If you’d like to start using Twitter — or if you’ve already started but want to do better — here are some tips for attorneys on how to engage:
Pick a trending topic and offer your own spin. Every time you sign in, your Twitter home page will give you a list of topics that are currently trending on the site. You can even customize this feed for your geographical area. Picking a trending topic and adding your own spin on it is a good way to get more attention for your posts.
Perk up your profile. Be sure you have a current photo of yourself on your profile. Most people prefer to follow a person instead of a company.
Add followers. Syncing your contact list to Twitter is a good way to get followers quickly.
Use visuals to be visible. Posts with photos and video get more attention on Twitter than strictly text posts.
Share amazing content. Don’t tweet unless you have something of value to your followers to offer. Quality always trumps quantity (pun intended).
Share and share alike. Share any engaging content your followers have posted by retweeting their messages and they are likely to return the favor.
Mind your metrics. Keep track of your Twitter stats — how many engage or click on your tweets — so you can gauge what’s working and what’s not.
In addition, here are some best practices for attorneys using Twitter:
- Don’t tweet more than four times a day
- Try to keep your tweet under 100 characters
- Remember the 80/20 rule — 80% conversation/20% promotion
- Use links as much as possible in your tweets — these get 86% higher retweet rates
- Be sure your links are clickable by adding a space in front of the link
- Weekend tweets get more engagement
- Afternoon tweets get more engagement
- Be judicious in your use of hashtags — no more than 2 per post
- Include the word “retweet” in your posts — studies show these receive 12x higher retweet rates
Armed with this information, you should now feel comfortable engaging clients and prospects on Twitter with timely, topical tweets.
