In Part I of this series, I considered whether lawyers should advertise on Facebook?  Though Facebook's traffic numbers recently surpassed Google, making Facebook the most heavily trafficked site on the web, most of the commentary that I found related to Facebook ads suggested that they were rather ineffective.  In addition, I expressed concern that Facebook users, who are interested in socializing and escaping the stresses of daily life, might be put off  by lawyer ads which might come across as an undue intrusion into their personal life.  I concluded that if lawyers wanted to experiment with social media, they might do so by offering a class or an ebook on a lighter topic (e.g., copyrighting a blog rather than personal injury), but not by directing links to a law firm website.  Still, they shouldn't expect great results. [but see the update at the end of this post]

As it happens, I've experimented with Facebook myself for a similar reason:  to promote a program on Hanging a Part Time Shingle with my colleague, Julie Tower Pierce.  In this post, I'll share the my thought process in creating the ad and the results of the campaign.

1.  Background:

  The part time shingle program is geared towards lawyers interested in starting a part time law practice.  Julie and I identified three demographics:
 

• Lawyers with children who are currently home raising them, thinking about leaving a full time job to spend more time with family or who'd left the work force to raise a family and now seek gradual re-entry.  Though increasingly, it is common for men to work part time, we believed that even in the 21st century, women would continue to dominate this category. 
  
• Lawyers interested in starting a firm but who could not afford to leave a "day job" or give up contract work.  While this category encompasses almost any lawyer, we assumed that younger lawyers and new graduates with large loans fit within this group.
• Lawyers seeking to retire or who have retired but want to keep a foot in the law either for personal interests.

2.  Set Up: Choosing A Demographic

As I described in Part I, Facebook allows users to specify the demographics of their target groups.  After you select a particular demographic, Facebook will tell you how many users fall within that group and will recommend a price per click (CPC).   

Once you've selected a demographic and specified a CPC (and daily or total ad budget), Facebook will determine when to run your ad based on the following guidelines:  

 For any given ad unit, we select the best ad to run based on the ad's bid (CPC or CPM) and ad performance. Your ad's ability to win the auction will change based on its past performance and as the pool of available ads changes.

If you are not receiving as many clicks or impressions as you would like, we recommend increasing your maximum bid. You should also take a look at your ad's targeting to make sure you're reaching the most appropriate audience. Your ad is more likely to run successfully if you're targeting a highly relevant group of users with Facebook's detailed targeting options.

[Source:  Facebook website]

Based on this information, I chose to target users who are college graduates and over the age of 50 (to capture re-entry candidates as well as retired lawyers); college graduates over the age of 28 (to capture those with day jobs) and married female college graduates between the ages of 29 and 33 (to capture mom lawyers home with children).  I restricted the last group to a narrow demographic because the recommended CPC for all women users was more than I wanted to pay.

The results of my ad campaign, which lasted for approximately six days, are shown below, with the results ordered as just described (all college grads over the age of 28, college grads over 50 and women between 29 and 33):
 For the first two categories (28 and older; 50 and older), I used Facebook's recommended CPC.  That wasn't very effective for the 28 and older category, as it resulted in 33,037 impressions.  I had better luck with the 50 and older crowd, where I scored 203,151 impressions by paying the recommended CPC, presumably because the 50 and older demographic on Facebook is smaller and not as frequently targeted by advertisers.  For the 29-33 married female category, I exceeded the recommended CPC by .25 because I knew that I'd be facing still competition.  My decision paid off in that it yielded 148,908 impressions.

Of course, the more important metric than impressions is the click through rate - since that's the first step to converting to a sale.  As predicted, click through rates were not impressive  - just five from the 28 and older group, 58 from the 50 and older and 40 from the women ages 29 to 33.  On the plus side, I didn't pay much for the click throughs - an average of 68 cents.

