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Using Twitter at Your Law Firm

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Using twitter can be a frustrating task for anyone if you are unsure of the most effective way to ‘tweet’.  Twitter IS for everyone – and it’s super easy to use.  It doesn’t matter if you work for a small or large law firm – twitter can work in just about any situation for any company.  Making the most out of twitter is really where the difficult part comes in but it’s not really that hard to “MASTER TWITTER”.

In an article by CopyBlogger.com it mentions how Cindy King, an international sales specialist, saw a huge boost in business inquires by implementing a strategic Twitter plan.  “Following the right people on Twitter was key. There are some people very gifted at building relationships on Twitter. As I followed these online community builders, I realized that some of them are also excellent direct response copywriters. They get their Twitter followers to take action,” said King.

Here are some tips to get started:

1. Explore lots of twitter accounts that are from the folks who are really good at effectively using twitter.  One example is http://twitter.com/Alicia_at_Honda (Alicia at Honda).

2. Don’t be afraid to jump in.  No matter if you are a mesothelioma lawyer or disability attorney – you can effectively use twitter!

3. Buy a book.  When all else fails pick up Twitter for dummies!

Thankfully BusinessInsider.com reported “Twitter has produced a special guide for businesses to help them get started on Twitter, called Twitter 101. It’s clean and nicely designed, and full of case studies about how companies JetBlue, Etsy, American Apparel, and Pepsi use Twitter. It’s a good resource for companies and, frankly, anyone who wants a primer on Twitter.”

You can find that guide here.  You’ll find great tips like:

  • Tip: Twitter can be “ground-breaking” for businesses—a big claim. We truly believe it because we’ve seen lots of examples, many of which we share here. But if you’re new to Twitter and still wondering what all the fuss is about, hang around the site (or a good third-party client) for a week or two and give it a few minutes a day. Twitter almost always delivers “Aha!” moments for people, but it can take some getting used to before you have your moment of enlightenment.

A lot of other outside companies are starting to use twitter effectively.  Let’s just take big business as one example:

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com said, “We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.”

Don’t be scared – Twitter is easy and you can’t mess up.  All you have to do is actively engage in conversation with other folks who are talking about what you are talking about.  Use the search functionality and find people who are talking about the same subject matter as you.  Twitter gives a great tip for this:

  • Tip: To listen in on the conversations happening right now, search Twitter for the name of your company, product or brand. If you have a Twitter account already, your home page has a handy search box on the right side.

Most importantly – have fun and be genuine.  People will like you for that.

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Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »

Microblogging Tips and Tricks for Lawyers – Best Legal Marketing

Friday, August 14th, 2009
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Networking is an important practice for those in the legal profession, so it is no surprise that many lawyers find social networking and social media sites very useful. Microblogging is a fairly new concept and may be a little confusing at first, but once you learn a few tricks you’ll be able to get out there and make new and valuable contacts with ease.

We’ve included a list of tips below for you to follow which serve as an introduction to microblogging; and if you’re already a seasoned pro, you might find something new and useful here as well.

“Hashtags”

These are keywords established for specific groups of information. Simply use the # sign before a key word or phrase in your post, and that post will show up for other users searching for information on the same subject. For example, you can use the #law tag for any general law-related posts. A quick search online can reveal already established hashtags that you can utilize in your posts.

These tags can be likened to the keywords you enter into the “tags” section of your law blog posts.

Following and Followers

When following other posters and considering your own followers, include people you already know and try to facilitate new, geographically local relationships. While it is nice to have a group of international professional contacts, concentrating on more local interactions can yield more positive results in terms of client leads and professionally beneficial communication.

Avoid Spamming

The purpose of blogging and microblogging is not to directly sell – this will damage your community credibility with many contacts. Attempting to sell your legal services in this manner will turn off many of your peers and potential clients. You can, however, provide a link to your firm’s website in your profile information, for example.

Use your microblog posts to share pertinent legal news and information, details of useful professional conferences, and encourage discussion by asking questions and sharing concerns with your peers. It is also acceptable etiquette to provide a link to a new and relevant blog post you have written in your microblog feed.

