Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/98946
www.iltanet.org • Share interesting links and commentary by posting updates on your LinkedIn homepage. Good content to post includes links to articles you have recently published, links to articles you find interesting and commentary about current events relevant to your industry. The other major business-to-business social network is Twitter. With a vocabulary and functionality all its own, Twitter can take a while to learn, particularly when it comes to grasping the nuances between an ordinary tweet, a tweet @ and a retweet. But once you develop a mastery of the Twitterverse, you can begin to raise your industry profile, connect with thought leaders and decision makers, and conduct your own media relations by engaging in online conversations with journalists and publications. The following are some tips on how to use Twitter as a business tool: • Post regularly. There is no magic formula to determine how much you need to post to be successful on Twitter, but don't let your profile sit idle for more than a day or two. • Just as with LinkedIn, consider posting links to content you have written or content you find interesting that others have written. The goal is to become an information source for the type of followers you want to attract. • Engage those who are talking about topics relevant to you, particularly journalists. Users can conduct keyword searches across the entire network to find those who are talking about a particular topic. • Consider tweeting @ users or retweeting posts created by those you follow to try to get them to follow you back. • Create lists, which are customized feeds developed around a user-generated topic. You can also subscribe 14 ILTA White Paper to predeveloped lists through such sites as Listorious. There you can find lists covering hundreds of topics, from IP law to e-discovery. Make Time for Social Media Some legal professionals may see social media as just another time-consuming task to add to their limited schedules. But there are a number of third-party software applications you can use to help organize and time posts in advance. You can also initially set some very achievable goals for yourself to get your social media participation started, such as limiting posting to a couple times a week. Make time to learn and use social media because these tools are only going to become more critical as law firms and corporations continue to adopt social media strategies as part of their routine marketing initiatives. Also, make sure you have an enterprise-wide social media policy in place, and consider providing group or one-onone instruction to help your workforce get up to speed. And, finally, the point of social media is to be social. So share your knowledge and seek out those whose opinions you value. By doing this, you'll reap the greatest return on your investment of time.