We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Shaw a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Our firm represents Spanish-speaking immigrants all across the United States. In particular, under this new administration, it has become more and more important to help immigrants understand and maintain access to their rights in the United States. There are far more immigrants in the US than there are immigration attorneys. This community does not have full access to legal services, and this is the most critical time for that community to have such access. We do our best to reach out both through direct representation but also through social media to share information about the latest changes in immigration law.

Jonathan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I had an opportunity more than 20 years ago to serve a religious mission in Mexico, where I learned Spanish. I also became familiar with the culture and the particular challenges that people face when there are few opportunities to provide for their own needs. Later, I earned a degree in international relations with a focus on Latin American studies and comparative law, and I became interested in immigration. I was accepted to law school, and I wanted to use my knowledge of the culture and language to bring about change in the lives of immigrants. I graduated from the University of Denver law school in 2011, and have spent my career working in the area of immigration law serving the immigrant community. I’ve been able to represent immigrants from all over the world, but mostly from Latin America. I gained experience in immigration court, detention centers, and in different cities and states. We now have a firm with over 50 employees representing immigrants all across the nation.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

We have more than 1.3 million followers on social media across 4 major platforms. Our social media outreach has the intent of sharing information rather than asking for people to call our office. By placing the interests of the content consumer before our need to seek new clients, we have spurred interest and growth. This has led to great success, because the immigrant community understands that we are not here simply to extract value from them, rather we are here to provide value to them.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media started the same way all social media accounts begin: with very few followers and engagement. There are a few secrets to success. First, consistency over time. Just like how you cannot expect to see results from going to the gym every day for one week, you cannot expect exponential growth by posting a few times on a platform. It takes time, patience, practice, and consistency. Always trying to learn why a particular post did well, and how to replicate that success. We are talking in terms of years of work, not simply weeks or months. That is what it takes. Second, to have success on social media, the content you post must provide value to the content consumer. Posts that have music and dancing, and colors, and the intent to get someone to call your office for a consultation have almost zero value for a consumer. Ask yourself, “Why would someone be interested in my post”? A post that gives a perspective about a recent news item and why it’s important to your community is a great example of a post that would be valuable to the consumer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elabogadojonathan.com
• Instagram: @elabogadojonathan
• Facebook: @elabogadojonathan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanedwardshaw/
• Twitter: @elabogadojonathan
• Youtube: @elabogadojonathan
• Other: Tiktok @elabogadojonathan