You are likely wondering in what possible way it could  benefit your law firm’s blog to be connected to Twitter-after all, how much good can a mere 140 characters possibly do? Well, let’s talk about how it works before getting into the why you care. After you sign up and create a user name on Twitter’s web site you can post short messages, called “tweets,” which appear both on the law firm website and on cell phones and other applications. Once you are a member, you can choose who you want to follow, whether it is someone you know, or merely someone who sounds interesting. Others can do the same to receive your messages, and if you prefer to be a bit less public you can control the visibility of your messages to only those people you approve. Okay, simple enough, now the “why” of connecting Twitter to your legal website’s blog pages.

Expand your Contacts

Through websites, blogging, speaking, or being a part of bar committees, most attorneys are pretty well networked, yet you may be pleasantly surprised at how many new contacts you can make—many of them with incredible potential value to you and your firm. Like everyone else on Twitter, you will have a profile page with links to your firm’s website or blog. Just as you may click on other blogs that sound particularly interesting, so will others do for your blog.

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Our own first impression of Twitter was simply “way too much information.” Perhaps that was due to the fact that I was reading tweets belonging to my elderly aunt and several of my cousins in New York. While Twitter can provide a glimpse into the lives of others, it doesn’t have to be an inappropriate glimpse which can tarnish your image as a professional lawyer. If your posts show you writing a brief, preparing for a deposition, this only increases the image you want to portray as a hard-working attorney. If, however, your posts tell others you are going out for drinks with the guys, or taking a nap, think twice about how this information appears to your followers. In other words, Twitter can enhance your image or degrade it, and you know which one you’re aiming for.

News

Many lawyers and law firms already use Twitter to send out news and press releases by posting a headline with an accompanying web link. Think about how often most people check their cell phones, even when at work. You can get out the news that is important to your firm, quickly and easily to a multitude of people—what could be better?

Bring More Traffic to Your Website

Any time you post something new or different on your website or your blog, mention it in a tweet with a link to the full post. There are some tools you can download (such as Twitterfeed) that will let you do this automatically, anytime you post to your firm’s blog. This is an almost sure-fire way to bring more people, most especially potential clients to your website. Once there, they are likely to take a look around, and, if they are not in the market for an attorney, they can tell a friend who is. A California blogger was threatened with a lawsuit over comments he made online, he immediately turned to Twitter to find an attorney—you can find clients and they can find you. This sounds like a near-perfect setup!

Talk to Colleagues

Some lawyers ask questions via Twitter, comment on pertinent news, or share articles; you can reply to others either publicly or privately. You can send a direct message to anyone on Twitter, which is visible only to them; kind of like instant messaging if you need a quick question or answer from a colleague. By monitoring the tweets among your circle of colleagues, you will be able to get a handle on the current topics, or see what people are saying about your firm, your client, or your services.

Get Court Updates

Although your particular city may not have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon just yet, courts in Philadelphia recent launched a Twitter feed which contains news and announcements relating to the court. We expect more courts to follow suit shortly. You could quickly find out if a judge is out for the day, affecting your own schedule, or other items of interest. Not only federal agencies and members of Congress are using Twitter, but the even the White House! You can find a list of federal government Twitter feeds at Twitter Fan Wiki.

Twitter can be a great asset to your law firm and your practice, as long as you always consider the consequences before posting. In such a casual setting, you can unwittingly create an attorney-client relationship or overstep an ethical rule, so to avoid getting yourself into trouble, be very aware of the results of your posts.

Want FREE HELP and ADVICE concerning your law firm Twitter and social media marketing? Call (769) 218-6099 for more information today by speaking to an expert, not a sales person.

With more and more employees checking their personal websites at work—and possibly even on a work computer, it is imperative for them to realize that they are using corporate infrastructure, therefore completely blurring the lines regarding who has the rights to their online postings. Think about it—most employees sign some sort of employment contract which likely indicates that all intellectual property created during their employment belong to the company. By the same token, when employees work from their homes in the evening on their personal computers, it becomes even fuzzier. Due to our busy lifestyles, most of our Facebook or LinkedIn accounts likely have references to both work and home, personal and work-related. So, the question remains, who owns the content of your collective social media?