Did any of those click throughs result in a sale?  The program cost $25, so three sales would have given me a positive ROI.  Unfortunately, I didn't track sales origination closely so I don't have that data.  But my guess, based on the pattern and timing of program registrations, is that all of the registrants learned about the program from list serves, blogs or Twitter rather than through Facebook ads.

My results don't tell the whole story because of other variables.  I ran the Facebook ads just a week before the program which was a live call - so it's possible that those who clicked through and were interested had scheduling conflicts.  In addition, since I'm not a professional marketer, my ads (I used different ones for each group) may have simply been ineffective.

Given the low cost, I might experiment with Facebook again for a similar type of program.  I'd try to narrow my demographic groups further and also provide more lead time before an event.  However, I don't really see Facebook as a valuable promotional tool just yet. 

Finally, I would not use Facebook to market my law practice -- I don't market to consumers and even if I did, I strongly favor educational based marketing over pure advertising. Plus, I think that lawyer ads on Facebook are intrusive.  Nevertheless, if the results of my efforts to market the Part Time Shingle program on Facebook are any indication, I don't think that lawyers who avoid Facebook ads to market their law firms are missing out on much.  At least right now.

Update #1 (3/17/10)  I've received several reactions to my posts.  Two providers who serve attorneys (a legal marketing professional and a CLE company) have used Facebook for ads, with far better success.  The CLE company reported 200,000 hits, 1300 click throughs for $25, while the marketing professional has generated several serious leads through Facebook and  found two clients, for well under $100  $300 per month (correction as of 3/20/2010).  I already pointed out why my campaign may have been less successful - it ran only a week and my ad copy may not have been compelling.  Though my experience was more aligned with those of others (discussed here who have used Facebook ads), apparently there are those who are experiencing success and it's important to portray both sides so that you can make an informed decision.

As for posting lawyer ads on Facebook (rather than an ad for an ebook or webinar), that's a matter of taste.  Personally, I am tired of lawyer ads littering every site that I frequent online. But that's just me -- and if you don't take issue with that approach, then Facebook advertising may be something worth considering. 

It's official!  As of yesterday, Hitwise confirmed what many had long predicted: that Facebook surpasses Google as the most visited Website in the U.S. 

So what does this new development mean for those lawyers who've hedged their Internet marketing bets on Google-driven search engine optimization (SEO) or pay per click?  This  article from Fast Company discusses the implications of Facebook's ascendancy for advertising.

For starters, Google will continue to dominate search.  So to the extent that you invested in professional SEO services or activities like blogging to build visibility online, your efforts will still pay off.  Moreover, even if you're a diehard Facebook user, with hundreds of friends and fans, you won't get much mileage from that presence in Google search.  And while users could also search Facebook to find you, as  the Fast Company article points out, search is not why folks flock to Facebook:

 Facebook does have a search ability inside the site, but what's really driving users to Facebook in droves is that it's a genuine phenomenon. Social networking is still riding that "oh you should try this, it's new and cool" wave and the site itself has reached a critical mass of user numbers whereby if you want to contact almost anyone, odds are that they have a Facebook account.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Facebook is without value - not just as a participant but potentially as an advertiser.  Fast Company suggests that:

 Facebook is now in a position to leverage those user visits to seize control of the online ad-placement business from Google--advertisers will begin to do the math and work out which site will get their ads in front of more eyeballs. And while Web 2.0 has been with us for a while, the fact that more people are visiting Facebook than Google indicates that this interactive revolution has really changed U.S. Netizen's online habits.

With enormous traffic numbers and still undiscovered advertising potential, there are certainly benefits to marketing legal services on Facebook.  Moreover, Facebook makes the advertising process easy with these tools that enable you to design your ad and specify where you want it placed.  Features of Facebook ads include the ability to:

• include a photo or logo as well as a link to a website or fan page.  The graphics feature makes Facebook ads snappier than the bland Google pay per click ads that dot the top and side of Google search results pages.
• specify the precise demographic audience you want to target based on age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, and key words on a fan page.
• choose amount to pay per click through, as well as a daily and/or total limit for the ad campaign.   
  

