Internet Marketing

Published on: September 13, 2025

LP Magazine — Why Influencers Might Be Your Law Firm’s Next Big Marketing Move

In a digital landscape where attention is currency, law firms are beginning to ask a provocative question: Can influencers drive legal business? My latest marketing column, in the September/October 2025 issue of ABA Law Practice, addresses The Rise of the Influencer in Legal Marketing.

Gone are the days when law firm marketing revolved solely around SEO, pay-per-click campaigns, and carefully crafted blog content. Today, the spotlight is shifting toward social media influencers—individuals with massive followings and the power to shape consumer behavior. As I note, influencer marketing is no longer a novelty; it’s a $10 billion industry projected to keep growing. And while it’s long been a staple in retail and entertainment, its potential in legal services is just beginning to surface.

Shortly after moderating an ABA CLE on the subject of influencers, and having already submitted this column to the magazine editors, I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, These Restaurants, Salons and Workouts Are Free for Hot People—if They Post About Them, that focused on the influencer-targeted social media app, Neon Coat, founded by a model as a way to book entire days of meals and experiences for free, by tying brands and businesses. Unfortunately, I don’t appear to qualify as “hot,” and must grab hard-to-book tables on Open Table by being first when a reservation window opens, but wondering if you could offer up legal services, is an interesting notion. It was highlighted by Jones Walker attorney Kaytie Pickett in a blog post on the firm website.

Published on: May 27, 2025

ABA CLE: Advertising Regulations in the Age of Social Media Influencers, Dark Patterns and Consumer Reviews

by Micah Buchdahl

Dunkin Donuts influencer Charli

A few years ago, when my daughter insisted that she needed to try the Charli drink at Dunkin Donuts, I scoffed. Who is Charli? And what is that drink? Well, it turned out “Charli” was social media influencer Charli D’Amelio, with over 100 million TikTok followers, and considered one of the most influential teens in the world. The drink was a sugar-blasted undrinkable concoction (that’s my opinion, and I was not the targeted demographic). The result of that influencer marketing program was (1) the drink sold like hot cakes; and (2) more importantly, it led to a 57% surge in mobile app downloads. Cold Brew sales increased by 20% on the launch day, and 45% on day two. The goal was to appeal to young consumers. It worked. Big time.

As an attorney in the law marketing space, I’ve tried to wrap my head around these newer forms of advertising and promotion. There is no question that influencers influence–Corporate spending on influencers will exceed $10 billion in 2025, more than doubling since 2021, according to eMarketer. Consumer reviews—a cornerstone of marketing for most every industry (law firms included!)—bring their own set of potential perils with them. And creative (and entrepreneurial) digital designers employ dark patterns—deceptive design techniques used in websites, apps, and digital interfaces to manipulate users into making choices they might not otherwise make. In other words, there is lots of room for legal issues and the need for a CLE on the subject matter. This is not your grandparents’ marketing.

Published on: May 29, 2024

LP Magazine — TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z

by Micah Buchdahl

TikTok In recently reviewing a law advertising campaign, I found myself saying that we need to run this on TikTok. I looked at the matter and the target audience, and it seemed quite clear that this was the best way to engage. My growing fascination with one of the newer online tools—from something I considered a ridiculous kiddie timewaster—to an app that someone sends a link with useful (and/or entertaining) information nearly every day. When it comes to effective law marketing in 2024, you need to know TikTok—and that is why I wrote TikTok Is Gospel to Generation Z in the May/June 2024 issue of Law Practice.

If you are blocked from reading the column behind the ABA paywall, it is provided below in its entirety.

Summary

Published on: March 16, 2023

ABA Law Practice Today — Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less

by Micah Buchdahl

60 Minutes In serving as an issue editor for the Marketing-themed March 2023 edition of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine, together with my co-issue editor Jason Marsh, we tried to put together a collection of articles that would prove both timely and informative.

My article contribution, Marketing Your Practice in 60 Minutes or Less, is not rocket science. But people read this stuff (click bait? Perhaps?). And it is designed more to encourage doing something, rather than simply doing nothing. Sometimes I too should follow my own advice. We’re all busy. But if we can just carve out a little time for business development each week, we’ll be the better for it. My wife keeps asking me when I’m going to get around to updating my own website and writing some fresh content. Soon. Soon. Maybe I should do it one hour at a time.

