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Practical guidance for barristers and clerks looking to leverage social media to optimise brand awareness and increase instructions. By Catherine Bailey
We can no longer ignore the vital role that social media has in promoting practices and driving instructions. While some barristers have reluctantly started to tentatively explore the ‘Twittersphere’, others have taken to tweeting with great enthusiasm… but that has not always resulted in the desired outcomes!
Those wanting to embrace the stage without committing social faux pas need to consider a few simple but crucial dos and don’ts that should act as your golden rule book for social media marketing across all platforms; not just Twitter.
Rather than just setting up a Twitter page and venturing forth into the unknown, it’s advisable to think about why you want to do it and what you hope to gain.
All good marketing communications are multi-channelled and multi-level, meaning you target your audience using a variety of methods (events, mailers, emailers, adverts, social media posts) and a variety of levels (both formal and informal, tailored appropriately to the recipients). Selecting what channels to use and when to use them is part of your strategic marketing plan, which is always driven by your overriding operational goals. By starting at the top and identifying what it is you want to achieve from your efforts, you can plan your communication strategies accordingly.
Your communication strategy should include a range of social platforms, the most prevalent for law firms and sets being Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (for those with direct access), Google+ and increasingly Instagram. For each platform, you will need a communications plan. This plan necessitates asking yourself four questions:
1. What’s your goal for this channel (awareness, instructions, thought-leadership)?
2. Who’s your target audience?
3. Where are these people?
4. How do you get their attention?
Of all the social media platforms (bar TikTok – which is a whole different ball game), Twitter is one of the most spontaneous sites on which users post ‘what I’m doing right now’ type updates so they’re often the first place to hear real-time breaking news. For those not yet familiar, it’s effectively a microblog site that hosts short pieces of digital content containing text, images, videos and hyperlinks to other sites.
Being active on Twitter can bring the following benefits:
The other major advantage of Twitter relates to increased search engine visibility. Since Twitter and Google announced their partnership in early 2015, there’s close integration between the two sites. Twitter content, in the form of tweets and hashtags, feeds through into Google search results. So, being active on Twitter supports search engine optimisation strategy too.
To get tweeting, if you’ve not already done so, set up a page. This shows the rest of the world who you are. Every element should contain your best content and reflect your identity because first impressions count.
The four components of your Twitter profile are as follows:
You can view trending topics from the ‘Moments’ tab, see your page notifications such as new followers and retweets on the appropriately titled ‘Notifications’ tab, and send direct messages to your followers in the equally well-named ‘Messages’ tab, all of which are in your top toolbar.
Post regular tweets relating to your business, areas of law and the wider legal industry. When on the home screen, simply click in the ‘What’s happening?’ box, type your content, upload a photo or video, add a hyperlink and hit the ‘Tweet’ button. Your tweets will be displayed on your profile page and delivered to your followers’ timelines.
Writing 280 characters may sound easy (it’s certainly easier than the original 140 character allowance), but it can prove difficult to adhere to these length restrictions. Choose every letter painstakingly to get your message across in a coherent and professional way (these two sentences alone have over 267 characters in them). Insert links to your website or blog where your followers can find more detailed information on the subject. If it helps, use URL shortening tools to save vital space when embedding links into your tweets.
Tip: If you go over the character count, Twitter will tell you by showing you a minus number at the bottom of your tweet and won’t allow you to post until it’s rectified, and either back to zero or a positive number.
You can use the ‘Add poll’ to include a Q&A and ‘Add location’ to show where you are at the time of posting.
You can pin tweets to keep important items at the top of your timeline. To do this, click on the more icon (‘…’) situated underneath a posted tweet then choose ‘Pin to your profile page’ from the drop down list. By doing so, your followers can’t fail to miss your important news.
Keep on top of others’ tweets and use the ‘Reply’, ‘Retweet’ and ‘Like’ facilities to pass along news items that you think your followers should read. You’ll find these three icons underneath each tweet in your timeline. Always acknowledge the source of the original tweet rather than trying to pass it off as your own. By encouraging the conversation, you are automatically promoting your brand.
