of the Am Law 200 law firms have a publicly accessible YouTube channel. Yet, only a few of them are using a strategic approach to their video marketing content. It’s clear that many firms approach YouTube as a video repository instead of a strategic visibility platform and the second most popular search engine in the world.

So many firms invest heavily in producing video content only to have it never be seen or viewed. Thus, hiring a video marketer to help firms understand the value of utilizing YouTube and other video platforms more strategically is a clear choice.

Furthermore, when it comes to production, we highly recommend law firms invest in the tools and resources to either produce high-quality videos or hire a qualified outside executive producer like our friends at Kates Media.

Law firms are seeing the writing on the wall regarding video marketing. A few weeks ago, Ackerman’s Chief Marketing and Client Development Officer Iris Jones revealed at the Legal Marketing Association Southwest Regional Conference that her firm is investing heavily in video marketing and production – equipping many of their offices with on-site video studios. 

For those looking to outfit their own video production studios or learn more about the equipment we use to film our short-form videos and YouTube videos, we recommend checking out our Video Marketing for Lawyers Hub, which provides a full equipment list.

This is the future of big law firm video marketing, which we predict will only become more prevalent with time.

Video Marketing for Lawyers By Lawyers

The Face of Your Law Firm – Who Should Be on a Law Firm Video?

Clients and prospective clients may be faced with difficult choices when choosing their trusted legal advisors, so why not make it easier for them and show them who you are and why you’re the expert. You can create compelling content on various platforms that differentiate you from the competition. Easily and affordably.

Give your potential clients a solid understanding of your firm with an overview of each practice area, the key benefits of engaging your firm for legal services, and to establish the ever-important emotional connection through authentic storytelling. You’d be shocked by how engaged users even become for the simplest how to videos and FAQ videos on what are standard and widely-known processes and practices in legal.

But where are you creating content to go? Why not to the world’s second-largest search engine? Pro-tip: you can repurpose any and all of your YouTube videos to use across platforms – boosting that ROI one upload at a time.

Types of Video Marketing for Law Firms

YouTube Video Marketing

What YouTube is

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and a database of user-uploaded video content, and best yet… it’s a free platform, YouTube was bought by Google so it’s no wonder that Google prioritizes video in its search engine.

How YouTube is Used

YouTube is a creator’s platform. Individuals and corporations upload millions of videos every year to YouTube’s native platform in the form of entertainment, educational videos, movie trailers, music videos, video and TV show clips, shorts, and documentary films.

Many businesses and professionals use YouTube as a content marketing platform. Since YouTube has such a robust search functionality, it is a vital discovery tool for many professionals, allowing them to reach new audiences and potential clients.

How to Do YouTube Video Correctly

Many professionals mistakenly believe that uploading video content alone will help them build an audience. But using YouTube correctly to market your content requires planning and a strategy.

The most important part of your YouTube strategy is ensuring your content is searchable on YouTube. This is where Google’s “People also search” functionality and paid tools like Answer the Public, Aherfs, and Ubersuggest can be helpful. Some of the most informative and value-packed videos a law firm or lawyer can make are FAQ videos optimized for search.

Once you have a searchable phrase, you’ll want to see how hard it will be to rank for those keywords using a tool like Tube Buddy. Tube Buddy can be a great tool for understanding the competitiveness of your law firm video content and ensuring you have an optimized description and chapters.

In addition, a tool like Tube Buddy can help your firm identify your thumbnails’ effectiveness, track competitors, and help you identify what type of content to develop for your audience. Remember, video marketing aims to develop business and generate awareness for your firm, so catering to what your key prospects and clients want to see is key. Tools like Tube Buddy helps make this easy for marketers.

How to Build an Audience on YouTube

Building an audience on any social platform requires consistency. We’ve found that consistency on YouTube is best achieved by batching content development. We recommend batching every phase of YouTube content development to ensure success. Maintaining a regular filming schedule can help ensure you stay on track of your filming goals and produce sufficient content to keep your YouTube channel thriving.

The first thing you should know when you start building a brand is how to market the services you offer effectively. The same holds true for the video marketing industry. You must know who will become the most likely clients before creating a law firm video. We’ve covered client personas before, if you need a refresher.

At the end of the day, the key advantages of a YouTube channel are that if you play to the YouTube algorithm, you will grow your audience and niche and therefore your client base quickly.

Lawyers on YouTube

Not to harp on it too much, but we really do understand how reluctant firm leadership can be to try something as what they see as new. Thought leadership and ground-breaking is usually reserved for the courts and filings, but there are plenty of lawyers blazing the trails on video marketing, and here are a few of our faves to spark your creativity and give you the “OK” to think outside of the marketing box… even if your biggest competitors haven’t YET done so.

For examples of Big Law firms doing video marketing well, we highly recommend downloading our Law Firm YouTube Index 2022 where we showcase the top 25 firms using law firm video most effectively as a part of their digital marketing strategy.

For a few firms outside the Am Law 200, we recommend checking out the following channels:

• McBean Immigration
• Jillene Doolkadir
• Erika Kullberg

These are just a handful of some effective law firms and attorneys creating professional videos with impact, but YouTube is just one piece of the video marketing pie.

LinkedIn Video Marketing

What Is It

You know LinkedIn. In fact, you’re probably most comfortable on that platform, and it’s an incredible space to include video online.

LinkedIn is a B2B professional networking site that’s recently shifted its focus to video allowing the cross-posting of video content from various platforms and even introducing micro-video introductions via its LinkedIn profile.

Everything Lawyers Need to Know About LinkedIn

We could give an entire seminar on the powers of LinkedIn – no really, we mean it. We actually offer LinkedIn training for professionals, but we’ve also created an entire hub for lawyers who want to harness the professional powers of LinkedIn. Check it out!

Facebook Video Marketing

What Is It

You likely know Facebook, the social platform that allows users to create free profiles to connect with friends, family, colleagues… and engage with businesses online.

Though younger generations are migrating towards more video-centric platforms, like TikTok, Facebook is still supreme amongst a more mature demographic, and it includes video.

How It’s Used

You’ve probably noticed a few variations of video on your Facebook feed. Like the other big names in social media, Facebook utilizes an array of video, including:

1. Linked Video
2. Native Video
3. Facebook Stories
4. Facebook Live
5. Facebook Video Ads

Whether you link video content from your firm’s website to convert Facebook audience into your firm’s website visitors, upload video as native files to live on your firm’s page on Facebook, or step out of the box to use the live video feature or the time-sensitive stories feed, Facebook is a tremendous and changing platform that’s making a real push for video.

