Andrew Stickel

In our society today, Facebook is a major means of socializing, staying in touch with friends and even business associates. When the people reading your Facebook posts like what you are saying, or if they are informed about something they did not know, they will usually “follow” you and “share” your page with people they know that will benefit from the information. Below, you will get some good advice on how to get more followers without sponsored or boosted posts.

Andy Stickel: You do not have to pay for sponsored or boosted posts That kind of brings me into another strategy that I’ve been using a lot right now and then I think that a lot of lawyers can use it also. Now, for me, I don’t necessarily worry about how many Facebook followers I have per se because, really, Facebook followers don’t really mean that much. If somebody likes your Facebook page, like your actual personal page, you don’t get that much reach on.

I think Facebook is actually increasing the reach again. But back, I mean, in 2010, 2011 – which I call the glory days of Facebook – that was back when if you had a thousand people on your page, 20% to 30% would see every single post that you did. So right off the bat, you do a post and at least 200 to 300 people are seeing it. And then if it gets some likes and comments and engagements, then you’re going to go up to 50%, 60%, maybe even 70%. So those were the heydays of Facebook advertising when you could actually use Facebook to advertise for free. Then Facebook went pay to play. And now, it’s like maybe 10%, 15%, something like that. But one thing that I do all the time is that I go into other Facebook groups and I’ll just comment on things and I’ll just provide value. So what you need to do is you need to join Facebook groups where your potential clients are going and where they’re already having conversations. Perfect example. I live in Lakeland, Florida. There’s a group here called 863 Crime Watch. It’s a Facebook group. And it’s the craziest group because, basically, every single, anytime there’s any police lights or anytime there’s an accident or anything, it always gets reported in this group. It’s like 40,000 people. And it started as a neighborhood watch group. So no one is doing this. This is an absolutely amazing opportunity for a personal injury attorney to go into that group. And every time there’s an accident, just start commenting and giving information. Don’t go and say, “Hey, if you were in this accident, call me today.” But what you can do is you can actually go in there and start providing value and just start helping people. And what that does is people are going to start to see what you’re putting out there. They’re going to start to see that you’re proving really good information. They’re going to get curious who you are so then they’re going to click and they’re going to check on your profile. So then on your profile, in your bio, you should put, “I’m a personal injury attorney and I help people do whatever I do,” and then have a link to your website or you can even say like, “Personal injury attorney fighting for victims. Direct message me if you need any help,” or, “Direct message me if you have any questions,” or things like that. People will do that. People will absolutely get curious when they see you providing value and they will then go ahead and then they’ll contact you. What did he say?

“North Carolina has very strict ethical restrictions on what attorneys can say on Facebook and other social media platforms.“ Obviously, you need to check with your local bar associations and make sure that you’re being ethical. But I think that there’s a line between giving legal advice and giving an opinion and giving… Again, you’ve got to figure out what works for you. Obviously, there are 50 states. You can’t have a blanket of information for everything. But this is a really good way to do it if you can go into other Facebook groups. So for example, if you’re a family law attorney, go into parenting groups. If you’re a criminal defense attorney, go into addiction and drug addiction groups and things like that where people are having problems and stuff. I mean, there are so many different places where you can figure out where your actual clients are going. And this is actually a strategy Gary Vaynerchuk came up with. It’s called the $1.80 A Day Strategy where, basically, you leave your two cents 90 times in different places. So it’s actually pretty cool. Nick, do you ever do that? Do you ever go into other groups and provide value?

Nicholas Werker: I don’t know if you’re baiting me. I actually met Andy because we joined his group and we just started posting expert opinions on what you can do.

Andy Stickel: Oh, did you? Really? I don’t remember that.

Nicholas Werker: Oh, really? That’s so funny. I didn’t know if you were baiting me.

Andy Stickel: No. I don’t remember. I mean, yeah, that’s what you do though.

Nicholas Werker: So we do that. We also started our own Facebook group, which is something that you can do eventually and grow your own audience. Yeah. We end up… I think I’m in a group called Maximum Lawyer. It’s just a place where there’s like 20,000 attorneys in there or 10,000 attorneys or something like that. And it’s just crowdsourcing information, which is so applicable to other industries, right? But for me, I’ll keep it on the eye. I go in there and there will be an attorney who asks, “What’s the best way to…” or, “What’s the best phone company to use?” And I deal with a lot of phone companies. And I know how to help attorneys set up their phones so that they’re set up for the most success. So I’ll just go in there and comment on my Facebook page. “Here’s who you should go with. Here are some options. Here are some links to their website. Read their client reviews. Here’s how much they cost. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out.” And I don’t really say anything. But if you go to my Facebook page, it clearly says I work for Answering Legal. I’m an answering service. And then if you’re in touch with me and you need help with your phones and I’m the guy you go to, I can make those recommendations. But relating it back to lawyers, yeah, like a neighborhood watch.

Andy Stickel: You just got to think of like parenting groups if you’re a family attorney. I mean, just think of wherever your ideal clients could be hanging out. And somebody said, “We have to be very careful about solicitation.” Yeah. That’s 100% right. But if you’re doing this correctly, you should never say contact me for anything. Because my strategy is, basically, I see people have questions, I answer the questions and I try to over-deliver as much as possible and then people contact me. And if you can take that strategy, then it definitely works really, really well. If you just provide just really, really good value, then people are eventually going to get curious. And here’s the thing. Not every single person that you leave value for is going to hire you. But if you make a consistent habit of doing this, it will really, really work really well. It will really work in your favor.