But for all their benefits and low cost, Facebook ads haven't been terribly effective, as described here, here and here.  That's not surprising either.  After all, most people come to Facebook to interact with friends or socialize.  Thus, an ad for lawyer website isn't going to be terribly appealing, and in fact, might be regarded as an annoyance (though a recent study from Australia showed otherwise).  In fact, to the extent that Facebook ads are effective, they tend to work best for entertainment or recreational services rather than for the pharmaceutical or financial industry.
 
Like Facebook, Linked-In also offers advertising opportunities.  My guess is that Linked In ads might potentially be more effective than Facebook -- since Linked In users are more likely be combing the site to find a service provider rather than to chat with buddies -- I haven't been able to find studies that corroborate my hunch.

Despite the ineffectiveness of Facebook ads thus far, some (for example, a few of the commentors at this post) suggest that Facebook ads may be worth a try for a couple of reasons.  First, because the ads are cheap and users can limit their budgets, they have little to lose.  Second, because users can include logos and pictures, the ads offer an inexpensive way to build brand - though branding of this type is arguably less important for lawyers.

As for me, I'll concede that Facebook ads might be appropriate, albeit not all that useful to publicize a discrete law firm activity or product, like a free webinar or ebook (In fact, I've used Facebook for that very purpose, and I'll share my results in Part II of this post).   But as general tool to advertise a law firm, the the potential intrusiveness of lawyer ads ultimately outweigh any minimal benefit they might provide. 

The numbers are in, and as you might have expected, 2009 was a banner year for social media.  According to the Nielsen Company, consumer usage of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter increased by 82 percent.  In fact, consumers spent over six hours per month on Facebook, or more than three times the amount of time spent on Google. 
 
Many lawyers give short shrift to the growing importance of social media, which is mistake.  As described in this article excerpted from an upcoming book that I co-authored with Nicole Black, lawyers should keep in mind these three themes when they approach social media:

1. Social media is not a fad or a frivolity but a paradigm shift sweeping both the legal profession and society at large;

2.   A social media presence is a tool for achieving other professional goals, not a goal in itself and

3.  Use of social media does not transform otherwise appropriate conduct into something unethical, but nor does it insulate unethical conduct.

Take a look at the full article for more detail on these three themes.  And if you're interested in learning more about social media,  consider  these additional resources:

Mashable - Premier online site for social media, packed full of demographic information, trends and how-to guides.

Social Media Law Student - Don't let the fact that this site is run by students and young lawyers deter you - this blog covers social media issues related to lawyers, judges and the legal system at large, and includes some product reviews of social media tools.

Social Media Today - Focusing on how businesses implement social media.

Web Strategist - Though focused on business use of social media, detailed discussions and statistics at this site make it a great educational resource for lawyers on intelligent use of social media.

AllTop - Social Media - Top social media stories aggregated in one place.
 



 

Facebook isn't just for friends anymore.  Increasingly, businesses are using Facebook for marketing, the New York Times reported last month.  And why not?  With 300 million users, Facebook is likely to be home to a substantial portion of a business' prospective and existing customers.  For that reason, Facebook helps businesses find new customers, build online communities to retain and provide perks to existing customers and even to access demographic information. 

Just like businesses, lawyers can also realize marketing benefits through Facebook.  At Inside Facebook, Sara Ines Calderon offers ten tips for ways that lawyers can use Facebook to market a practice.  I'll discuss some of those tips below and throw in a few of my own:

1.  Goals and Target Audience Definition:  Just like there's more than one way to skin a cat, there's more than one way to market a law practice on Facebook.  To figure out which marketing approach (or approaches) are right for you, you need to define your goals and identify your target audience.  For example, if you market to consumer clients, you may want to attract them with direct ads or try to educate them with articles or links to blog posts on relevant topics.  As discussed below, creating a Fan Page would support these goals.  By contrast, if you're trying to attract more conservative corporate clients who don't spend much time on Facebook, direct advertisements wouldn't have much value.  However, you might locate these clients indirectly through referrals from colleagues whom you can get to know personally through a Facebook friends page.

