Twitter is an great way to get your name in front of people on the web.  You don’t need a large following, as with traditional marketing efforts, just networking with the people you know can bring you leads or referrals.

But what if you  do want to reach a larger audience, or you are getting overwhelmed trying to stay in touch with everyone, or you have different topics for different groups? This is where hashtags (#)  come in.

A hashtag is just the pound symbol – # – followed by the name used to broadcast to a specific group.  For example, you can have #lawyer or #attorney.  Anyone that is set up to follow that tag will then receive your tweet.

Check out www.hashtags.org to see if a group exists by using their search box. And if there isn’t a group already, then create a new one by tweeting it.  Just use the #hashtag in your post.

Let’s say you have multiple areas of practice and want to send a tweet, but it is only meant for a specific group of people.  You can create a hashtag for #duilawyer and then a #drugcrimelawyer  to tweet each potential client group separately.  Although it is possible, you probably wouldn’t use #frensodrugcrimelawyer even if you are a Fresno Drug Crime Lawyer.  The number of people following this tag is probably small, if any at all.

Keep your tags short.  Sticking with our Frenso-CA-lawyer-theme, if you are a domestic violence attorney in Fresno and you have a tag like #fresnodomesticviolenceattorney, consider using abbreviations.  This tag is too long and takes up a lot of your characters.  You’re better off with #domesticviolence or even #domviolence.

There are some commands that you need to be familiar with some you can broadcast your message to the people who want to read it. Here are some of the key commands:

• Follow #tag – lets you follow all updates tagged with #lawyer.
• Follow username#tag – subscribe to all updates from a certain person that is sent to a group.
• #tag message – Send a message or question to the group.
• #tag !message – Send a message only to people who are subscribed to updates from #tag.
• Leave #tag – Unsubscribe from the group. If your friends are subscribed to this group as well, you’ll still get messages from them that include updates for the group through your friends.
• Remove #tag – Unsubscribe from the group and from friend messages that include this tag.

The most effective legal newsletters are those that combine informational content with your firm’s personal opinion and commentary on various topics including important court decisions, recent events or any pertinent legal news as a whole.

Need some ideas for newsletter content? Here are a few:

• Client FAQs: Make sure to think about what questions your clients frequently ask. A good newsletter will focus on your clients’ main concerns and it’s important you recognize what topics are most relevant to your clients.

• Informational articles: Keep in mind your main area of practice and what your business is largely focused on. What laws – new or old – affect this legal area? What changes have occurred that affect your areas of practice? What should your clients be aware of? Use these newsletters to not only inform your clients but express your opinion about the relative topics and explain how it may affect your clients’ situations.

• Case comments: If an important case has occurred that is either related to your area of practice or not, it’s good to offer your opinion regarding what you think the outcome should be, what legal issues are involved and how you would handle the matter as an attorney. Clients – new and old – will appreciate a more personal tone and will find your personal opinion interesting to read.

• Event information: If you or any other attorneys at your firm are speaking at an event – such as a seminar, releasing some sort of publication or holding an event in the community, make sure to tell your clients. Announce what will be happening and all details involved, and when the event is over it’s a good idea to write about how it went for new clients or those who couldn’t attend.

• Failure to execute your own strategies (stand out from other firms)
• Failure to show value proposition (what makes your firm better)
• Lack of  consistency (the look and feel across all your marketing efforts)
• Lack of a full marketing plan with goals and a budget
• Failure to track your marketing results effectively(you should get back every dollar you spend)
• Procrastination or lack of  follow-through.  Make sure you  see your efforts  through to the end
• Lack of buy-in by everyone (lawyers and staff) to the marketing strategy.

Harding covers a lot of the things law firms shouldn’t do, but it is also important to look at the things they should do.  Let’s look at a good example. Take for instance, this Los Angeles Employment Lawyer.

• The web site is clean easy to read and the message is consistent.
• They have a clear call to action on this site.
• The phone number is easy to find as well as a quick contact form.
• The content is easy to read and helpful.

Another area that helps this firm stand out is the inclusion of verdicts and settlements on the homepage. This allows potential clients to see that the firm is providing results to clients. One last point-this site is easy to navigate. There is nothing worse than going to a website and not being able to find what you are looking for.

Like all businesses, clients – or customers – develop an opinion about the services they receive. Clients’ judgments about the lawyers or firm that has helped them can make or break a firm’s reputation.

For example, if a divorce attorney overcharges, is consistently late for meetings or is constantly hard to reach, his or her client will not want to work with that attorney again and will express a bad opinion of him or her to anyone they talk to about the situation. As a result, all of those people that hear those bad things about the firm – that can also been seen as potential clients – will have no desire to seek legal help from that firm and will ultimately hire other competing lawyers.

Thus, clients’ positive testimonials and personal stories are an extremely important aspect to successfully market your law firm. As part of a good marketing strategy, all law firms should make sure to have a page of their websites dedicated only to successful client stories. This will show potential clients that they will be pleased with the service they receive and will ultimately boost the chances of more clients wanting to work with your attorneys.

Until recently, Yelp’s “Nearby” function was leading the search space in its smartphone apps for local search. “Nearby” provides users of iPhones and the like quick access to the nearest restaurants, bars, banks and other local businesses.

