Making Social Media a Lead Machine

Dark Social: Social Media That Builds Affinity, Not Just Awareness

Throw away everything you’ve been told about social media marketing for lawyers. The industry is often driven by vanity metrics that have little to do with generating cases from prospective clients. Mockingbird’s dark social strategy is local social, and a dynamic way to expand your reach. Dark social builds genuine, deep, lasting, positive awareness in the local market for your firm and the lawyers in it.

How Mockingbird Helps Build Your Firm Amplify Your Reach

Dark social isn’t a sinister form of social media. Put simply, dark social is every social interaction that happens online and offline that drives leads and clients but isn’t tracked by traditional analytics tools. Mockingbird achieves this through deep, sustained involvement in your local community that makes traditional word of mouth louder and more impactful. We work with firms to generate localized social media content, leveraging the reach of your social networks to transform your entire local market into a larger referral source.

Dark Social in Action: We’ll Give Your Social Media a Localized Boost

The dark social strategy is easy to understand: you build trust in your community offline to create engagement through social media, group chats, and other kinds of interactions. Good execution of the dark social strategy is hard to track. The web is littered with abandoned law firm social media campaigns inspired by sales pitches seen at legal marketing conferences. That’s why Mockingbird focuses on these keys to social media success.

Law firm branding is built on people. You can’t have an anonymous social media intern generate genuine community engagement. For dark social to work, you need a commitment from the law firm figurehead to be the authentic connection between your firm and your local client base.

Dark social highlights law firm’s positioning and messaging by spotlighting individuals and businesses you value, supporting causes your community can get behind, and building relationships with key figures in your area.

We can repurpose your social content for various channels so they’re ready to share. A 20-minute interview can become a podcast, video content for your YouTube channel, a series of short clips for TikTok and Instagram, and posts that are ready for LinkedIn.

Our team will collaborate in scheduling creative localized content to drive connection and engagement with your firm through different social media channels.

Dark social expands the scope of your content and community presence so people don’t just view you as a resource for legal advice. Your law firm gets associated with positive community benefits and meaningful connection.

At Mockingbird, We Don’t Just Talk Up Dark Social —
WE SHOUT IT OUT LOUD!

Why Choose Mockingbird for Your Dark Social Media?

At Mockingbird, we know that law firm success in dark social requires a strategic mindset that goes beyond facile tactics and metrics. Sharing your “Top 10 Things to Do After a Boise Idaho Car Accident” blog post on Facebook isn’t going to cut it. Neither is posting about SuperLawyers on LinkedIn. There’s so much more to doing this in a way that drives business for a law firm. Put simply, we can help you connect genuinely and deeply within the community you serve. It’s indirect yet amazingly impactful when done consistently and deliberately and over time.

Mockingbird has believed in the promise of dark social since it was championed by Chris Walker of Refine Labs. And no, he’s not the R&B singer from the 90s, but “Take Time” is a pretty banging song now that you mention it.

Connect deeply, not loudly. Mockingbird helps law firms thrive on dark social by building authentic, strategic engagement that drives long-term impact and community trust.

Yes, even though it can feel challenging. Think of dark social and local social as another way of getting your firm out there that ultimately enhances all of your other marketing efforts—digital ads, SEO, TV and radio, print. With a concerted effort, you’re using social media to amplify awareness and affinity, and it’s echoed through everything else that’s out there that your firm has done.

Most agencies ignore dark social or stick to basic social media tactics. Mockingbird understands its value. We help law firms leverage authentic engagement—online and offline—to build awareness, trust, and community connection. Your firm has more to offer, and we’ll show you how to make that presence truly impactful.

Measuring the referral impact of a successful localized dark social campaign is extremely difficult. Traditional, trackable marketing channel attribution infrastructure simply doesn't work. Be prepared to ask prospects about who referred them to your law firm and dig deep into their answers.

From our experience, building the social capital flywheel takes a minimum of 12 months to start spinning. There are no test drives. Jump in the deep end or don’t bother at all.

Effective dark social starts with authentic messaging and community alignment. Instead of forcing appearances at generic events, support causes that genuinely resonate with your firm. Engage meaningfully with your local audience, and Mockingbird will amplify that presence across social platforms to strengthen your brand and deepen community trust.

Ready to Amplify Your Firm on Social Media?

Are you ready to build awareness and affinity in your community? We want to be your wingman on that journey.Contact Mockingbird Marketing today to set up a free consultation. During this no-obligation discussion, we want to discuss what you care about in your area and what your firm hopes to embody when people hear its name.