2.  Set Up A Fan Page:    A Fan Page is a Facebook page for a business or corporate entity rather than for an individual.  As a lawyer,  a Fan Page is important because it provides a way that you can interact with clients without allowing them to become privy to personal information and photos that you might share with close friends.   You can use a Fan page for a variety of purposes - to respond to questions about legal matters (in a general way, of course, to avoid any perception that you're giving legal advice), to share links to recent blog posts or to engage "fans" of the site in conversation.  You can also use a Fan page to issue invitations to events or to make special offers available - for example,  free consultations or a discount on certain legal services.

3. Direct Advertising:  With so many users on Facebook, advertisements can potentially attract a large audience.  Moreover, you can very specifically target ads to various demographics, including, country, state and city, gender, age and workplace.  There's more information on Facebook ads available here.

4.  Building Relationships:   Personal referrals are the primary source of business for most lawyers.  And most people prefer to make referrals to lawyers whom they know on  a personal basis.  Facebook offers a way to get better acquainted with colleagues and build a relationship that goes beyond the office or the bar meeting room.  In addition, when you interact with colleagues more frequently, you'll be at the top of their mind if they're asked to refer a matter.

Have you thought about using Facebook to market your practice?  How are you using it? 

Social media can be overwhelming, with so many different platforms available.  Truth is, when you examine social media more closely, the platforms mirror many of the advertising and marketing tools traditionally available to lawyers - and those tools never intimidated lawyers.  Moreover, by assigning social media to categories relating to the function that the platform performs, it's much easier to sort through the tools and choose.

That's what I've done with the chart below: organized social media platforms into functional categories, given a brief description and the "old school" analogy.  All you need to do is pick a tool from at least two different categories, preferably more, and start moving forward with a social media strategy for 2010. (click on the chart for a better view)

So, how many lawyers use online professional networking and social media tools and which ones do they favor?  Interesting questions to be sure, but you're probably wondering why you should care.  After all, as a lawyer you're probably more interested in where and how potential clients are using social media rather than what your colleagues are doing with it. 

However, turning a blind eye to how your colleagues are using social media is a mistake.  Because social media isn't just a static tool -- like a newspaper ad or a website -- for direct generation of clients.  Engaging social media is also a process that enables lawyers to build meaningful relationships with colleagues, which in turn will produce referrals.

A just released study by Leader Networks shows why social media is critical to generating business in the legal profession.  Of the 1474 lawyers surveyed as part of the study (764 private practice lawyers and 710 corporate counsel), 56 percent identified peer referrals or recommendations as the most effective method for finding business, followed by in person networking events (33 percent) and conferences and seminars (15 percent).  Only three percent believed that blogging, listservs or other social media tools helped to generate business.

But here's the rub.  Despite recognizing the importance of networking with peers to generate referrals, most lawyers said that they simply don't have the time to leverage opportunities to network with peers.  And that's where social media can fill the gap.  Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, the ABA's Legally Minded, Martindale Connected or Legal OnRamp, serve as a virtual water cooler, giving lawyers opportunities to exchange quick pleasantries, update colleagues on recent accomplishments ("speaking at national conference" or "just won SJ hearing") and share news of current events or developments in their respective practice areas.   As relationships evolve, you might find yourself consulting with a colleague on another matter or eventually passing on a case -- and vice versa. 

So not surprisingly, more lawyers are joining social networking sites.  According to the Leader Networks Study, 78 percent of lawyers polled reported membership in an online social network, up substantially from 59 percent in 2008.  And participation runs across all age groups, with 86 percent of lawyers aged 25-35 belonging to social networks, followed by 76 percent of those 36-45 and 66 percent of those in the 46-55+ category. 