How to Do It Correctly

There is quite a lot of power behind Facebook’s targeted ads if you want to invest the money in promoting certain videos, but we strongly suggest doing some old-fashioned trial and error with your videos prior to paying to play on Facebook.

Create a few different types of videos that all coordinate with your marketing strategy and upload them in various ways – natively, stories, lives, etc., and see what kind of response you get. Use this data to inform the types of videos you want to create in the future or which videos perform well enough to promote with ad money.

How to Build an Audience

Facebook is a more relaxed platform and is a bit less buttoned up than your average LinkedIn audience. This platform is a great place to have more fun with your video content and grow your audience by showing your law firm’s more fun side. Check out a few ways to grow your audience here.

Instagram Video Marketing

What Is It

How did a photo app wind up on our video marketing platform list? Well, you can thank the ever-changing algorithms and focus on aesthetics for that. Instagram is an app designed for mobile users, and it’s well-known for its artistic appeal.

As one of the biggest content-focused apps, Instagram has lead the pack of social platforms in creativity and offers various options for video now. Instagram’s user base is enormous, and the platform provides a unique opportunity to target your audience and flex your digital prowess.

Don’t worry if your video skills aren’t quite Spielberg level – you can always create video cover pages that fit nicely with your law firm’s existing Instagram grid (ask your gen Z marketing colleagues about the importance of the grid and get ready for a dissertation).

How It’s Used

1. Instagram Stories
2. Instagram Video Feed
3. Instagram Live
4. Instagram Reels

Instagram Stories

These are the time-sensitive videos you see at the top of your social media platforms – the click-through kind meant to be short and sweet and disappear in 24 hours.

These are great ways to feature behind the scenes content, day in the life style, and to re-share posts and videos from other accounts. You can even opt to save your time-sensitive stories to your firm’s highlights on its Instagram profile.

This is also a great way to utilize Instagrams engagement features on stories – try asking your audience a question with a poll or some trivia with FAQ videos – you’ll be amazed by how many responses you receive on videos that feature educational content. Pro-tip: use a direct link to your website on the law firm video your use in stories to help Instagram users become firm website visitors.

Instagram Video Feed

Your IG video feed in your standard native video upload, and videos up to 60 seconds can be posted to live on your firm’s profile. These posts can include tags of people and businesses, garner likes, promote engagement with comments, and you can share these posts to your stories, as well.

Instagram Live

Instagram Live allows users to stream directly to their followers and appear at the top of the platform feed with the Instagram Stories. Law firms can make use of Live to demonstrate interesting yet commonplace processes such as entering court, packing up for big depositions, attending continuing legal education, or prepping for an event.

The Live feature is to promote authenticity and build genuine connection with an audience. Going Live presents risks of the unknown or inadvertently including information or scenery a pre-recorded video wouldn’t, so take caution when going live and make sure people around you know they’re on live streaming video!

Instagram Reels

This is Instagram’s response to the explosion of TikTok, and it’s a super short and sweet way to do video marketing. Instagram’s Reels are 15-30 second clips created on the app or from an upload from your phones library.

We like to use Reels by repurposing TikTok content or creating a very short hype video or succinct overview of a broad topic and direct viewers to our website for the full breakdown of the topics we cover.

How to Do It Correctly

As we mentioned, Instagram is made for mobile users, so portrait mode is key when filming for Instagram. Try to avoid turning your camera/phone landscape.

Like TikTok, you need an engaging hook to grab viewers’ attention, and it’s best to look “Instagram pretty” when you do.

What About TikTok for Law Firm Video?

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it one hundred times:

TikTok is for business, and TikTok is for lawyers!

We know this is a lengthy overview of what your law firm should be including in your marketing strategy, so we’ll save you some time and skip right to the chase on this section and tell you literally everything you need to know about using TikTok to promote your law practice:

TikTok for Lawyers: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing with TikTok for Law Firms

Listen, we know TikTok is new and still feels like the wild, wild west to some more traditional firms, but what if we linked this popular short-form video platform to a widely-accepted marketing concept most every member of firm leadership wants to know more about: SEO!?

Do we have your attention now? We had Attorney At Work’s attention on this subject. Check out the SEO for TikTok article By Aries founder, Jessica Aries, wrote and then try to tell us TikTok isn’t for professional service firms like legal!

Phases of Law Firm Video Marketing Production

We know legal loves a blueprint or formula. You should know the By Aries team’s background is in legal, so we absolutely adore a well-developed plan of action, too.

We’ve outlined below the phases of content development for marketing video to give you a better idea of what law firm video marketing looks like:

1. Keyword Research
2. Scripting
3. Filming
4. Editing & Post-Production
5. Optimization & Upload
6. Promotion

Beyond having a clear batching process for each phase of content development, we recommend having clear call-to-actions that align to your overall channel strategy.

For example, if your goal is to grow your channel, your strategy around your channel on YouTube might be to include subscribers in giveaways and offer them special promotions. Whereas, if your channel strategy is focused on client development, you may include call-to-actions related to downloading whitepapers and guides (like this one) and encouraging your subscribers to learn more about you and your services with special landing pages and offers.

Equipment to Consider

When it comes to equipment, there are so many options out there, we know. That’s why we created the By Aries Video Marketing Hub for Lawyers, which includes recommended equipment for anyone just getting started with the early stages of law firm video marketing.

If you’re looking to generate leads, engage potential clients, boost conversion rates through the right strategy, get a closer spot to the top of search rankings, and promote the benefits of the manner you practice law, then video production at some level must have a starring role in your law firm’s marketing strategy and place on your social media channels.

See How the Big Firms Are Doing Law Firm Video Marketing

Want to know how the biggest names in the legal industry are approaching law firm video marketing… and how you can do it better? We did the heavy lifting and wrapped up all the data in a nice, pretty bow.

We objectively ranked Am Law 200’s YouTube channels based on a weighted scoring of their use of more than 15 accepted YouTube best practices proven to increase engagement and improve ranking in the YouTube algorithm for search, providing you with the blueprint for video success.

Ok, so now you’re convinced of the necessity for law firm video but still need help including this important aspect in an effective marketing strategy for your firm?

Reach out to us to learn more about data-driven legal marketing insight and cohesive strategies to use across your social media channels and email marketing campaigns to engage with existing clients, show up in search engines, and build new business. Honestly, video makes everything more elevated and engaging. Give it a try!

The post Video Marketing for Lawyers | How to Get Started with Video Marketing appeared first on By Aries.

Lawyers often question if using social media would actually be beneficial and if it would make a marked difference in their firm’s and personal brand’s visibility.

