"INVISIBLE" USERS AND THE ART OF
MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA
Since tracking various social media channels,
streams and conversations can become
overwhelming quickly, we recommend these tools
to help you get started:
•HootSuite is a favorite (free) Twitter dashboard
service that allows you to set up tabs for
different search terms and create different
groups of accounts you are following for
separate topics (or even work versus personal
interests). When and if you get ready to
contribute, you can compose tweets and even
schedule them to be published ahead of time
— something that is very helpful for industry
events.
which provides various popular blog categories
and robust blog post search functionality.
•HootSuite provides Twitter analytics (free
account) and the ability to archive tweets based
on certain terms/hashtags (fee-based, pro
account). TweetArchivist (fee-based) is another
tool for Twitter archival.
While all the noise surrounding social media and
what legal professionals should be doing with it
can at times be deafening, setting up a simple yet
methodical program to monitor and track social
media chatter need not be overwhelming. In fact,
following these monitoring tips and utilizing the
tools mentioned above should make it an easy,
enjoyable and rewarding experience.
•Twitter's search service lets you search by
name/account, topics and hashtags, providing
a quick and free way to isolate specific Twitter
users and tweets based on topics. Topsy is
another site that allows you to search the
social Web and provides specifics on tweet
history, including timeline, most influential
accounts, etc.
JoAnna Forshee is the CEO of InsideLegal.com, an insider's guide to doing business in legal technology.
•Google's Blog search option allows you to search
the Internet for any blogs. Search for a certain
term through Google. On the results page, click
"More" and select "Blogs" to refine your search.
Another good blog search engine is Technorati,
She has spent the last 14 years working with legal technologists, consultants, vendors and media in roles
spanning legal industry advisor, market researcher, legal event producer, social media guru and PR/
marketing agency founder (Envision Agency). JoAnna can be contacted at jf@insidelegal.com and on
Twitter @InsideLegal.