Still, even though social networking can be less time consuming than traveling to a conference four hours away, it can easily become a time-sink unless lawyers are disciplined about participation.  So here are a few tips to engage social media tools efficiently so that you won't begrudge your participation if referrals don't come as quickly as you'd like.

1.  Choose your weapons

If this is your first foray into social media, you may want to proceed with some caution.  You are better off signing up for two sites and creating a robust presence rather than spreading yourself thin on eight or ten sites. 

However, with so many social media tools available, how can you pick the one that's right for you?  The decision depends largely on your intended targets.  If you're looking to build relationships with other lawyers, here's how various social media sites stack up according to the Leader Network report:

Linked-In - (used by 58% private counsel, 52% corporate counsel);

Martindale-Hubbell Connected, reading and commenting on blogs (42 % private counsel,
35 % corporate counsel);

Public social networks (Facebook, MySpace)  (37% private counsel, 25% corporate counsel);

Online Q&A and expert search services (e.g., WikiHow or Yahoo Answers) (13% private counsel, 19% corporate counsel);

Twitter (6% private counsel, 4% corporate counsel)

Other considerations in choosing a site include:

--Your personality.  If you tend to be shy or reserved, a site like Facebook, which is most interesting when colored by photos or light banter, may not be appropriate.  Instead, you may feel more comfortable at a more sites like Linked-In or Martindale Hubbell Connect, where the interactions are more focused on professional matters.

--Your schedule.  Some types of social media - such as blogging or regularly responding to online questions and answers may be too time consuming to fit into your schedule or to justify based on the resulting returns.  If you're busy, choose social media sites that don't require a large time investment.

--Your markets.  Are your competitors engaged in, or gaining stature at certain social media sites?  If so, you may want to dive in if only to keep an eye on them.  At the same time, don't avoid a social media site just because it's not populated with other lawyers from your practice area.  There's something to be said for gaining a first mover advantage.

2.  Recognize the process for building relationships

Because this post is focused primarily on use of social media as a way to build connections and generate referrals and business from other lawyers (as opposed to directly from clients), I'm going to assume that as your goal.  So how do you reach the point where you establish a relationship that encourages referrals?

In many ways, the stages of relationship building on social media parallel those in a traditional office environment.  For example, if you ever worked in an office, recall how you went about establishing relationships with colleagues.  During the first few weeks, you likely exchanged greetings and perhaps emailed each other about work related projects.  As you grew more comfortable, perhaps you went to lunch together or out for a cup of coffee and chatted about personal matters like your vacation plans or girlfriend or kids.  Finally, after more time, you may have gotten together outside of the office for a ball game or a tennis match.  Having established this level of camaraderie, you most likely tried to help your colleague professionally by referring him clients or making sure to sing his praises to management.

The same process takes place in the online world as well.  Initially, you may exchange greetings with a colleague whom you've "friended" on Facebook.  After a few weeks, you may comment on photos she's posted of family or offer some sympathy after she's posted about a bad day.  Finally, if you learn that your Facebook colleague will be visiting your city or speaking at a conference that you plan to attend, you might try to schedule an offline, in person meeting which will solidify the relationship.  Once you've grown comfortable with each other, your colleague will trust you enough to send contacts.  Plus, because you have a personal friendship, your colleague will make an effort to help you out, and vice versa.

3.  Don't dive in too quickly

You want social media relationships to evolve offline, but at the same time, you don't want to jump in too quickly.  Avoid friending 400 people whom you barely know all at once and then sharing 40 items with them daily.  Likewise, don't bombard Twitter with self-promotional posts or you'll just turn off followers.  You wouldn't like it if an office mate barged in to your conversation with a co-worker and began gabbing away, would you?  Turns out, social etiquette in social media isn't all that different.