We get it. The evolving social media platforms and viral crazes can seem a bit juvenile and daunting, but the numbers really don’t lie. Social media is imperative for business.

We’re not here to convince you that your firm needs social media to succeed in their marketing efforts… because it’s factual; however, we are here to shed some light on why your firm should step outside of its comfort zones and into the newest and fastest growing social media platform: TikTok.

Why Professionals Need TikTok and Short-Form Video

If TikTok makes you immediately recoil, shouting “TikTok is for kids and dances” in objection, we’ve got good news for you. 

Not sure if you’ve read, but Google is no longer the number one search engine in the world anymore for Gen Z. In the top spot now is TikTok, and that ranking has Google concerned. A senior official at Google recently said that Google sees TikTok as a threat.

Now, we know how much lawyers spend to stay on top of search. We see lawyers throwing thousands of dollars into SEO, Google Ads for keywords that matter, and investing countless hours into getting positive reviews on Google, then working hard to optimize their Google Maps listing.

This means, if you’re investing heavily in Search, then you should also be investing in short-form video platforms like TikTok.

What is Short-Form Video

You may have managed to shy away from TikTok until now, but short-form videos are nothing new to any business who already has a social media presence on other platforms. If you don’t have a strategy around short-form video content on your other platforms, let alone TikTok, whew!… YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE. 

Let’s get to it. Simply put, any video under 60 seconds is considered short-form, with the optimal length between 31 and 60 seconds.

See, nothing scary about that. You’ve probably been creating these types of videos and animated graphics already, right? So what are the different strategies or ways to take advantage of the growing hype behind short-form videos, especially on TikTok?

Here are 6 tips to get started with short-form videos on TikTok and beyond.

Tip #1: Identify Which Platform to Make to Use for Short-Form Video Marketing

Ok, let’s see if you’ve been paying attention. What is the fastest-growing social media platform that uses short-form video? If you guessed TikTok, you guessed right.

Create Your TikTok Account

Start by setting up your account on the platform of your choice (you know which one we mean). We recommend TikTok over Instagram because of it’s easier discoverability and better algorithm. + Instagram is making a lot of updates and changes lately that have driven a lot of people away from the platform, and we’ve found their changes are mostly an attempt to replicate and chase the growth that TikTok is experiencing organically.

Maximize Visibility and Searchability with Your Setup

There are some pretty cool ways you can set your TikTok account up for success before you even create your first post. To learn more about setting up a business TikTok account that will help your target audience find you, be sure to review our Ultimate Guide for TikTok for Lawyers.

A key part of account setup is ensuring that the name on your account is searchable. It may seem weird, but we recommend setting your name on your account to a keyword your clients would type in the search bar. 

For instance: Immigration Lawyer Austin, Texas versus the name of your firm. You’re probably wondering how that is supposed to build brand visibility for your firm. Sounds counterintuitive, right? 

In order to connect your firm with that highly searchable service you provide, we recommend making your TikTok handle the name of your firm. We know it might be a bit confusing if you’ve never laid eyes on the TikTok platform, so be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide we mentioned for a full breakdown of these terms and practices.

Tip #2: Start with Keyword Research Before You Film

OK, so you have your account established and your brain is abuzz with great content ideas. Before you dive headlong into filming your brilliant video, you should do research on your target audience and for what your ideal audience is searching.

Research Your Target Client

You have to identify your target audience and build a specific persona for them. The key attributes that are common in your clients will help you develop the most relevant short-form videos.

Another way to determine what piques your clients’ interest is using the data you already have. If you have done quite a bit of content marketing in the past and your website has a decent amount of traffic, we recommend going back to your old blog posts to identify what content has the most views. This data from your existing content is a great place to start building your new short-form video ideas.

Use What You Already Know Works

Other ways to identify search terms that are popular with your target audience include online tools like Answer the Public and even Google Also Suggests to get ideas of what your target client base is already searching for so you’re able to make content around this topic.

Tip #3: Take Time to Plan Out Your Video Content, So You Spend Time on Your Highest and Best Use Work

Set a Schedule

One of the most common complaints I hear from busy lawyers is they don’t have enough time to do marketing.

This is typically because those lawyers are spending too much time each day trying to do marketing, when instead, they would be much more successful at marketing if they spent 1-hour per week working on strategically planned out marketing, versus trying to do a little each day.

Batch Your Content

Social media marketing, regardless of the platform used, should be planned months ahead of schedule. We recommend batching your video content. What do we mean by batching?

Start with filming all of your TikTok videos for the entire week, which ends up taking roughly one-hour to 30-minutes of your week. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it can even be a few different takes. Giving the big batch of videos to your marketing team allows them to edit, upload, and schedule in a strategic manner.

If you don’t have a marketing team, then we still recommend the batching technique to save time and sanity. Just note you’ll have to spend a bit more time than 1-hour each week in marketing and should plan for likely 2-3 hours per week of marketing if going it alone in your short-form videos.

Tip #4: The Most Important Part of Your Video is the First 5 Seconds

We know a lot of lawyers who spend a ton of time writing lengthy intros to their videos. We’re not here to shame the power of the plume, only suggest you keep those expanded explanations for your filings and keep it short and sweet on your short-form video. They are called short-form for a reason.

Keep Your Messaging Short

Those mile-long diatribes against injustices won’t work on Tiktok. TikTok is all about the hook – the first 2-3 seconds where you capture the viewer’s attention. You reel them in with matter-of-fact, jarring bait in order to engage them. 

Again, we know it can be tough to curtail the power of the pen. We are just as guilty and have so many videos with long intros, which is how we know for sure that the abridged version of your most popular topics are much more likely to perform well.

You get it, right? People click on the video to learn about the promised topic at hand – right? So keep those hooks (intros) short and to the point.

What a Good Hook Looks Like

A short and engaging hook typically involves the word “You” and some problem, mistake, or mindset shift that needs to happen.

Take for example: “3 things you should never say to an immigration judge” OR “2 reasons why your trademark application is going to get denied” or “why you should never lie on your taxes.”

Notice the hook/intro immediately calls out the viewer and contains the topic of concern at hand. These could be things viewers didn’t realize were problems they had.

Want some more good ideas of hook formulas that work well for law firms? We put together a list of 10 of the best ones we’ve seen on TikTok in this handy guide. Download it now.

Tip #5: Lean Into Experimentation on TikTok

Although you’re a lawyer and you’ll likely want to make substantive content, it’s actually a good rule of thumb to experiment with different types and styles of content on TikTok. Yes, we know that means loosening up that tie and unbuttoning that stiff collar a bit, but it’s worth being a little bit more relaxed.