Andy Stickel: Somebody asked, “What kind of information could I provide to my clients as I’m not a doctor or a specialist in viruses?” What practice area do you work on? What type? You don’t have to talk about it. It shouldn’t be about viruses. It should be about how it’s impacting their life right now.

Let’s say, for example, you are a criminal defense attorney, one of the things that you should talk about is things that are impacting your client’s life. You can talk about anything. I mean, honestly, lockdowns are a big thing, “What are your rights if the government puts you in quarantine? What are your rights if there is a shutdown?”, all that type of stuff. Right now, domestic violence is increasing because of the fact that people are at home with their spouses. And they’re maybe drinking a little bit more. And maybe they’re forced to spend time with somebody that they don’t typically have to spend time with, and, now, they realize they can’t stand that person. So immigration attorneys are another good one. Angelina just brought that up. We actually have a client who is an immigration attorney. They got four clients last week. And it’s just using these tips. It’s basically thinking about, “What are all the problems that immigrants have right now?” So for example, let’s say you’re on a… And I’m just making some of this stuff up. Let’s say you’re on a visa right now and you’re outside of the country. How do you get back into the country? What are the rules there? What if your spouse is outside of the country and stationed or maybe not stationed but maybe they’re an ex-pat or something like that? There are so many different things that you can do. Just think about every single problem that a potential person has.

If they have a fiance that’s overseas and maybe the fiance is quarantined and you can’t get to them. I mean, you just got to think of everything that you can think of. Nancy said estate planning. “But I don’t want to prey on people’s fears.” That’s fine. You don’t have to prey on people’s fears. And I don’t like preying on people’s fears either. I don’t like saying, “Hey, you’re going to die. This is what’s going to happen.” But what I like saying is, “Here’s how you can take advantage of this opportunity,” or, “Here’s the thing that you need to think about in this opportunity.” So for estate planning… I mean, estate planning, honestly, there’s so much. The biggest thing right now is healthcare directives because so many people don’t necessarily have those things in place. So if you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a partner or whatever and they get sick, are they going to be able to come to see you in the hospital or will you be able to see them in the hospital? What happens if they’re on life support? I mean, there are so many different questions. And it’s not necessarily preying on their fears. But it’s giving them information that they need to know. Because unfortunately, right now, there are some uncomfortable truths that are happening. So elder law, another one that someone just brought up. Elder law is a very, very interesting subject right now because nursing homes and the elderly and senior citizens are really vulnerable to this thing right now. So there’s so much stuff you can put in there. You said, “As an elder law attorney, my clients like to know I’m still here and they can get things taken care of.

Nicholas Werker:  I just want to jump in as far as the estate planning thing. I’m sorry. But if you’re providing value a lot of these things that we talk about, especially in the legal profession, a lot of these things are unfortunate. We don’t want to get divorced. We don’t want to talk about planning for bankruptcy. We don’t want to talk about hiring a criminal defense lawyer because I got a DUI. These are all unfortunate things. What you can do is educate people. And education is, often, what combats the fear that a lot of people. So no one wants to get older and plan their estate and make sure that their will is taken care of, but it’s kind of comforting to know that they have options out there and that you’re there to take them and guide them through these problems that they’re having.

And I love what you were saying, Andy, about nursing homes and healthcare directives and stuff like that. This is a serious situation that we all ended up a part of. And if you can be the voice of reason and assurance and expertise… Like I was saying before, establishing expertise, you can kind of assuage people’s fears, and then you become the person that they go to when they have to make that decision when they have to get there. Or maybe they know somebody who is struggling with that, and they’re going to recommend that they go to you, too. That’s why I like what you were saying about the public service announcement. “If you know anybody that’s struggling with this, I have information. Share my information. Call me.” And then just leave it as information. You become the expert. People have to go to you for advice.

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Andy Stickel: Nick, what are some of the things that you’re seeing lawyers doing right now that you think is actually working in this time of crisis?

Nicholas Werker: What do I think that they’re doing right now? I think a lot of the stuff that I’m seeing lawyers do is just letting the community know that they’re still there for them. So a big thing that we’re focusing on right now is, obviously, employment lawyers and bankruptcy lawyers just because these people are having problems. And that’s the unfortunate circumstance that we’re dealing with. A lot of the time, we’re dealing with people who have a lot of issues. That just happens to be one of the issues right now. Letting everybody know that they’re still open and available, putting out content saying, “Even though the coronavirus is happening and blah, blah, blah, blah, if you’re affected just know that I’m here, open, available to help.” And it’s also really good to put out a lot of educational stuff like, “Here’s what you can be doing while this is going on…,” for their customers. So I’ve seen a bunch of people put out some sort of… I’ve seen a bunch of bankruptcy lawyers put out content on how to survive financially. Actually, I got an email, which was really good. It was local and government business loans that you can be taking advantage of. So obviously, it’s just educational. They’re not getting anything from this. But they’re the source on how you can go about getting these loans, how you can go about getting relief. And then you kind of become the guy to go to when they actually have further questions about legal matters.

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