Internet Marketing 101: Attorneys Are Tweeting? Surprisingly, Yes

 Posted on December 19,2013 in Social Media

The memo popped up in your email this morning. All attorneys are now required to maintain a Twitter account as part of the firm's social media marketing (SMM) strategy.

Twitter is often simultaneously linked to celebrities or politicians behaving badly, but overall this mode of social media communication should find its way into your marketing campaign.  Following the birth of its technological cousins, Myspace in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, Twitter arrived on the scene in 2006 and was the brainchild of Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone. Their new technological insight was to provide a vehicle for users to microblog or a way to stay connected in real time to specific clients or network groups.

In 140 characters or less you can distribute news and drive traffic via a tweet to other components of your social media marketing plan and getting started is easy. Just visit https://twitter.com/signup and you are ready to start tweeting.

Twitter Lingo for Lawyers

Since you need to communicate to your clients in 140 characters or less you need to become familiar with Twitter's terminology. Twitter has a language all of its own. Here are some basic examples.

Symbols

@ - Place symbol in front of a name to connect directly with a specific client or group

# - Defined as a hashtag. When placed directly before a specific word you can direct your client or target group to specific content. This function also provides search function capabilities.

Twitter Basics

RT – Stands for re-tweet and can be broadcasted to a specific client or group

MT – Stands for modified tweet or the ability to edit a tweet before sending

PRT – Stands for partial re-tweet or the ability to interject your subject matter before sending

There are other Twitter acronyms that may be used but those may be more suited for personal tweeting. The abbreviations above should at least help you get started.

Twitter can be a productive and even enjoyable mode of communication to keep your current and prospective clients abreast of what is happening with you and your firm. It may not be rated as the most important component of your social media marketing plan but it should find its rightful place in your family of social marketing tools.

To learn more about how Twitter can work for you, contact an experienced online marketing firm specializing in the legal industry today. Call OVC, INC. at 630-635-8000 to discuss the benefits of Twitter and all other available social media options.

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 law firms establish online presences through custom website development, Search Engine Optimization, legal directory partnerships, social media marketing, content writing and more.