Swipe Right to Talk to an Attorney: Can You Use Tinder to Advertise Your Practice?

Advertising on Tinder

There are 50 million Tinder users, 10 million of which are daily active users. 45% of these are between the ages of 24-35. That is a whole lot of people that could be prospective clients. A couple of days ago, I was on Tinder and got matched with Zedd. For those of you that do not know, Zedd is a very famous musician, producer, and DJ. See below for a screenshot:

When I swiped right, I got this message from him:

I figured out that Zedd was using Tinder to market his new CD and I thought it was a brilliant idea. His target audience is using Tinder and he engages them by incentivizing them to swipe right to get a discount on his new music.

Can lawyers use Tinder to advertise their law firm?

As a legal marketer, I naturally starting thinking about how lawyers could use Tinder. Of course, advertising on Tinder probably costs quite a bit and seems reserved for TV shows and musicians. However, using the same concept, lawyers could advertise their services on Tinder in a more manual form. For example, a startup lawyer could put a picture of himself and in his bio he could say “Startup Attorney, Los Angeles. I help people take ideas and make them into cash generating companies. Swipe right to learn how I can help you.” When people swipe right, you could send them a pre-drafted message that says “Hi there! My name is [John Smith] and I am an experienced startup attorney in Los Angeles. If you have any related questions about starting your own company, feel free to give me a call at ##### or email me john@smith.com.” Real estate attorneys, divorce attorneys and IP attorneys could also benefit from using Tinder as an advertising channel.

Is this Ethical?

It seems that using Tinder in this way is akin to sending out direct mailers. In order to act within ethical boundaries, make sure you check your state’s rules of professional responsibility and use the proper disclaimers. You may have to add such disclaimers as “Attorney Advertising” and “Swiping right or messaging me does not lead to the formation of an attorney client relationship.”

If there are any lawyers out there interested in testing out Tinder and being a part of this experiment, email us at info@one-400.com or visit us at www.one-400.com.

*Disclaimer: This blog post does not constitute legal advice.