Some of the best content we’ve come across from professional service firms on TikTok actually comes from professionals who are using unique styles and approaches to content to market their services. We’re not talking Johnny Knoxville level of jacka** tomfoolery. You can be creative and stand out from the crowd without being foolish.

A few of our favorite styles of content that aren’t too formal but don’t require dancing or singing on camera include:

• Text Over Video
• Talking Head
• Trending Sounds
• Green Screen
• News Jacking

When you are willing to try different content types and styles, you learn more quickly what resonates with your audience and what you should continue to do vs what you should not do again. This helps you build more engaging content without wasting time and effort on something that’s not working.

Tip #6: Get Over the Idea that You’re Bad on Video

So many lawyers (and professionals, in general) are afraid of video because they think they don’t have camera presence. We’re going to let you in on a little secret:

Camera presence isn’t a natural talent, it’s a learned talent.

Your first video is definitely not going to be your best video, and that’s ok and to be expected. The more frequently and authentically you show up on camera, the more it all will feel more natural and build a deeper connection with your audience.

It’s important to remember that the point of all this marketing is to build connections and help clients see you’re a real human being who cares about them and helps them resolve their legal matters. So, save the self-shame for another day, because your next clients need your help and won’t know they can hire you if they don’t know you exist.

That’s it. You’re ready to conquer short-form video.

Now that you’ve learned how to use TikTok for your law firm, the next step is to learn how to fit TikTok into a larger marketing strategy. Watch this video where we’ll teach you how to develop a cohesive marketing strategy for your law firm so you can maximize results.

If you’re still a bit apprehensive about taking the dive into short-form video or need to supplement your in-house marketing team with some short-form video enthusiasts, reach out to By Aries to start perfecting your digital presence using short-form video and more!

The post TikTok for Lawyers | Six Tips for Getting Started with Short-Form Video for Lawyers appeared first on By Aries.

TikTok may seem like just a dancing app for teens and tweens, but in reality, it’s a great platform for business and law firms to easily grow their social presence and flex their expertise in a fun and relaxed environment. So, yes, TikTok for Lawyers is a thing.

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform on the market today. In fact, according to Cloudflare TikTok dethroned Google as the most popular website in the U.S. in February, March, June, and through this August.

Many lawyers compete and pay thousands of dollars every month to sit at the top of Google for their law practice, yet Google itself is seeing its traffic and visibility waning. This is a great opportunity for those lawyers who are willing to learn how to use TikTok to get ahead of the SEO curve and build their audience without paying the big Google ad bucks.

That’s why we built this guide to be the ultimate TikTok for lawyers guide. Let’s jump into how the platform works and how you can leverage it.

How TikTok Works

TikTok is a short-form video-sharing social media platform. Similar to other social media platforms like Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels, TikTok focuses on short-form video consumption. Popularized by GenZ and its viral TikTok dances and trending sounds, TikTok has proven that short-form video can be a great way to attract an audience.

Because TikTok is a video-sharing platform, creators are encouraged to create short videos ranging in length from 20 seconds to 10 minutes aimed at educational content, entertaining audiences, and inspiring followers. TikTok encourages vertical video content and creators to create videos regularly and consistently. With the average creator creating and distributing daily videos.

The TikTok algorithm is known for helping small creators develop huge followings quickly and is known to continually distribute videos to new audiences making video content searchable, discoverable, and a much more rewarding experience for social media creators. Ask any TikTokker, and they’ll tell you how powerful and precise the algorithm is.

The TikTok Algorithm Explained

The TikTok algorithm is unique in that it allows video content to be discovered by new audiences quickly. But how does it work?

The TikTok algorithm pushes out video content to users’ individual For You Page (a section of curated content within the app) based on users’ interactions with other videos and subject matter. If the video content in the For You Page performs well, TikTok pushes out the video content to additional audiences.

How does TikTok measure performance?

TikTok’s algorithm decides if a video is worth promoting and pushes out to additional For You Pages based on the number of likes, the quantity of comments, amount of shares, and overall watch time of the video.

The greater the percentage of watch time in conjunction with the engagement for the video will determine whether TikTok’s algorithm continues to promote the content.

Each of these metrics is extremely important to ensure your videos get the maximum visibility and viewership and wind up on the For Your Page of the creator’s target audience.

TikTok Lawyers to Learn From

There are several law firms on TikTok and lawyers on TikTok who are really showing up and demonstrating how social media platforms can massively grow your law firm without paying for ads. They are proving TikTok for lawyers can be a successful marketing strategy.

We’ve made a list of our favorite lawyers on TikTok here.

How to Film TikTok Video Content for the Legal Industry

Before you film your first TikTok videos, we highly encourage you to know the basics and best practices around filming your first set of videos.

How to Setup Your Law Firm TikTok Account

1. Create a TikTok account

2. Add your name. Note: This is searchable.

3. Choose a username.

4. Follow other creators on TikTok to get inspired.

5. Comment on other creators’ posts and start engaging with them.

How to Film Your First TikTok Video

1. Choose a topic.

2. Select a compelling hook.

3. Identify the style of your video.

4. Decide if you’re going to use a trending sound.

5. Film in front of good lighting.

6. Film in short snippets.

7. Bring all your snippets together into TikTok.

8. Trim your clips to be hyper short and to ensure each clip follows the next.

9. Add text on-screen relevant to your topic.

TikTok Videos Best Practices

1. Video content should be filmed in vertical format

2. Keep your first batch of videos short – less than 1-minute

3. Practice delivering a compelling hook to your target audience

4. Use good lighting and a tripod to keep your camera steady

5. Rehearse your delivery and get comfortable with filming in small snippets

TikTok Legal Content that Gets Views & Followers

Because TikTok is so heavily focused on a compelling content strategy, having a good idea of the type of video content that performs well on the platform is helpful.

When you’re first starting out on TikTok, we recommend starting with succinct informative legal videos. Lawyers have access to a plethora of legal issues and questions that their clients bring to them daily.

Use your past conversations with your clients daily to inspire your first sets of topics for your video content. For example, we’ve seen successful law firm TikTok accounts answer high-level basic questions around the law and even clear up misunderstandings at a high level with video content focused on the difference between various legal issues or legal topics or even combatting common legal misconceptions.

Several intelligent trademark attorneys who do it well build content around the difference between an LLC, S-Corp, and a Trademark. They point at the screen and add text to explain how each differs from the other and what protections each provides. This type of content is genius and clears up a commonly misunderstood topic in an easy, simple, and relevant way, and requires little to no videography or editing skills.