Paula Zirinsky writes on Marketing Opportunities in a Slow Market. And there is nothing more timely than Abbey Block of the Ifrah Law Firm in Washington, DC, writing on Can My Lawyer Be a Robot? We’re reading about issues surrounding artificial intelligence every day now, and the impact that it has, and will have, on the legal profession. Addressing some similar themes but from a total different angle—law marketing and AI—is Chat GPT, Your AI Friend in Content Marketing? For Lawyers, It Depends, by Marina Wilson of Justia.

Published on: September 14, 2021

E-Coffee with Experts – Micah talks Legal Marketing

by Micah Buchdahl

E-Coffee with the Experts — Micah Buchdahl

I did not know Dawood Bukhari, Chief of Partnerships for Digital Web Solutions before he reached out to invite me to his E-Coffee with Experts series. I did my usual legwork—looked him up, the company, saw a nice YouTube page that housed the conversations. Watched a few. Thought it would be cool to get the animated head shot of myself (although I like to think of myself as being somewhat animated to begin with. I said, sure I’ll do it.

We traded a few Q&A emails that translated into our nearly 40-minute Zoom discussion. I talked about what makes law marketing different from other industries. Covered SEO and digital platforms, infographics, online legal directories (are there even offline ones anymore?), press releases, podcasts, and Google Local Ad services. I covered an area that lawyers have struggled with—dealing with negative feedback over the Internet. And had the opportunity to talk about how I got into law marketing in the first place, provide a little background and recap some of the experiences from the “early years” of Internet marketing (remember the late 90s?).

Published on: June 11, 2020

ABA Journal – Trashed by Clients Online?

by Micah Buchdahl

ABA_Journal_June_July_2020-225x300 In the June/July 2020 issue of the ABA Journal, Cynthia Sharp asks me about how attorneys can best respond to negative online reviews in “Trashed by Clients Online? Ethically responding to negative reviews,” a subject that I’ve discussed with many attorneys and clients over the years.

It is probably the topic that brings me the most questions during my marketing ethics-related CLE programs. In a recent webinar for the American Legal Institute (ALI), Ethically Navigating the Three Rs: Lawyer Ratings, Rankings, and Reviews, I focus solely on this area as it relates to attorney advertising. And I’ve written about the subject matter multiple times in my ABA Law Practice magazine column as well. Mostly, because unlike many areas of attorney marketing ethics, this one is quite “real” to many lawyers that have been bitten by disgruntled former clients, or unhappy ex-employees, shady competitors or just someone that plain doesn’t like you. The combustible mix of not being able to opt-out of the review process and the sheer fact that this stuff can be highly visible in your online portfolio can be deadly. And many attorneys have responded poorly—and violated ethics rules in the process.

The power of the online review—on Google, Yelp, Facebook, or numerous sites that are legal-specific—has grown exponentially in recent years. Early on, the issues often stemmed from reviews on legal site Avvo (which rewarded attorneys for having reviews in their profiles), and Yelp—the initial home of choice for the disgruntled…there is nothing like being ripped by a Yelper. Facebook could be especially critical to the consumer-facing law practice. But it was really the elevation of reviews on Google that increased the potential for reward and damage. If you think about the evolution of Google in the online marketplace—from sponsored results to adwords; SEO spends on organic results, local/mapped searching and various efforts at developing a social media component (mostly without success), the incorporation of Google Reviews and the related visibility in a search result puts a spotlight on them for the end-user and adds another concern for reputation management of your online portfolio.

Published on: November 8, 2018

LP Magazine – In Search of…Lawyers and Clients (For 2019 and Beyond)

by Micah Buchdahl

LPcoverNovDec2018-235x300 Perhaps life has really been about search all along. We search for the right job, the right spouse, the right schools, the right restaurants, pretty much the right everything. So Google has either made searching easier, or harder, depending on how you look at it.

In today’s legal marketplace, as lawyers, we want to make sure that we can be found by those doing the searching. What complicates things for people like me in the “law marketing biz” is that the methods, tools, tricks and rules keep changing—those pesky algorithms—meaning that you need some sort of online PhD to keep your law firm clients on track, so they can be found by their prospective clients. So it made sense for me to address this fluid subject matter in my November/December 2018 ABA Law Practice Magazine column, In Search of…Lawyers and Clients (For 2019 and Beyond).