4.  Set up a social media schedule

Some social media tools, particularly Facebook and Twitter can quickly become addictive.  If you spend too much time online, you won't get any work done - and worse, you'll create the impression that you're not very busy.  A realistic schedule might include (1) blocking off thirty minutes early  in the morning to log on to your social media accounts and return messages, send messages and tend to any updates and then (2) repeating the process sometime during the late afternoon or evening.   Or you might block out three to four 15 minute segments throughout the day to come online.  Of course, during really busy periods, you may not have any time for social media - so try to stick to the schedule when you can to establish a reasonably consistent presence.

5.  Do not outsource your social media! 

You don't need to read any further than my last post here to understand the dangers of outsourcing social media campaigns.

Conclusion:  Increasingly, lawyers are joining social media - but there's still time to get on board.   You just need to keep an open mind about the possibilities that social media holds to  build meaningful and lasting connections with colleagues that will provide both financial and personal rewards.

For more detailed information on how lawyers can use social media, take a look at my ebook on Social Media for Lawyers.  

Here's the latest round-up on some of the topics covered in earlier posts to be sure that you have up-to-the-minute information on the latest and greatest in lawyer marketing:

1.  Add More Value to Videos By Power Using YouTube.

Back in January, I posted on why lawyers should consider making video part of their marketing portfolio.  In addition to the reasons that I described, Travis Campell, the Marketing Professor offers some ideas for building community and online presence through YouTube -- which means that you'll get more bang for the buck out of any videos you produce.  So what benefits does You Tube offer?  For starters, you can get statistics on viewer demographics and feedback on your video through commenters.  Posting video on YouTube can also help drive traffic to your site and enhance your search engine visibility.

2.  Should You Hire An SEO Expert?

My first post for this blog described some do-it-yourself SEO tips.  But if the DIY approach doesn't get you the results that you need, should you consider hiring an expert?  I've posted, more generally, on issues to consider when hiring a marketing consultant and now, lawyer marketing expert Larry Bodine shares advice on hiring an SEO expert.  My favorite tip of the post? 

Type the vendor's own targeted search terms into Google and see how well they do for themselves. Type in "law firm web consultant" or "law firm SEO consultant" or "law web marketing consultant" into Google. If they can't get good rankings for themselves, move on.

3.  Social Media and SEO.

Six months ago, when I posted about do-it-yourself SEO, I didn't focus extensively on social media, largely because its impact on SEO wasn't fully recognized or acknowledged at the time.  That's since shifted, as Duct Tape Marketing writes, noting, "It has become extremely difficult to achieve any measure of success for important keyword phrases without the use of social media."  As a result, any business attempting to optimize a site should add a blog and podcast, participate in Twitter and optimize profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn at the very minimum.

You've probably heard the saying that bad publicity is better than no publicity.  But that's not necessarily true in this cache-and-carry-on-forever Internet age, where Google continues to shine light on your darkest hours long after the controversy has died down. 

As a result, more than ever, lawyers must be vigilant about our online profiles -- in an an Internet age, our online reputation invariably precedes us.  Increasingly, clients are turning to the Internet to find lawyers.  And even those clients who locate lawyers through offline sources like newspaper ads or personal referrals routinely turn to Google to ferret out additional information.

To complicate matters further, there's now myriad ways for disgruntled clients or colleagues to disseminate unflattering information.  From lawyer rating sites to individual blogs to newspaper articles that remain online and uncorrected long after an unflattering incident has passed, it's never been easier to drum up dirt on anyone.

So what's a lawyer to do?  We're all familiar with ways to harness the power of Internet to attract business; indeed, I've posted on many of those techniques here in my blog.  But today, I'll focus on the flip side: how to use the Internet to avoid losing business as a result of rumors, criticisms, or other negative information that resides online.