But if informational videos seem boring to you, you may want to opt to lean into TikTok culture and try a TikTok dance or create funny videos taking aim at the nature of the law and what you do as a lawyer. This is likely to perform well, too, since it’s generally entertaining but also fun to watch.

How to Write a TikTok Social Media Caption & Script

Before we discuss captions more, let’s differentiate between the TikTok caption and subtitles on videos. Both are important, but when we reference the TikTok caption, we mean the social media blurb displayed with your video. When we talk about subtitles, we mean the actual words displayed on the video screen that tracks your audio and/or spoken content.

On TikTok quality content is key. You want to consistently build compelling video content that promotes engagement and drives users to follow you for more. That’s why we recommend you script your content until you get the hang of creating content that really resonates.

How to Write Your TikTok Script

There are a few key elements to a great TikTok script. These include:

1. A compelling hook

2. A quick intro of yourself and what you do.

3. Your content

4. Your call-to-action

Your TikTok script will ideally be short and sweet. It’s important to remember that delivering your content quickly and concisely is so crucial on TikTok because watch time is a key metric for your account’s growth. We’ve put together some tips when thinking about hooks, intros, and call-to-actions to help you achieve success.

To get an idea of what’s working in your industry, look to other lawyers who have had success on TikTok. Take note of the hooks, intros, and calls-to-action they use to prompt their audience to take action. It’s really easy to spot the ones that work well.

How to Write Your TikTok Caption

The social media caption you write on TikTok should reflect the content of your video. The best captions on TikTok incorporate the keywords you want to rank for within TikTok’s algorithm and search.

TikTok captions should be short and to the point. TikTok limits your character limit to 300 characters. So, try to be concise but still include relevant keywords and search terms so your content is discoverable.

In addition to writing a great caption, you’ll want to perform hashtag research to ensure your content gets the maximum visibility possible.

What TikTok Hashtags to Use

How to Use Hashtags

When identifying hashtags, it’s important to perform a search on both the TikTok app and the TikTok desktop. We’ve noticed different videos and hashtags perform differently on each platform.

There are a few strategies that work well when performing hashtag research.

Strategy 1: Use Keyword Data to Inform Your TikTok Hashtag Research

Most law firms and marketing departments will find it easiest to start their hashtag research process by looking at their existing target keywords.

For example, an oil and gas law firm will want to start by researching hashtags around oil and gas law and their location one locations of service.

You’ll want to note down the list of hashtags and their viewer count.

Example Hashtags

• #oilandgas – 381.9m views

• #oilandgaslawyer – 3,578 views

• #oilandgaslaw – 3,575 views

From here, you can start building a list of potential hashtags to use on your TikTok views based on the size of your target audience.

A Note on Hashtag Size:

A large TikTok audience would mean your account can leverage more robust and higher viewed hashtags. A smaller audience would mean your account should leverage smaller hashtags until you’ve built a following.

Strategy 2: Use Relevant Account Information to Perform Hashtag Research

The second way to look up relevant hashtags that will boost your views is to find the top accounts within your practice area and click through their videos to determine what hashtags they use.

This stealth way of discovering potential hashtags is one we like to use a lot here at By Aries. Using this strategy, we can typically find hashtags outside the standard keywords we’d search and discover what types of hashtags get the most traction and visibility.

Example Hashtags

• #oilandgasleases – 1,355 views

• #oilfield – 1.5B views

• #oilfieldthings – 19.5M views

Informed with these new additional hashtags, we can now start to put together a list of potential hashtags to use on our video content that will attract those in our target audience. You must identify hashtags your potential clients would use in order to discover you.

Editing Your TikTok Videos

You’ll have several different options for editing your TikTok video content. You can edit your TikTok natively in the app if you’d like or you can export your video to a professional editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. In addition, there are plenty of iPhone native apps that allow you to edit your video content, including CapCut, Adobe Rush, and InShot.

Our personal tool of choice for editing our short-form video content is Descript.

One of the primary reasons we like to edit our video content within Descript is so we can add captions to our video content. So often, video content is often consumed with the sound off, so having captions on video content is key to ensuring it’s consumable even without sound. Plus, including captions is an inclusive practice that allows hearing-impaired persons to access your content.

How to Add Closed Captions to Your TikTok Video Content

Most of the apps we mentioned above allow you to easily add captions to your videos, but few allow you to do it as seamlessly and easy as Descript. Nevertheless, we wanted to break down a few of the apps we have used and continue to use to add captions.

• Capcut (free) – Use Capcut to add captions to your video from your phone easily and quickly. Capcut is one of the most popular apps for adding captions to your TikTok videos because it’s owned by TikTok’s parent company and is free.

• Descript – Descript is a paid desktop app that will allow you to add captions to your Tiktok videos and edit them like a Microsoft Word document. Yes, you read that correctly. Imagine editing your audio and video content like you would edit a Word document. This is the power of Descript. In addition to editing your videos easily, you can also add captions to your videos, sounds, and other fun elements, like transitions, emojis, and more.

• TikTok (free) – If you’re short on time and budget, then another great option for adding subtitles to your video content is the native captions option in the TikTok app. The only downside to this method of adding subtitles to your content is that we’ve found TikTok’s captions to be less reliable in terms of accurately transcribing the content in your video. So, keep in mind that you’ll likely have to do some editing.

Publishing Your TikTok Video

Once you’ve filmed, edited, and finalized your TikTok video caption, it’s time to actually upload your video TikTok. TikTok is intended to be used on a mobile device, so we recommend uploading all your content via the mobile app. You can publish content via desktop and some social media aggregator tools, but we’ve found the features are severely limited. So, we recommend just using your mobile app.

How to Publish a TikTok Video

1. Upload your content directly into TikTok

2. Add relevant on-screen text (again try to use your keywords here)

3. Add a sound or music

4. Add your TikTok caption and hashtags

5. Choose a Cover design and frame

6. Add a Cover caption

7. Post your video

Once you’ve published your video, it will take a few minutes for your content to be reviewed by the algorithm before it goes live. Don’t worry if, at first, you have only a handful of views on your video content.

How to Measure Your TikTok Video Performance

We often get asked how to measure performance on TikTok. Many lawyers mistakenly believe that if their first few videos don’t go viral, they can’t and won’t be able to make TikTok work for them. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Remember how we mentioned that TikTok’s algorithm pushes video content out to TikTok users based on the engagement the content receives and the watch time?

Given the importance of these two metrics, if you’re not seeing great performance on your TikTok channel it’s important to start by analyzing how those two metrics are performing.

How to Analyze Your TikTok Data

To get accurate metrics on your TikTok account, you’ll want to switch your account from a personal account to a business account. Once you’ve done this, you’ll have access to even more analytics data to help you discern if you’re on the right track with your content.

