Tweaking Your Attorney Twitter Strategy

 Posted on January 15,2015 in Campaigns

It is no secret that Twitter faced a tumultuous ride during 2014. However, according to Anthony Noto, Twitter’s newly hired Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Twitter and its executive team are  promising a resurgence to increase investor confidence by escalating new product development and the launch of new program features.

As the Twitter team tweaks its vision for 2015, as a practicing attorney, what Twitter tweaks are you planning for in the new year? It may be time to revisit your Twitter account or schedule a consult with your marketing manager or contracted social media marketing firm.

In the interim, the Social Media Examiner, the world’s largest online social media magazine dedicated to increasing social media awareness, offers the following suggestions for tweaking your personal Twitter profile.

Become a True Original

When it comes to your Twitter persona, avoid the social media trap of following trends and the crowd by forgoing the norm of Twitter lingo. Get creative with your Twitter bio and avoid the following:

• Stringing together a mash of general identifiers. This practice generally only confuses your targeted audience as to why they should be seeking your services.
• Relying on the over-used verbiage or cliches found frequently on Twitter. Your demographic has heard it all before, and incorporating overused phrases into your profile only classifies you as the same as the rest and not the best.
• Publishing the boring disclaimer stating any tweet from your account is a genuine summation of your own views. Your audience understands this and the disclaimer serves no inherent legal requirement.

Now that you know what you avoid doing as you use Twitter as a marketing tool, incorporate the following into your strategy for greater success.

Keep it Simple

Quite frankly, no one wants to read an abbreviated 140 character dissertation. The art of developing a sentence or two to engage your target audience as to why they should seek your professional services is all you need. Even creatively creating a one word descriptor can catch the eye of an interested prospective client.

Once you have piqued their interest, ensure that all of your hashtags, mentions, and links are active, taking your audience on another social media journey to your extended online persona, including website, relevant blogs or other social media platforms.

Relax - It Will Be Fine

Not every tweet has to be wrapped up tight and presented to the targeted audience in a overly “legal” 140 character message. Loosen up; your audience is human, and although they expect any prospective attorney to be a consummate professional, they need to know that the attorney handling their legal matter is human as well.

Hit the Refresh Button Often

Believing that a quick fix to your bio in the beginning of 2015 covers you for the entire year could not be further from the truth. Make sure to do the following regularly as part of your social media strategy:

• Continually engage your targeted audience and to drive significant leads to your practice, updating your Twitter account on a regular basis can ultimately produce the best return on your Twitter investment.
• Opt to revisit your account often and update your information as to what may be happening in your practice, new areas of interest or new level of experience. This practice keeps you interesting and keeps your target audience interested.

Acknowledge Your Audience

When interacting with your audience, make it a practice to interact with members on a professional but personal basis. Visualize and converse as if you were having a face-to-face conversation, following the same conversational etiquette.

Using “you” instead of “I” all the time, opens your audience members to the possibility that you would be a good team player. Too many “I’s” can significantly decrease your overall online reputation as someone a bit too caught up with one’s self.

Constructing an effective and result-producing social media marketing campaign can be difficult. Incorporating all the many different components to assess what effectively works and what may not takes time and creativity but the bottom line remains, is your program generating significant leads?

If your time and creativity are limited and your Twitter profile is in need of a fresh face for 2015, consider contacting the skilled social media marketing team at OVC, INC. We offer a free assessment of your professional website as well as fresh result-producing ideas for all of your social media components. Contact us at 630-635-8000 to schedule your 2015 consultation today.

About the Author: Greg Wildman is the President of OVC, INC. Since 1999, Greg has developed hundreds of websites for attorneys from his company's inception as Online Video Concepts, LLC to the modern era's OVC, INC. Greg's knowledge of law firm marketing has helped many attorneys establish online presences through custom website development, Search Engine Optimization, legal directory partnerships, social media marketing, content writing and more.