1.  Guard Your Reputation As Zealously As You Represent Clients

Perhaps the most important step that lawyers can take to avoid fallout from negative information is to continuously and vigorously monitor their respective online reputations  If that sounds time-consuming, it doesn't have to be.  Over at Hubspot, you can find out how to monitor your social media presence in just ten minutes a day.  Tips that apply to lawyers include:

1. checking Twitter for chatter about your company and using search tools like TweetDeck or TwitterSearch to monitor conversations in real time
   
2. setting and then checking Google Alerts for your name or those of cases or client matters you're working on
   
3. looking for questions to answer on LinkedIn (answering questions can increase positive search engine visibility), and
   
4. using Google to track other social networking sites and, in particular, blogs, where a colleague may have criticized a posting or commented negatively on the way in which you handled a case. 

In addition to these general social networking sites, lawyers should regularly monitor sites like Avvo which allow clients to post ratings and opinions, and other similar sites where clients are permitted to comment or review lawyers.  And don't forget to keep an eye on sites like LinkedIn, where colleagues can post testimonials.

2.  If You Find Something Positive, Reinforce It

Of course, lawyers are most interested in dealing with negative information and I'll get to that issue in a moment.  However, even when you find positive comments, you should respond with a thank you.  Clients and colleagues who take the time to praise something you've done can serve as your greatest allies if you ever need to undertake damage control against unfair criticism or unflattering commentary.  Take the time to cultivate your own personal vigilante group who can go on the offensive for or with you.

3.  Dealing With Negative Information

So what can you do if you uncover negative or unflattering information about yourself?  First, depending on the information and the site where you found it, ignoring the information might make the most sense.  As this Freelance Folder post suggests, when the comments are clearly from a source that's not credible, you are probably best off ignoring them rather than drawing further attention. 

Continue reading "Is Bad Publicity Better Than No Publicity? Not Necessarily in an Internet Age" »

Over the past nine months or so, Twitter, a micro-blogging service that enables users to communicate with each other in 140-character spurts has steadily gained traction with lawyers.  Some lawyers regard Twitter as a bit of time-sink in an age of information overload, while others revere its immediacy and use it largely for business purposes.  I'll admit that initially, I too was was skeptical of certain aspects of Twitter, though it's since grown on me as I've become a regular user.

But that's just me.  As for you, to Twitter or not to Twitter? That is the question that I'll address in this post.  But before I evaluate the pros and cons, I'll begin with a quick description of what Twitter is, how it works, and how lawyers are using it for marketing and other purposes.

1.  What is Twitter?

According to Wikipedia, Twitter is "a social neworking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."  Users can find out what others are doing by signing up to "follow" their tweets and can comment by sending a reply.  You can keep messages private (by direct messaging) or posting them to all your followers (the default).  If you're interested in seeing what the Twitter interface looks like, take a look at this Legal Tech presentation by Chris Winfield.

Users employ Twitter in a variety of ways.  Lawyer Bob Ambrogi summarized sixteen "reasons to embrace the Tweet" -- which include sharing information (such as links to recent blog posts or news items of interest) -- like monitoring buzz by finding out what topics are of interest to lawyers, making introductions to lawyers whom you're following and would like to meet and even finding clients by responding to inquiries for legal assistance that sometimes crop up in the conversation.

More recently, Twitter has helped build communities of lawyers.  Two sites, LexTweet and Justia Legal Birds list lawyers with Twitter accounts along with information on where they're located and how many followers they have.  If you're ever heading out to a law-related conference, chances are it will feature a "tweet-up," i.e., a casual, in-person get together of fellow 'tweeps.

2.  Getting Started

The only way to get started on Twitter is to dive right in.  After registering for the site, you can check your email to determine whether you already know folks on Twitter -- because you can sign up to follow them.  After that, you may choose to follow some of their followers or identify other lawyers from LexTweet or Justia Legal Birds whom you might want to follow as well.  If you're interested in expanding your inner circle, use Twellow or Summize  to search for specific topics that interest you and find people within those groups to follow.  Feel free to introduce yourself, but thereafter, you can jump into a conversation.

You can use Twitter through the web, but most power users rely on applications like Tweetdeck to keep track of tweets and replies.

3.  So, is Twitter for me?

Continue reading "To Twitter or Not To Twitter? That Is the Question for Lawyers" »