Twitter has become more than an online platform where users just send, read and share text-based messages. Social media marketing is significantly changing how businesses work regarding the usage of social media platforms. Where do law firms and lawyers stand in this transformation? What could have done to improve their social media marketing? You will find some useful Twitter tips for law firms and lawyers in the following.

In Q1 2019, the company stated it had 330 million monthly active users. I had the opportunity to listen to Bruce Daisley’s speech at Erasmus DataCon. Daisley, who is the European Vice President of Twitter, explained that numbers were published in this way because Twitter excludes non-active members to be realistic. It is a fact that with or without non-active members, Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms. However, law firms fall behind regarding the platform’s usage rate. Despite the fact that 83% of top law firms –listed regarding their revenue- are using it for their businesses, it is the least used online platform among lawyers.

“Twitter is not a technology. It’s a conversation. And it’s happening with or without you.” — @charleneli

You should take into account that choosing a proper and professional nickname is the first and one of the most important steps in your Twitter journey. Give enough time to define your occupation and practice areas while preparing your biography. Share links of your law firm’s website. It is also advised to add a personal item into your ‘bio’ which would sound more authentic. If possible, your Twitter photo should be the same headshot that you use in other social media platforms. The last step is to add location so that your possible clients or business partners can see where you work from.

Filtering

There are more than 150.000 active daily users on Twitter thus it has a faster feed than other mainstream social media platforms. For this reason, keep in mind that using filters -after following your first followers- can save you valuable time.  Lastly, make an observation of the legal market and services by checking the profiles that work in your practice area, thereby the necessary time for adaptation might reduce.

Sharing and networking

Engaging with other users is the first step towards being an active user. For this reason, we have special suggestions to speed up your engagement process. To begin with, liking and retweeting might be useful regarding getting other user’s attention but overall, they play a passive role in your engagement. Lawyers usually prefer an observer strategy while using Twitter. For example, they avoid sharing lots of contents and engaging with others but it is not beneficial at all. Publishing articles consistently can increase the number of viewers who have visited your profile. Do not forget to add related hashtags into your tweets and also do not hesitate to ‘reply’ or ‘retweet with a comment’ if you are interested in the topic. Lastly, attach photos or graphs to your tweets because there is a 140 character limit for each tweet.

Check your progress

Follow not only your followers. Follow yourself too! Give some time to check your efforts. It is always good to see your previous steps, which can shed light on the next ones. If possible, monitor your follower growth weekly or monthly. Look at your older tweets to see how many likes or responses they have. It is also a good idea to check conversations regularly to see how many people want to get extra information from you. As a result, you will have the most chance to assess your progress.

Avoid getting into negative conversations

People tend to act differently when they are behind masks and Twitter is an online platform where anonymity is quite common. Therefore, there are many users who are ‘trolls’ in internet language. What trolls do is to give negative comments on users’ posts purposely. Try not to argue with them. Be more optimistic and positive while scrolling down in your feed.

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