But how do you find the data? Simply click on the “More Data” button on a video to reveal your video’s analytics via the Video Analysis dashboard.

Your Video Analysis dashboard will tell you how many views your video has received and the number of hearts, comments, saves and shares your video has received. In addition, this dashboard will show you the Total Play Time, Average Watch Time, percentage of people who have watched the full video, and how large your audience reach is.

This data can be extremely helpful in helping you analyze what worked and what didn’t with your video content.

The higher the watch percentage, the more likely TikTok will push this video out, remember? So, creating videos that keep people’s attention from the start until the end and videos that make a quick point will be key to keeping your watch time high, right?

Content strategy is integral to TikTok success, so understanding what content is performing well is critical. Let this data help inform your content strategy as your build out additional TikTok content. And to that same end, lean into the content that is working, since clearly your audience enjoys it.

Next Steps: TikTok for Lawyers

Ready to post videos on TikTok? We hope you feel empowered to leverage TikTok in a new way now. Once you have a firm grasp of how TikTok works, you’ll find that your content overall across various popular social media platforms will improve. TikTok has the innate ability to teach you how to concisely deliver content in a way that educates, informs, and builds trust. There is so much power in that, don’t you think?

It’s important to remember that no matter what other platforms on which you choose to build a following on, it’s essential that you have a comprehensive marketing strategy built around helping you move your followers from TikTok to a consultation with you.

If you’re ready to start building a TikTok account that will bring awareness to your services and generate leads using an informed data-driven marketing strategy, reach out to us or simply view our TikTok for Lawyers services. We have an entire team of marketing professionals ready to help you achieve TikTok success.

Related Articles Worth Reading:

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We predict here at By Aries that short-form video, or micro video content, like TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels, are only going to grow in popularity and become the go-to format for all video content in the future. We’ve seen nearly every single social media platform embrace some form of short-form video content.

In fact, we believe more law firms are going to look back on short-form video like they look back on the old days of SEO and wish they had started sooner.

So, if you are a lawyer who sees the writing on the wall and wants to learn how to capitalize and embrace short-form video now to boost engagement, brand awareness, and help promote your services to help you develop business, then we recommend looking to those lawyers who are already doing it well.

We’ve pulled together a list of 10 lawyers who have embraced TikTok and made it work for them. If you think TikTok is just for viral dances, look at the firms and attorneys making big business out of this so-called dance platform.

TikTok Lawyer with the Most Followers

#1 Mike Mandell

The self-named #1 lawyer on social media, Lawyer Mike is a criminal defense attorney based in California. His videos are full of sketch comedy, funny content and entertaining tips and tricks around various legal issues, and provide information that his followers love to consume on all areas of criminal defense. He’s a bit like a one-man Saturday Night Live sketch show, but with real substance. His videos are well-produced, well-written, and well-scripted for maximum engagement.

Takeaway: Mike’s videos are the gold standard of TikTok for lawyers (and this may turn many of you off to his style and approach). That’s totally okay, so if he’s not your cup of tea, keep reading because there are other lawyers on here who take a much more subtle but still effective approach that you can learn from.

The Most Famous TikTok Lawyer

#2 Erika Kullberg

A big law corporate lawyer turned solo practitioner, Erika Kullberg is the exact opposite of Law by Mike and arguably more famous of all those listed here. Erika recently had a full-size ad of her displayed in Time Square and her account is followed by more than 8.8 million people. Her approach to providing video content is a formula she crafted all her own: She reads the fine print, so you don’t have to. She positions herself as someone who reads the fine print on all those terms of service pages and click forms that you didn’t closely read and helps you advocate for yourself against big corporations.

Erika’s videos are so viral that her style and format have been copied and repeated across other industries and professions. Her dual approach to performing as both the lawyer and the enforcer of a terms of service agreement nobody read is a great way to bring the audience into her video content while educating them and establishing her credibility and authority as a lawyer.

Takeaway: Follow Erika for a classy and professional approach to TikTok for lawyers.

The Dancing TikTok Lawyer

#3 Lawyer Kelly

Lawyer Kelly is a family law attorney based out of California who creates short-form video content on all areas of family law, including divorce, custody issues, and other legal issues related to matrimonial law. Her videos are focused on providing value, answering questions from her audience, and commenting on celebrity divorces and social media news. Her videos are effective because she’s authentic to who she is, while conveying valuable information quickly and effectively.

Takeaway: Follow Lawyer Kelly for a masterclass in direct communication that attracts your ideal clients.

The Immigrant TikTok Lawyer Turned Trademark Attorney

#4 Ana Juneja

Ana Juneja is a trademark attorney for e-commerce and social media managers based in Florida. Unlike many of her counterparts here, Ana Juneja does a brilliant job of mixing in trending sounds and TikTok trends into her videos while still conveying value-driven informative content to her followers on social media. Her videos are fun, engaging, and very focused on her core client base and their legal needs. Plus, she has a very interesting immigrant story, which makes rooting for her feel like you’re rooting for a bit of an underdog, although she’s clearly not one. She also has tons of Instagram followers, so she knows social media and uses it to her advantage in business.

Takeaway: Follow Ana Juneja to learn how to incorporate trending sounds and TikTok trends into your video content.

The Simplest Approach to TikTok for Lawyers

#5 Denise the Divorce Attorney

Want to learn how to make TikTok work for you without dancing, moving, or doing much else than talking directly into the camera about legal issues? Then follow Denise the Divorce Lawyer, a Florida-based divorce attorney with over 278,000 followers. Denise the Divorce Lawyer is the poster child for not playing by the rules on TikTok. She shows us how you can build a super popular TikTok by simply answering common legal questions from your clients in a direct and easy-to-follow talking-head style video. She shows us the power of informative videos and how they can be more transformational than singing, dancing, or trends.

Takeaway: Follow Denise the Divorce Lawyer for simple yet professional TikTok ideas.

The Best Friend TikTok Lawyer

#6 Lawyer Paige

Ever wish your best friend from college had her own law practice and could advise you on employment law issues? Well, that’s Lawyer Paige. With over 200,000 followers, Lawyer Paige hands out legal information to her followers like she’s their BFF telling them like it is over a piping hot lemon tea at her breakfast table. She’s direct, yet authentic and approachable, and she answers common legal questions while sharing her life as a lawyer without dancing or making a fool of herself. She’s a TikTok lawyer who isn’t playing to the algorithm. She keeps things real and we are here for it.

Takeaway: Follow Lawyer Paige to see what authentic TikTok marketing looks like.

