Originally published on June 22, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.
Last month I wrote about what happens when too many demands vie for the time and attention of your prospective clients, and referred to it as the recommendation economy. For this second installment, I promised you tips on how to use Twitter to establish a compelling presence online, resulting in press coverage and new clients. Here we go.
Twittermania Means Software Developers Are Busy
Getting the inside story from a trusted source can prove invaluable. That's why Twitter's ability to capture the public zeitgeist is priceless. Used in conjunction with its ever-growing list of free third-party applications, Twitter enables you to monitor multiple conversations at once, send and receive files instantly, limit conversations to a few participants or throw them open to the world, create instant communities, and more.
It would be easy to dismiss Twitter as kid stuff, but that misses the point. By inspiring an entire ecosystem of extensions, applications, and mash-ups, Twitter has motivated developers to create applications that enable:
- File sharing: TweetCube
- Research: Twitterlights
- Realtime search: Twitter Search
- Expense tracking: Xpenser
- Notes: TwitterNotes
- Community: Tatango
- Background control: Tweetbacks
With so many applications to choose from and more on the way, it's only a matter of time before you find one that suits you. I've compiled an ongoing list of lawyer-friendly applications on my blog.
How Many of You Are There?
Once you've decided which applications help you tweet better, it's time to show off. Start by reading what others have written. Once you find a discussion or post that interests you, offer an opinion or pass on a post by someone else. Follow tweeters that you like. In no time, you will have created a community of people who write about, or are interested in, what interests you.
But what about prospects, you ask? Meeting prospective clients on Twitter is even easier than exchanging views with other lawyers because the minute you offer relevant information and solutions to their problems, they will find you. Better yet, be proactive — search Twitter for keywords relating to your practice area, and then follow those tweeters. It could be that your niche is just waiting for you to fill it.
The only catch to all this Twitter happiness is that you need to decide which audience you want to address or at a minimum you'll need to separate your tweets so that you're not boring your colleagues or confusing prospective clients with jargon. Personally I use multiple Twitter identities to keep my discussions separate. Increasingly, other lawyers are doing the same, creating a personal identity for friends and family, a professional identity representing their office, and an identity within a group so they can seek advice from other members of the profession.
Keep These Tips in Mind — and Remember to Breathe
Despite the potential of it all, don't try to conquer Twitter in one sitting or even one week. Give it time and build your follower-base one interesting person at a time. While you're at it, here are some of my suggestions to keep things interesting:
- Consider a "secret identity" to find out what people really think.
- Mix it up — private conversations versus public ones (which work better?).
- Broadcast your professional accomplishments and cheer on your followers.
- Create a firm "identity" on Twitter consistent with your Web site and blog.
- Use your Twitter background as a business card, a news source, a wish list.
- Use your Twitter background to promote causes that deserve your support.
- Post questions and then post answers — prospects will appreciate your advice.
- Search for your name, your firm, and phrases related to your practice area.
- Be generous with less experienced users — be fast to cheer and slow to criticize.
- Don't just make friends, make the right friends; numbers don't tell the whole story.
- Follow the leader, but not too close. Soon enough you will be the leader.
There Is No Wrong Tweet
Ultimately there is no "wrong" way to use Twitter. Whether you want to take advantage of its hyperactive network to gauge the public mood about a politician, share files, brag about your favorite Ska band, or find killer dim sum, Twitter can meet all your needs because it is what you make it. By the same token, you can be whatever you want on Twitter — but be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.
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