Now Google is primed to take over that space with “Near Me Now,” which has the benefit of being built into Google with no further installation required. A user just has to access Google from their mobile device’s browser, let Google access their location via GPS, then click on the “Near Me Now” link that will appear.

How can a local law firm use this to its best advantage? Here’s an example:

Let’s say you are an Ohio birth injuries attorney with a practice in Cleveland. First, list your firm on Google Local, Yelp, Brownbook and other online local directories.

Next, when filling out your firm’s profile on these directories, make sure you set your location as Cleveland, and include other nearby towns, cities and counties from where you want to pull in leads.

Finally, use “birth injuries attorney” and other key phrases about your practice areas in your profile’s business description field.

Taking a couple hours to get your law firm listed in online local directories is the small step that could bring miles of benefits as web searching via mobile devices gains momentum.

Lawyers’ existing clients are the most important part of a legal marketing plan. Not only are they your main, valued and loyal “customers,” they are also a great link to new clientele. When existing clients are satisfied and pleased with the legal help they’ve received from your firm, they’ll tell their friends and family how great your services are. Those friends then tell other family members and friends and the cycle continues. Referrals are an extremely important aspect in any marketing plan. The more calls you receive, the more chances you get in gaining more clients, the more business your firm will bring in.

Newsletters and legal updates keep your existing clients constantly in the loop. They’ll feel pleased to be updated about things going on in the legal world and specifically what’s going on at your firm – the firm that has or is representing them. It’s important to keep your loyal clients acknowledged and informed at all times.

7. Use online directories. Make sure to get your firm listed in as many online directories as you can – especially the free ones. They’re all over the web and it’s important to have your name listed so that when people search for lawyers who practice your area of law, you’ll be seen and considered.

8. Make sure your pricing is reasonable. Everyone knows getting legal help from a lawyer is costly. That doesn’t mean you have to charge clients a ridiculous amount of money for your help. Obviously clients will be more drawn to you if your prices are reasonable, so make sure you’re not overcharging.

9. Publish newsletters. By simply sending out a monthly emailed (and free!) newsletter, you can keep in touch with your existing clients and keep them informed of what’s new with your firm. Taking care of your existing clients is more important that getting new ones. After all, they’re the ones referring new clients to you. It’s important to keep them acknowledged and informed.

10. Survey existing clients. Any firm – big or small – should survey its clients every so often. It’s extremely effective to gather opinions and suggestions from your loyal clients as to what changes in your business should be made, what’s good about your firm and what matters most to them personally. Shape aspects of your marketing plan based on the answers you receive.

2. Use a referral service. Especially if you’re in the process of building your practice, referral programs can be very helpful in gathering more clients. More calls mean more business so it’s important to take advantage of this service if possible, even if there is a small fee included.

3. Promote your firm to the fullest. Small law firms have the potential to market their services as well as larger firms do without the same financial budget. Some suggestions? In addition to creating a website, utilize free social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In and free blogging sites that you can link back to your website. Also, take advantage of any low-cost advertising your firm can afford.

4. Connect with colleagues. It’s extremely beneficial for lawyers to have a network of colleagues who specialize in a range of legal services. This can increase business if one attorney refers clients to his/her fellow colleague who practices in the legal field that client needs help within and visa versa.

5. Get your staff together to brainstorm. If you’re trying to develop or improve a marketing plan for your firm, call your staff together for a meeting to generate new ideas and suggestions and discuss your overall marketing goals.

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) – which was founded 25 years ago – is a non-profit organization that offers a vast variety of helpful tools, information and knowledge that allow those in the legal world to succeed in their practice. With over 3,000 members from the U.S. and 11 other countries, the LMA has a total of 17 chapters located all across North America and Canada.

The members of the LMA are mainly marketing professionals of all different positions who support legal marketing and help lawyers successfully develop their practices by offering professional and educational opportunities and valuable information.

To join the LMA or to explore its information-filled website, visit http://www.legalmarketing.org/ to learn more.

For every business, getting yourself on the internet is the easy part. How well your content is written and optimized and how well your site ranks on various search engine lists is what separates well-marketed businesses from those who simply just “exist” on the web and are hardly visited.

The content on websites is the most important aspect of a good marketing plan for any business and it’s what immediately draws viewers and consumers to continue exploring that company’s site.

Particularly in the legal market, developing good content is extremely important.

The best thing a law firm can do on its website is first outline exactly what services the attorneys provide. Instead of including a bunch of legal jargon and terminology, it’s essential that lawyers also post content that will appeal to anyone and everyone. Not only should everything be grammatically correct, spot-checked and edited, but the vocabulary and terms used should be easy for anyone to understand. If you’re a lawyer explaining various aspects of criminal law, for instance, make sure to define all terms that everyday people (and non-criminals) may not be familiar with.

Nothing looks more unprofessional than sloppy, unorganized and poorly written content on a website.

If a woman’s looking for a divorce lawyer and the law firm’s website is unclear with grammar mistakes interwoven throughout, she’s going to move on to the next family law attorney. People don’t want to take the time to translate your content. It should be informational, straightforward, organized and well-written.

Once you have a steady stream of good content posted throughout your site, make sure to keep it updated. Especially if you offer “legal news” or “newsletters” pages, it’s important to always keep it up-to-date and fresh.