The TikTok Lawyer Who Engages Across Videos

#7 Ugolord

Ugolord is a lawyer turned legal translator who has coined a specific video style, similar to Erika Kullberg. You’ll notice his videos are reaction videos to various issue from car wrecks and accidents to home damage after a police invasion and warrant search. His video style is a bit goofy and over the top for some, but are very entertaining. But what we find most engaging about his content is how he uses a series of videos to engage his audience. Using a cliffhanger call to action, Ugolord prompts his audience to engage, comment, and provide their thoughts on various legal issues before revealing the answer in a second or series of videos. It’s a brilliant way to get views, set up your next video for success, and engage your audience.

Takeaway: Follow Ugolord for to learn how to engage your audience across multiple videos.

The Most Hilarious TikTok Lawyer for Big Law

#8 Alex Su

Alex Su is a lawyer turned legal technology community manager who makes videos poking fun at law firm culture, big law, and corporate counsel. Known as the most hilarious lawyer on the internet by his LinkedIn followers, his style of video content couples trending audio with TikTok trends, similar to Ana Juneja, but focused on corporate legal environments. His self-deprecating sense of humor and on-point style of acknowledging the absurdity of big law, legal departments in corporate, and law practice, in general, is binge-worthy.

Takeaway: Follow Alex Su for a masterclass in using humor to attract and engage even the most brilliant and sophisticated of audiences.

The Real Lincoln Lawyer on TikTok

#9 Caesar Chukwuma

Want to learn from the coolest and sleekest attorney on TikTok? Then look no further than Caesar Chukwuma, a Florida-based criminal defense attorney. He’s the actual Lincoln Lawyer in the flesh and it’s hard not to gush over how he makes the law look cool. His style of TikTok video is flashy while educational and he answers questions from his audience while weaving in trending audio and sleek suits.

Takeaway: Follow Caesar Chukwuma to learn how to use TikTok as a tool for boosting your cool factor and personal brand.

TikTok Lawyer Positioned for Growth

#10 Divorce Lawyer Jeanette

And finally, we wanted to list one smaller creator who we think is really pouring into TikTok in the best way possible. We stumbled across Divorce Lawyer Jeanette’s videos a while back and have watched her steadily grow her following and audience over the last few months. A Florida-based divorce attorney, Jeanette’s videos are engaging, funny, and also very authentic. She shares personal stories from her life with informative legal videos for her audience. With 16,000 followers, Jeanette feels like one of those people who would really listen to you about your divorce woes, empathize, and then fight like hell for you and it’s for this reason that we included her on this list. Because we think there’s something really special about being able to make a complete stranger believe that about you from just a few videos.

Takeaway: Follow Jeanette to support a budding TikTok lawyer and learn the power that authenticity and personal storytelling can warm clients to working with you.

Get Started: TikTok Videos for Law Firms

Feeling urgent to set up a TikTok account? Let all these new creators and lawyers inspire you to create your form of short-form video content. From how all the platforms are moving, short-form video isn’t going anywhere soon.

However, all these lawyers have already learned to master some of the hallmarks of great content marketing: consistently posting value-driven content that engages with a strong hook and a bold call to action. So, learn from these lawyers and start embracing TikTok as a lawyer.

Ready to get started setting up that TikTok account? We help lawyers and law firms build profitable and sustainable practices using short-form videos, like TikTok. Are you ready for TikTok success and want to attract your ideal clients, engage them in new and creative ways, and make conversion streamlined and simple? Check out our TikTok for Law Firms service offerings today to get started building your TikTok account and creating videos.

Other Helpful Reading:

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#1 TikTok helps you build a habit of consistency in your marketing

We all know the importance of consistency in our business—we set parameters and deadlines for client response and deliverables, we have recurring meetings, and we nurture our developing business relationships.

Nobody is going to argue that consistency isn’t a necessity in business, so you need to think of being consistent in all walks of your marketing efforts, too, right? That’s where video comes into play.

Marketing videos that attract business and create branding impact have to be more numerous than your firm’s annual holiday video e-card. Setting a goal to create and post more videos allows you to craft a plan and stick to it, and your audience will be asking for more.

#2 Using TikTok helps you polish skills that make you more likable, relatable, and marketable

We’ve worked with firms from all ends of the professional service spectrum, and they all had one thing in common – brilliance. Our clients are bright, ambitious, knowledgeable, industry leaders, and we bet you are, too; HOWEVER…

Having that deep knowledge base in your head and putting it to use on paper doesn’t train you to share your expertise with your own voice, which is kind of important in attracting clients, no?

Creating videos awards you the hyper-awareness of the way you speak, carry yourself, and make eye contact. These are great social skills most have, but you need them when talking shop, which is a skill you must practice.

Building a polished presence online positions you as an authority on your particular service industry. Think about it – the best thought leaders and industry pioneers have the work AND the polished image as proof. We innately see a practiced and powerful speaker as more qualified than someone with little or lacking presence.

#3 Tiktok helps you build rapport

While we stress the importance of sounding sharp and standing tall, we encourage all of clients to get real… people want to work with other people.

No one wants to engage with someone if they have no idea who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. Firm image is important, but so it appealing to your clients and audience on a personal, relaxed level.

We get pushback on video because clients are afraid of looking silly or they feel it’s not effective… these titans of industry would disagree, and they’re getting real to build their brand and engage their audience.

Don’t be afraid to let down your hair and take a relaxed or even comical approach to your video marketing – we even have some tips for creating killer videos.

#4 TikTok will help you be found in Search Engines

Ok, you might have passed on the previous 3 reasons you should use video, but we bet you’re listening now. SEO, search engine optimization, is seemingly the only marketing tool that every attorney and CEO seem to know and care about… deeply.

We get it. SEO is important, and there’s more than one way to boost your visibility and help your clients find you… VIDEO!

Honestly, don’t just take our word for it – the benefits of video for SEO abound.

So, why does video help SEO rankings?

“First, we know that when Google shows a video thumbnail next to a search result, which it does for 26% of search results according to BrightEdge, users are more likely to click that listing. The presence of the thumbnail makes the result a “rich snippet,” and rich snippets tend to have higher click-through rates than standard snippets.

We also know that Google has been rumored to prioritize search results with video above results without video. While Google hasn’t explicitly confirmed this idea, many marketers agree that their SEO results suggest that it’s true.”

If you’ve been on ANY social media platform in the last year, you know that they are ALL prioritizing video and rushing to build video-creation and editing tools into their app.