These are keywords or phrases that are prefixed with the hashtag symbol (#). Hashtags can be used anywhere in a tweet – beginning, middle or end – but can’t contain any spaces or punctuation. They categorise tweets, make searching for topics easier and identify trending topics from popular hashtags.
Consistency and regularity are vital. Create a schedule comprising three columns, these being date, time and tweet. This means you now don’t have to stress about writing a large quantity of new content. One big content piece can be broken down into several tweets and you can share others’ content too.
Also, bearing in mind the speed with which news becomes old news on Twitter, retweet your previous tweets on different days and at different times, perhaps tweaking a few words here and there, and changing the image to keep it fresh.
Tip: It all sounds rather robotic and not in keeping with the spontaneity of Twitter, however, it’s quite useful to have certain themes each month or week that have a number of pre-written tweets you can use to link back to your pre-published content. It also allows you time to be spontaneous on other days of the week. This way, you are promoting your brand overall and reacting to the news of the day.
Using every tweet to try and sell your services is doomed for failure. Spamming your followers with self-promotional monologues conversation will result in them unfollowing you. Instead, adopt the ABC system. This stands for: Attract the right fans; Build relationships; Convert/sell. In other words, as it’s a funnel, spend the bulk of your time doing the first two steps and a very small proportion of your time performing the last.
There are multiple methods to grow your follower volumes, for example find users whose followers are your target audience and follow their followers (lots will reciprocate), and follow back your own new followers. A word of caution though: only connect with people whose profiles feature real images and people/firms who operate in your niche. Quality is better than quantity to have those meaningful conversations mentioned earlier.
Tip: Cross-promote your Twitter account on online and offline channels such as your website, email signature, business cards, printed marketing collateral, adverts, exhibition stand graphics etc. The more people see this, the more will seek you out on social media.
Aside from restrictions in characters for tweets, bios and your name, Twitter defines limits such as the maximum daily number of new follows, tweets and direct messages. Your account will be temporarily suspended if you exceed these limits. Google search for ‘Twitter limits’ or access Twitter’s help centre to learn more.
As with any form of marketing, experimentation is key. Test different messages, different days and times and different frequencies then analyse your data to understand what’s working and what’s not. Go to analytics.twitter.com and start measuring using real-time data. Learn and improve armed with analytical knowledge.
You have the ability to advertise on Twitter including retargeting by installing the Twitter Pixel on your website. You’ll need to set up your Twitter ads account first then progress through three levels: campaign, ad groups and ads.
The ads element is essentially your tweets. There are all manner of options available to you from audiences and campaign types to objectives and payment settings. When logged into Twitter, click on the ‘More’ button in the left hand toolbar, select ‘Twitter Ads’ and explore. The Twitter advertising opportunities are endless.
Hopefully you will never encounter the dreaded Twitter Troll. These will either be people determined to cause malice or they may be people who are having a particularly bad day and have decided to start or continue an argument.
The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. They are craving attention so don’t give it to them. If you feel that they are damaging your brand, respond with an invitation to take their grievance offline so that you can better understand their issue and come to a resolution. Make sure that any of your responses are professional and courteous (despite what you must be feeling). If they refuse your offer of assistance, you can either ignore them and move on or use the reporting tools to highlight the issue with Twitter’s moderators.
Getting into a heated discussion will only damage your brand. Make your points clearly and as neutrally as possible. You’ll find that your followers will come to your aid with positive comments, banishing the Twitter Troll and restoring your reputation.
Don’t be put off. Instead, do your preparation work and get tweeting a mix of serious and light-hearted content. You’ll see your audience grow and with it your brand awareness and ultimately instructions. Best of luck!
