How Can Lawyers Separate Facebook Friends and Business Likes For Legal Marketing?

Chase Musser: Someone asked… They don’t want to connect the followers from their Facebook, the law firm’s Facebook page with their personal Facebook page. They prefer to keep them separate. “What are the pros and cons of that? Is that possible?”

Andy Stickel: Well, so, you’ve got followers on your Facebook page and… Or is it “like” now? I think it’s “likes”. You’ve got page likes on your business page. And your personal page is friends. So the difference is that you’re going to reach a lot more people on your personal page than you will on your business page. So what you can do, if you want to keep them separate, is you can actually set people as acquaintances on your business page. That’s one way to do it. The way it is set up right now, it’s kind of interesting. But when you post in groups and different places like that, you really should be posting as yourself because you really want to be marketing kind of as yourself, not necessarily as the firm if you’re going to be doing this kind of information, this kind of high-quality information. Because people will relate to a person much better than they’ll relate to a business.

Nicholas Werker: Also, I just find it really corny and annoying when a business posts or comments on a post. So I’m just like, “Uhhh…” It’s weird. I see it on Instagram. They’ll comment on something. I just much prefer person-to-person. And this way, you know who you’re speaking to as well.

Andy Stickel: I also hate when… An attorney would do a really good video, right. And then the headline or the status update will be, “Attorney Mike Smith says, ‘This, this, this.'” And you know that Mike Smith is the one that wrote the freaking thing. You know what I mean? It’s like, “Come on, guys. Just make it personal. You’re a person, too.” And that’s the other thing. People get hung up on the fact that they think they have to be perfect all the time. And actually, you and I were just talking about this before this call. Nick asked me, “Are you going to wear a button-down shirt? What should we wear on this thing?” And I was like, “Honestly, what I’ve kind of started to realize is that as long as you’re providing good information, people don’t care what you’re wearing.” And actually, it can really go to benefit you. If you are creating videos and they’re not produced, that’s going to do a lot better. For me, for example, I’ve had videos where my dog will be barking in the background or my kids will walk across the back or whatever. And those videos typically do better because people can relate to me, because they see that I’m a real person. And same thing with you. Most people think that lawyers are kind of like this… They’re almost like… It’s like at a different level type of thing, right. But if you can show that you’re actually a real person… And you’ll probably be better wearing like… I don’t know why I keep saying Boston. I think it’s because Paul is in here. Wearing a Red Sox shirt and a Red Sox hat will probably do better for you than wearing a suit, you know what I mean, just because it makes you a real person. It makes you relatable to all those people in your industry or in your market. So that’s another tip for you.

Nicholas Werker: And for the record, I just wanted to blend in. I didn’t want to be the guy wearing a full tuxedo at this web talk.

Andy Stickel: I should’ve told you to wear a suit.

Nicholas Werker: You should. I would’ve done it. A suit with shorts on.

Andy Stickel: Exactly. Yeah.