You may not be ready to commit to doing business in the meta-verse just yet, but we hope you’re able to see just how powerful and useful (and FUN!) videos are for doing business in the real world. Let us know if you need guidance on creating the most perfect and personable videos. Your digital marketing gurus are here and ready to perfect your digital presence.

The post TikTok for Business? 4 Reasons Professionals Need Video appeared first on By Aries.

It’s well-established that video is the hottest growing trend on social media. If you haven’t noticed yet, every single social media platform has prioritized video over all other forms of content. Even Instagram, the photo-sharing app and social media platform that made photo-only content popular, announced just a month ago that it’s no longer a photo-sharing app – it’s now a video-sharing app.

What this means is learning to use video for social media is not just a good idea, it’s mandatory.

But how can you create great compelling social media video content that looks sleek and professional if you don’t have the time or budget to always be in the recording studio and don’t have a full-time social media assistant capturing your life?

First, let’s set the record straight. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to make great social media videos. You just need to have a phone, a good idea, and a few other tools to help you achieve video marketing success.

So, if you’ve put in the groundwork, sifted through video ideas, and are ready to take your videos to social media, there are 3 simple tips that make it easy to create video content that users want to watch.

1. Use a tripod when you create social media videos
2. Use a lighting tool or strategy to create videos
3. Download a teleprompter for your content

No More Shaky Social Media Content

Your audience and social media viewers crave new content and enjoy varied types of videos, but when it comes to watching those video ads, they want stability. Literally. You and your recording device need to be stable to create successful and engaging videos.

It doesn’t matter how much editing you do, your content will not reach users if the quality is lacking. An easy fix for this and a means to make those Facebook videos, LinkedIn videos, Instagram videos, etc. more palatable is a tripod. Investing in a small tabletop tripod to anchor your recording device not only takes some of the pressure off of you behind the scenes, but it’s a simple step to increase engagement and upload successful video ads.

So easy, right?!

Illuminate & Light Your Video Content for Social Media

Listen, we’re not here to make you pour tons of money into your content – we just know you’ll see higher audience engagement on those analytics reports if social media users can actually see you. Not rocket science, ya know? But, the type of lighting you use when creating content matters.

Steer clear of fluorescent lighting when preparing to post, and think about investing in a tabletop or free-standing ring light. There are endless options online, and many of them are a combination of tripod and light–two birds with one stone there!

If you’re not ready to invest in a lighting tool to create your videos for social media, be sure to position yourself in front of a bright window when you create your content. Of course, you always run the risk of a cloudy day literally raining on your metaphorical parade, so a good light is an invaluable tool to have when creating video content.

Make Social Media Content Creation Polished and Easy with a Teleprompter

Remember how we mentioned the quality of your videos? A teleprompter makes it so easy to create professional and successful videos for social media. Now, you might be thinking that your videos are no Emmy-level production and therefore don’t require a teleprompter tool, but that’s simply not the case.

When we say teleprompter tool, we do not mean a giant and expensive teleprompter, but an app–a platform that can read to you the incredible content you want to publish with rolling captions.

We don’t all have an assistant who can shuffle slides behind the scenes, and those aren’t guaranteed to be successful. A teleprompter application is a platform that works without the sound of shuffling papers, and it should be a beneficial piece of your filming strategy. Remember to watch your punctuation, though, so you don’t end up asking viewers if you’re Ron Burgundy.

That’s it. Simple. 3 tips on creating social media videos that are high quality and will invite your audience to engage across all social media platforms.

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This need for instant information is enough to ensure that video marketing is part of your strategy; but in case it’s not, let’s take a look at 3 reasons that video marketing is imperative to your success.

Google Loves Video Marketing

As marketers, the first request we often get from bosses and clients is to raise their Google presence, to get the company website to appear atop that Google search. That standard of metric seems to be the most accurate gauge of success for those who work outside of marketing, so I know I’m not alone when I say I’ve painstakingly studied those coveted Google algorithms.

While nobody has been able to unlock that magic and ever-changing formula, I can tell you that placing videos on your website increases the amount of time your viewers stay there… which Google loves. That Google algorithm might be incredibly complicated, but the basic formula of website + videos = Google love is as basic as it gets and should be your first response when your employer asks you to get them more recognition on Google.

Law Firm Video Marketing is Here to Stay

Online consumers watched 18 hours of online video a week, and that was before the pandemic, which forced us to look within the borders of our own four walls for fun and inspiration. Most of that information and entertainment was found online. We suddenly became reliant on services that allow us to work and learn from home.

Who else watched YouTube on a loop to learn to bake bread or to turn your new prison into a palace? There’s another reason we all flocked to video for these how-tos, and that’s because video is so easy to consume, which makes it the perfect tool to learn and discover, especially in a world so limited on face-to-face interaction. We don’t need Sur La Table in person—we signed up online. But, what’s changing now that businesses are starting to re-open and more folks are venturing outside of their homes?… Would it surprise you if I said nothing is changing?

Some say this trend towards visual was inevitable as technology evolved, and some say our society is now accustomed to consuming and sharing information online because it’s been our sole source of connection over the last year. Either way you want to look at it, the bottom line is that video is not only here to stay, but it’s only getting bigger. Keep that in mind when launching those new products and services.

Video Marketing is Social Media Marketing

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Snapchat. TikTok. What do all of these have in common? Yes, they’re all social media platforms, but for purposes of our conversation here, the common denominator between these 4 wildly popular and vastly different platforms is… you guessed it: video.

While Snapchat and TikTok began their ever-changing lives as video social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter caught on quickly and added video stories to their user experience. With Instagram’s launch of Reels last fall, we’re seeing that big players in the social media game are diving head first into the video ecosphere. Why? Because people love video. They love to watch it, and more importantly, they love to share it.

Over 3.5 billion (billion, with a B) people use social media to gain and share information. That’s nearly half of the world’s population. Video is dominating the social platforms, which is just one more reason you should be targeting your client base with quick and catchy videos.

As you go to plan out your next marketing campaign, if video isn’t an initiative, then I encourage you to ask yourself why not. Zoom and our devices have made it even easier to record a quick video series and turn it into value-packed content for our audiences. And tools like Canva have made it easier to then take those videos and make them consumable and branded.

If you’re ready to get serious about your digital marketing this year, then book a call with us to learn more about how we help lawyers and professionals become recognized and sought after leaders in their industries and practices.

If you know you need more video marketing but need some help with user engagement, understanding hashtags to optimize sharing, or are worried you’re posting too much, we have you covered with tips and tricks to make the most of your social media presence now that you are on-board with the importance of video marketing.

The post Video Marketing in 2021: 3 Reasons Why Videos Are a Must appeared first on By Aries.