Catherine Bailey is the Founder and Managing Director of Bar Marketing Limited, a marketing agency utilised by leading sets and barristers across the world. She is also co-author, along with Jennet Ingram, of A Practical Guide to Marketing for Lawyers (Law Brief Publishing), now in its 2nd Edition. See: www.barmarketing.co.uk
We can no longer ignore the vital role that social media has in promoting practices and driving instructions. While some barristers have reluctantly started to tentatively explore the ‘Twittersphere’, others have taken to tweeting with great enthusiasm… but that has not always resulted in the desired outcomes!
Those wanting to embrace the stage without committing social faux pas need to consider a few simple but crucial dos and don’ts that should act as your golden rule book for social media marketing across all platforms; not just Twitter.
Rather than just setting up a Twitter page and venturing forth into the unknown, it’s advisable to think about why you want to do it and what you hope to gain.
All good marketing communications are multi-channelled and multi-level, meaning you target your audience using a variety of methods (events, mailers, emailers, adverts, social media posts) and a variety of levels (both formal and informal, tailored appropriately to the recipients). Selecting what channels to use and when to use them is part of your strategic marketing plan, which is always driven by your overriding operational goals. By starting at the top and identifying what it is you want to achieve from your efforts, you can plan your communication strategies accordingly.
Your communication strategy should include a range of social platforms, the most prevalent for law firms and sets being Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (for those with direct access), Google+ and increasingly Instagram. For each platform, you will need a communications plan. This plan necessitates asking yourself four questions:
1. What’s your goal for this channel (awareness, instructions, thought-leadership)?
2. Who’s your target audience?
3. Where are these people?
4. How do you get their attention?
Of all the social media platforms (bar TikTok – which is a whole different ball game), Twitter is one of the most spontaneous sites on which users post ‘what I’m doing right now’ type updates so they’re often the first place to hear real-time breaking news. For those not yet familiar, it’s effectively a microblog site that hosts short pieces of digital content containing text, images, videos and hyperlinks to other sites.
Being active on Twitter can bring the following benefits:
The other major advantage of Twitter relates to increased search engine visibility. Since Twitter and Google announced their partnership in early 2015, there’s close integration between the two sites. Twitter content, in the form of tweets and hashtags, feeds through into Google search results. So, being active on Twitter supports search engine optimisation strategy too.
To get tweeting, if you’ve not already done so, set up a page. This shows the rest of the world who you are. Every element should contain your best content and reflect your identity because first impressions count.
The four components of your Twitter profile are as follows:
You can view trending topics from the ‘Moments’ tab, see your page notifications such as new followers and retweets on the appropriately titled ‘Notifications’ tab, and send direct messages to your followers in the equally well-named ‘Messages’ tab, all of which are in your top toolbar.
Post regular tweets relating to your business, areas of law and the wider legal industry. When on the home screen, simply click in the ‘What’s happening?’ box, type your content, upload a photo or video, add a hyperlink and hit the ‘Tweet’ button. Your tweets will be displayed on your profile page and delivered to your followers’ timelines.
Writing 280 characters may sound easy (it’s certainly easier than the original 140 character allowance), but it can prove difficult to adhere to these length restrictions. Choose every letter painstakingly to get your message across in a coherent and professional way (these two sentences alone have over 267 characters in them). Insert links to your website or blog where your followers can find more detailed information on the subject. If it helps, use URL shortening tools to save vital space when embedding links into your tweets.
Tip: If you go over the character count, Twitter will tell you by showing you a minus number at the bottom of your tweet and won’t allow you to post until it’s rectified, and either back to zero or a positive number.
You can use the ‘Add poll’ to include a Q&A and ‘Add location’ to show where you are at the time of posting.
You can pin tweets to keep important items at the top of your timeline. To do this, click on the more icon (‘…’) situated underneath a posted tweet then choose ‘Pin to your profile page’ from the drop down list. By doing so, your followers can’t fail to miss your important news.