A Learning Opportunity

While you may be tempted to just focus on putting out your own content, there are many useful resources available through popular microblogging sites that allow you to keep up with various topics relevant to your interests. Engage in conversation with the other professionals you follow, and use the many features available to stay up-to-date with government and court sources. You might learn something!

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Posted in Blogging, Microblogging | 4 Comments »

SEO

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) is the best long-term solution for getting your law firm’s website or blog to the top of organic search results and keeping it there. 

SEO and SEM involve many different approaches to web content and design, plus external methods, that all come together to ensure that you’re providing helpful information to the right people (your local clients) and generating as many promising, legitimate leads as possible.

Link-Based SEO

Providing links to your content and website from external sources such as other websites and blogs tells search engines that your site is popular and relevant.  This helps you achieve higher rankings and visibility in organic results. 

You can participate in link and article exchanges with colleagues or other relevant establishments, which also boosts your rank.

Keywords in Your Content

Keywords, keywords, keywords.  They’re everywhere, and you can’t overlook them if you want to be successful in the online market and get the leads you want.  You can try to compete with the millions of others who are going for a slice of the same keyword pie, or you can do a little research and find some niche keywords that apply more uniquely to your particular area of practice and geographic location. 

A skilled marketing professional can work the right keywords into natural and useful copy to not only attract users, but deliver worthwhile information.  Having good optimized content on your side is great for your online and offline reputation.

Optimize Your Social Media Content

If you actively share updates and law information on a micro-blogging site, consider utilizing (or having your marketer utilize) SEO for this type of communication, too.  You can make these posts keyword-rich and encourage them to be picked up in search results.

Social media content, such as a regular full-length blog, needs to be optimized too.  Clients can find you via your blog or website if you use keywords (especially geographical ones), exchange links, and emphasize words, among other methods.  Attempting to gain attention on a social bookmarking website can have its advantages, but over the long-term, simply putting in the effort to optimize your social content as well as your website’s content will pay off and consume less time.

This blog covers but a few of the many possibilities that come along with SEO.  There are quite a few solid approaches to the process that all work very well together and yield the desired results.  Utilizing the knowledge you have about your client base, you can use the right keywords to attract the attention of the leads you want.

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Posted in SEO | 1 Comment »

Reputation Management

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
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Managing your Law Firm’s Online Reputation

One of the greatest things about Web 2.0 technology is its accessibility – the ease with which someone with little technical knowledge can set up a social networking profile or blog and start sharing information and interacting with a worldwide or local community, depending on their preference. With this ease comes a problem, though, which is why it’s important to preserve your professional integrity with online reputation management.

What is Reputation Management?

Online reputation management, or ORM, is the practice of monitoring your online presence. There are many avenues that anonymous and identified users can utilize to provide information about you and your firm, or you on a personal basis, to the internet community.

Websites that review businesses and rank individuals are one area you should keep an eye on. Although everyone is entitled to have an opinion about you or your work, someone posting untrue or slanderous comments online can have a negative impact on your status. You may also be able to gain valuable insight into what your clients are happy or unhappy about regarding the services your practice is providing via review-style sites.

Guarding Against Social Media Identity Theft

As mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog, it’s easy to set up a social media persona. It’s also easy to impersonate someone else if you are so inclined; and many social media sites do not check the identity of their users or regulate this aspect of their communities. Basically, users are on the honor system as far as their identity is concerned, and you are at the mercy of the site administrators if someone happens to steal your good name.

Luckily, there are a few great services out there that your marketing guru can utilize to safeguard your reputation online. One site charges a one-off fee to register your chosen name on over 120 popular social media sites. Whether or not you choose to make use of the accounts is up to you, but you’ve taken a great step towards preventing others from impersonating you online and damaging your status.

There are many other services available to help protect you and your firm’s interests in the world of Web 2.0 and social media. Some offer to establish one login ID for all of your accounts and others offer identity verification for your logins. You can also be proactive on the review/ranking front and sign up for a site that allows you to invite clients to provide reviews and feedback about your firm.

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Posted in Reputation Management | No Comments »

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