If you are a lawyer, you will agree that social media is a powerful tool for serious business. With Twitter, you can gather more information about different companies, markets, industries, and even clients, which will help you grow your business.
You can also build your career network using Twitter. All you need is to create a Twitter account and invest some time into gathering new contacts.
Here are a few ways lawyers should use Twitter to gain more knowledge, network, and even increase their clientele:
1. Mold Your Image
When you post daily on Twitter, other people will see a glimpse of your life. Let your posts paint you as a high profiled lawyer to shape the image you want to portray. Any professional needs to be careful about what they put up on social media. You want to reach a lot of followers and present them with stimulating content.
However, you don’t want to do that to the detriment of your professionalism. Having 100 followers who view you as a lawyer that they would feel comfortable hiring is far better than having 1,000 followers who view you as an entertaining crazy person.
2. Share Your Ideas
Twitter limits posts to about 280 characters. You can post web links together with their description to share your ideas or create mini-blogs. Once again, keep your posts law-related. You are able to have both a professional account and a personal account. You can use your personal account to make posts on other subjects. Even there, though, be careful not to go too crazy. Your personal social media is still tied to your professional image.
Social media platforms are a double-edged sword. They can hurt you just as much as they can help you. Always carefully consider the consequences before making a post. For most lawyers trying to build their business, it is best to steer clear of opinions about laws and politics. Sharing information about these topics, on the other hand, can be a very good decision.
Informing your followers about new laws that have been passed or are up for a vote will display that you have your finger on the pulse. However, sharing opinions about those laws could come back to bite you. While you may draw some clients your way by displaying a shared belief system, you could drive others away.
3. Drive Traffic
As a lawyer, you can use Twitterfeed to post interesting excerpts from your blog. People will want to read more about the exciting items. By inserting links, you will increase traffic to your main website. It is important to have a well-designed website that is easy to navigate and visually appealing.
Twitter may be where potential clients first encounter you, but a trip to your website is where you are most likely going to gain clientele or not. If someone looking for a lawyer follows your post to your website and then can’t tell from the website what kind of law you practice, they will likely keep looking.
4. Find Clients
More people are turning to Twitter to find top-rated lawyers. Therefore, it is to your advantage to be active on Twitter. Expanding your clientele is the best way to grow your business through social media. Post in threads addressing potential client questions. By creating posts which display your competence in the areas of law that you practice, you are essentially putting out an open cover letter for anyone who might be looking for a lawyer.
5. Simulate Water Cooler
For private consultants, you can use Twitter as a virtual water cooler. You can share articles, comment on the news, and also post articles of interest. Besides, you can also reply to posts either publicly or in private.
6. Increase Your Network
Use Twitter to send messages directly to your friends and other lawyers that interest you. You can also send messages to experts of various fields to find solutions to whatever issues you may encounter. With Twitter, you have the option to communicate with your followers all at once or individually.
7. Monitor the Buzz
Follow up on hot topics among other lawyers. Select people you wish to follow on Twitter and their areas of interest. You can create a network that includes other professionals with whom you might be able to develop a symbiotic relationship.
For lawyers, developing a social network that includes the press can be very advantageous. They may share an opportunity that sparks your interest, or you may be able to use each other in certain circumstances involving getting a story on the air.
8. Follow the Government
The government uses Twitter to distribute essential news and advertisements. Top government leaders also use Twitter to share opportunities and important messages to the country. By following what is happening in politics, you will be able to keep apprised of any potential changes to the law that may be on the horizon. You can then begin to prepare for them before they go into effect.
9. Track Activities and Events
Twitter has hashtags that you can use to track events. You can tag posts to connect with other events going on, which makes following up on events, conferences, and activities easier.
10. Get More Mileage
You don’t have to only post on one platform. You can easily connect your other social media platforms with Twitter. In this case, when you post an item, it will reflect on the other social media platforms and therefore reach more audiences.
Even though many have yet to embrace Twitter and Facebook, among other social media platforms, it is easy for a lawyer to use Twitter as part of an online presence. At the same time, you should be mindful of what you post. As a lawyer, you need to consider the pros and cons before sharing your ideas and thoughts on Twitter. When you consider social media’s power, it is an effective tool to build your career and grow your business.