Keep on top of others’ tweets and use the ‘Reply’, ‘Retweet’ and ‘Like’ facilities to pass along news items that you think your followers should read. You’ll find these three icons underneath each tweet in your timeline. Always acknowledge the source of the original tweet rather than trying to pass it off as your own. By encouraging the conversation, you are automatically promoting your brand.
These are keywords or phrases that are prefixed with the hashtag symbol (#). Hashtags can be used anywhere in a tweet – beginning, middle or end – but can’t contain any spaces or punctuation. They categorise tweets, make searching for topics easier and identify trending topics from popular hashtags.
Consistency and regularity are vital. Create a schedule comprising three columns, these being date, time and tweet. This means you now don’t have to stress about writing a large quantity of new content. One big content piece can be broken down into several tweets and you can share others’ content too.
Also, bearing in mind the speed with which news becomes old news on Twitter, retweet your previous tweets on different days and at different times, perhaps tweaking a few words here and there, and changing the image to keep it fresh.
Tip: It all sounds rather robotic and not in keeping with the spontaneity of Twitter, however, it’s quite useful to have certain themes each month or week that have a number of pre-written tweets you can use to link back to your pre-published content. It also allows you time to be spontaneous on other days of the week. This way, you are promoting your brand overall and reacting to the news of the day.
Using every tweet to try and sell your services is doomed for failure. Spamming your followers with self-promotional monologues conversation will result in them unfollowing you. Instead, adopt the ABC system. This stands for: Attract the right fans; Build relationships; Convert/sell. In other words, as it’s a funnel, spend the bulk of your time doing the first two steps and a very small proportion of your time performing the last.
There are multiple methods to grow your follower volumes, for example find users whose followers are your target audience and follow their followers (lots will reciprocate), and follow back your own new followers. A word of caution though: only connect with people whose profiles feature real images and people/firms who operate in your niche. Quality is better than quantity to have those meaningful conversations mentioned earlier.
Tip: Cross-promote your Twitter account on online and offline channels such as your website, email signature, business cards, printed marketing collateral, adverts, exhibition stand graphics etc. The more people see this, the more will seek you out on social media.
Aside from restrictions in characters for tweets, bios and your name, Twitter defines limits such as the maximum daily number of new follows, tweets and direct messages. Your account will be temporarily suspended if you exceed these limits. Google search for ‘Twitter limits’ or access Twitter’s help centre to learn more.
As with any form of marketing, experimentation is key. Test different messages, different days and times and different frequencies then analyse your data to understand what’s working and what’s not. Go to analytics.twitter.com and start measuring using real-time data. Learn and improve armed with analytical knowledge.
You have the ability to advertise on Twitter including retargeting by installing the Twitter Pixel on your website. You’ll need to set up your Twitter ads account first then progress through three levels: campaign, ad groups and ads.
The ads element is essentially your tweets. There are all manner of options available to you from audiences and campaign types to objectives and payment settings. When logged into Twitter, click on the ‘More’ button in the left hand toolbar, select ‘Twitter Ads’ and explore. The Twitter advertising opportunities are endless.
Hopefully you will never encounter the dreaded Twitter Troll. These will either be people determined to cause malice or they may be people who are having a particularly bad day and have decided to start or continue an argument.
The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. They are craving attention so don’t give it to them. If you feel that they are damaging your brand, respond with an invitation to take their grievance offline so that you can better understand their issue and come to a resolution. Make sure that any of your responses are professional and courteous (despite what you must be feeling). If they refuse your offer of assistance, you can either ignore them and move on or use the reporting tools to highlight the issue with Twitter’s moderators.
Getting into a heated discussion will only damage your brand. Make your points clearly and as neutrally as possible. You’ll find that your followers will come to your aid with positive comments, banishing the Twitter Troll and restoring your reputation.
Don’t be put off. Instead, do your preparation work and get tweeting a mix of serious and light-hearted content. You’ll see your audience grow and with it your brand awareness and ultimately instructions. Best of luck!
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