As is the case with most of my marketing columns, the topic finds me. Every day, I’m working and talking with different attorneys at different law firms in different parts of the country—and whatever topic comes up the most is often my next column. A few conversations on the most effective search mechanisms left my head spinning. I’m not going to lie about it either. I had no idea what newsjacking or hyperlocalization or geo-fencing was. I did not know all the nuances of what could and could not go into various forms of Facebook advertising. And focusing on things like “snippets” in Google definitely helped me steer some of my law firms in the right direction.

Published on: June 1, 2018

The Ethics of Virtual Law Practices and Multi-Jurisdictional Lawyering

by Micah Buchdahl

NewMexicoCLE-300x156 Recently, I had the privilege of serving on a panel at the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division continuing legal education program on the ethics of virtual and multi-jurisdictional lawyering in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The program was co-sponsored by the State Bar of New Mexico, and took place on May 18, 2018 at the Inn and Spa at Loretto.

Moderated by Albuquerque-based practitioner Charles Gurd, panelists included fellow Philadelphia area attorney Dan Siegel, and Charity Anastasio, Associate Practice Management Advisor at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. It struck me that the audience interest, interaction and participation were greater than in the vast majority of CLEs that I teach. These two intertwining and overlapping issues—virtual law practices and multi-state jurisdictional issues—go hand in hand, and often create as many questions as answers.

When I’m driving down I-95 and leave New Jersey to cross into Delaware, I know it. When I then cross from Delaware into Maryland, I know it as well. I also know that if I’m caught speeding in Delaware, the only police I need to worry about are the ones with Delaware on the side panels. Of course, reciprocity when it comes to fines and points are sometimes blurry, but not nearly as confusing as crossing state lines in your law practice, typically on the Internet. However, as many of the CLE audience opined, most lawyers today have practices that are not confined to one or two states.

Published on: March 15, 2018

LPT: What’s New in Social Media Marketing for Lawyers?

by Micah Buchdahl

SM_Pic_LPT_2018-300x144 In the March 2018 issue of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today webzine, I put around 2,500 words to web in my article, What’s New in Social Media Marketing for Lawyers? It seems like just yesterday that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (and plenty others) came into our lives. It’s been longer than that…as a nine year old post this morning on Facebook reminded me of an event from days’ gone by. The tools have changed, and for business development purposes, lawyers have had to change with them.

In preparing to write the feature, I kept putting down notes on various social media news, programs and events—seemingly by the hour. At the same time I write this very blog post, I’m mere minutes away from moderating an ABA CLE on The Law and Social Media: Tips for Every Lawyer, with my colleagues Cynthia Dahl, Kathryn Deal and Molly DiBianca, covering social media issues that range from employment law matters to tweeting jurors, messaging witnesses, friending judges, cybercrime and prosecution, DMCA and trademark issues, virtual law practices, professionalism, and marketing.

Just last week, the ABA released Formal Opinion 480 from the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility reminding lawyers of the confidentiality obligations for lawyer blogging and tweeting. It is an opinion that has been widely panned as being late to the game. This provides another reminder as to the speed that social media runs. The suggestions are already somewhat old and outdated.

Published on: January 16, 2018

Does AVVO sale to Internet Brands end the disruption cycle?

by Micah Buchdahl

Online legal referral and attorney rating service

For some attorneys—even 40+ years after Bates v. Arizona—marketing itself is a disruption. But when AVVO, the online legal referral and attorney rating service, came along in 2006, it created some of the more significant disruptions to the legal marketing industry. With the company being acquired by Internet Brands last week, the question is whether the business will remain cutting edge?

Of course, as is usually the case, the company touts that things will remain the same and be “business as usual” under new ownership. But that is rarely the case. I would argue that Martindale, Nolo and Total Attorneys—all businesses acquired by Internet Brands (makers of such sites as WebMD, Fodor’s Travel and MySummerCamps) no longer have the same impact they did before being acquired. When Findlaw was acquired by Thomson in 2001, it basically ceased being Findlaw (after the typical “business as usual” period of time). If you want to see the original premise of Findlaw today, you go to Justia. Martindale-Hubbell, founded in 1868 by attorney James Martindale (talk about being ahead of the curve on marketing! I always thought Greg Siskind was first with everything), was what most law firms considered the one piece of business development they would pay for. And pay for they did for over 100 years until the Internet killed the golden goose. When I first started visiting law firms to discuss marketing in 1996, I was often sent to see the librarian—because she updated the Martindale listings—that (plus perhaps the holiday card) was the extent of “marketing.”