As promised and as a follow up to yesterday’s post, How Not to Use Twitter as a Law Firm – Brought to you by @mmalaw I am giving you the how to use twitter as a law firm. To illustrate what I mean, lets take the same bullet points we talked about yesterday and approach it from the way I would recommend you go about using twitter as opposed to how our profile firm is using it.

What they should be doing to do it right

Numbers

One of the first things I look at when I get a new follower in my inbox is to check to see what their ratio of followers to those they are following is. If you will remember, in yesterday’s post, the tweeter profiled had a ratio of something like 9:1. Way more followings than those who are following them. I get nervous when I see this and almost never follow back. Now, I did follow @mmalaw back as I wanted to see if I received one of those stupid ass “click my junk” automatic direct messages. To my shock and surprise, I didn’t.

My point is this, I usually don’t follow a ratio like 9:1 and I know I am not the only who feels this way. One of the problems right now in the twittersphere are all the twitter monetizing tools which go out there and find all of these people with “similar” interest and follow them for you automatically. While this may be a great way to monetize your twitter experience and spam a bunch of crap hoping some of it might stick to the wall. Auto-following people as a business owner or professional service firm is not the way to go.

At least two problems come to mind:

• You really don’t have any control over your follow to followers ratio. What you most likely will end up with is what our case study tweeter ended up with and that is a ratio of 9:1. Not good. Yesterday shortly after I posted my post, I received at least one comment, an email and a few DM’s on twitter telling me they got the same follow as I did. Which caused me to believe some form of an auto-follow tool most likely was being used. Don’t use such a tool, if you are wanting to use twitter as a business or professional service firm. You are much better off if you can keep your ratio just the opposite. You should have more followers than you follow. I don’t and I know others who don’t, follow everyone who follows them. In fact, I try to cull my followers from time to time to get rid of those who are either spammers I missed or who I just don’t connect with. (Something I need to do again soon).
• If you are auto-following people, how are you able to go in and actually learn anything about them. I always look at each new followers twitter profile page. I also almost always check out their website URL. And I like to see a twitter Bio too. You simple can not do this if you are auto-following people with these tools that go out there and search for people and auto-follow them for you.

Profile

Don’t tell me in your twitter Bio that you take credit cards or have a payment plan. You are assuming I am going to buy from you before you even give me anything. Your profile should not reflect that you only want to take from twitter and not give anything back in return. I know you are not given much space to write a thorough profile as you might want. But there are 160 characters after all. 20 more then you get to write your tweets. Spend some time reflecting on what you want your twitter Bio to say about you. And asking for money is not how it should reflect on you and/or your firm.

Website URL

Remember this link from yesterday’s post. First of all, why would anyone want to use MySpace as their twitter landing page. If you don’t have a website or Blog, first of all shame on you. However, I know there are some of you who don’t. And if you don’t, don’t use MySpace as your twitter landing page. Get on LinkedIn or Facebook and set up your profiles there. And if you are more comfortable with Facebook, set up a “Page” for your firm on Facebook. This will be a lot better than using MySpace.

However, if I had my choice and I wish I could get everyone to do this, set up a twitter landing page. This is a dedicated page on your blog or website which people will find when they click on the URL link in your twitter profile. If you want an example of what I am talking about, you can visit my twitter landing page. This is a great opportunity for you to connect with those who are checking you out on twitter. Don’t waste it by making a really bad first impression.

Tweets and Updates

Remember these tweets:

One of the quickest ways to gain no friends and followers on twitter is to start selling me something before you even give me anything. In fact, out of 14 tweets in the first day the profile firm was on twitter, only 3 of them were not trying to sell me something.

Twitter is a great way to network and connect with like minded people. It is a great opportunity to become known as a source of relevant information. It is not a place you should start trying to sell something before you give something. Remember one key “rule” of twitter, give way more then you ever expect to receive in return. Don’t, let me repeat that, DON’T come on twitter in the first freaking day and start SPAMMING me with tweets that you are so freaking wonderful I just have to call you now so I can kick some insurance company’s butt.

You should come on twitter with the goal of interacting and learning from those you follow and who follow you. And what you tweet about is a key to how this will work for you. In other words, give me a reason to follow you. And a reason to follow you is that I might learn something and/or want to connect with you.

Will you get business from twitter, yes. I have seen other lawyers for example on twitter ask for someone they might refer a case to from across the country. If you are interacting and learning from others, those same people are going to remember you and mention to this attorney that you are the person they should contact to give this referral to.

Doesn’t that sound a lot better than saying:

Give, give, give, and give again

Twitter can be a great tool to grow and promote your business and/or professional service firm with. It can also be a quick way to really wreak what you are trying to do online in building your reputation. Don’t make a bad impression by how you use twitter. Make a great impression by how your interact, connect and participate in the conversations taking place on twitter.

Please leave your comments on this post so we can keep the conversation going.