Who Cares About My Facebook Page?
Many professionals have career-related blogs which attract other companies, clients, etc. During that person’s tenure, who owns the content to those blogs? If the employee generates a source of revenue from the blogs, should that revenue then be given to the employer? If you launch a career blog during your employment with XYZ Law Firm, which discusses information specifically related to the firm, who, then, owns that information? You may be wondering—what the heck, my employer could care less what I post on Facebook. And you may be right to some extent. However, consider the Twitter account of Padmasree of Cisco, who created this account during her employment at Cisco. She frequently discusses both personal issues as well as content specific to Cisco, and her Twitter account has over 1,200,000 followers. It is clear that this is an asset to Cisco, and that should she leave, it would be a decided loss to Cisco, so, again, who owns the content?

Intellectual Property
Some attorneys feel that a clause claiming all “intellectual property” created during the term of employment covers tweets and blog posts as well as anything else creative the employee did on the side during his or her term of employment. If you are presented with a contract of this type, consider having the wording restrict the intellectual property to only that which was created within the scope of your job duties under the agreement. The theory behind this would be that if you are not being paid to create something—such as a Twitter feed or a blog posting—then the company shouldn’t own it simply because it was created during your term of employment. In other words, the ownership should only be tied to the type of job you were actually hired for.

Policy Aspect
Obviously there exists the question as to whether the job or industry you are in is of the type that your company would find it beneficial for your to be blogging during work hours or using work equipment. Many believe that people will find a way to blog, Tweet and use social networks, so they might as well give in to it and try to find the value in such activities, and relate them to their company’s benefit. Keep in mind that literally thousands of attorneys spend their days reviewing literally millions of company e-mails which have been subpoenaed for various lawsuits. Companies should always remind their employees that they have absolutely no right of privacy regarding anything that goes through a company computer. If all employees keep this fact in mind, and the employment contract is strictly spelled out regarding intellectual property, an employee’s blogging can actually benefit the company. Companies should also update their policies to reflect our changing world, which is full of social media, and even set up training for employees so they can fully understand what happens when the workplace and home collide.

Free law firm social networking marketing advice when you call Lawyer Success, Inc. Call (769) 218-6099 to speak with a Social Media expert not a sale representative. Call today!

Justin Kistner, an analyst at Webtrends said that social media websites like Twitter  and Facebook would likely diminish in popularity by 2012. Our law firm marketing consultants have been involved with Web marketing for 11 years and have seen the rise and fall of many popular websites.  We agree that social media is likely to peak around 2012 and that the next big thing is right around the corner probably likely to appear some time in 2015.  This is consistent with some other observations about specific sites.

Other exerts in the field of web traffic and usage analysis such as Compete,  say that the number of Twitter users has flat-lined. Compete, a Web analytics firm, says that the microblogging website’s number of visitors hasn’t changed much since June and that its roughly 22 million visitors in December 2010 was about 770,000 fewer than its highest number, which was in August 2010. And other analysts paint the same picture, raising the question: Has Twitter peaked and what does this mean for lawyer advertising and marketing effectiveness?

Although it appears that the “Twitter fad” may have indeed peaked, another social media website, Facebook, continues to see steady growth in both visits and new accounts. In January 2010 Facebook drew 133.6 million unique visitors which out ranked the grandfather website Yahoo that garnered 132 million visitors. Another important statistic is that Facebook is the number one website when it comes to the amount of time people actually spend online using the website.

Compete.com, the popular Web analytics firm stated, “In January, 11.6% of all time spent online was spent on Facebook (compared to 4.25% for Yahoo and 4.1% for Google. Google still holds the number one spot with 147.8 million visitors, or nearly half the U.S. population.”

The question becomes, what does this mean to attorneys and law firms when it comes to their Internet marketing strategy? We believe that social media marketing for lawyers is here to stay and will continue to grow in importance as these social media sites learn how to turn their massive membership in to business opportunities.

I particularly like websites or social media sites that take in detailed information or demographics from their user. The user can add personal details such as their favorite movies, books, career, job title and more valuable information for marketing purposes. Unlike Twitter, this enables advertisers to zero in on specific demographics or groups that offer the best match for their services making pay per click advertising very attractive and targeted.

Call Lawyer Success, Inc. to discuss any questions you have about marketing your law firm online or on social media sites like YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter or others. Call (769) 218-6099.