| I stumbled onto Twitter as a marketing tool | | | | hour or two in response to that one post. That |
| completely by accident. I was looking for a way | | | | was fun but, more importantly, it made me realize |
| to promote a book I'm working on, and a friend | | | | the power of Twitter. Here I was with fewer |
| suggested that I do two things: Start a blog and | | | | than 100 followers, and my message spread well |
| get on Twitter. | | | | beyond that circle. |
| "What is Twitter? I don't get how will it help me | | | | Week 5: My first corporate client "Does anybody |
| promote my book to tell people what I am having | | | | know an attorney that practices contract law?" |
| for breakfast," I replied. "It would take me too | | | | "Yeah, that's actually what I do, what do you |
| long to explain, just try it out," he said. | | | | need?" I replied suspiciously. "My friend needs |
| What follows here is a week-by-week review of | | | | some legal advice about a contract, could you talk |
| how I learned that Twitter can be an important | | | | to her?" "Sure, send me a direct message with |
| business-development tool for lawyers and law | | | | her contact into." After exchanging e-mail |
| firms. | | | | addresses and a few phone conversations, my |
| Week 1: Signing up The sign-up at Twitter. com | | | | firm had a new client. All our communication was |
| was just like everything else. I needed to add a | | | | exchanged over the phone and e-mail, and the |
| picture but luckily, I was still holding on to the | | | | retainer and payment were paid by credit card. It |
| picture used for my attorney bio, so I uploaded | | | | was so easy, it made me realize that maybe |
| that. A bio. Usually I leave them blank, but this | | | | there was more to Twitter than just promoting |
| one was limited to 150 characters, so I wrote: | | | | books. Maybe I could use Twitter to find clients. |
| "Father, husband, attorney, and aspiring author. | | | | You see, Twitter functions like a giant cocktail |
| Follow me as I work to get published." I was | | | | party where thousands of conversations are |
| pretty happy with myself, it was a perfect bio | | | | going on simultaneously. You can listen in on any |
| for someone trying to get published. After I | | | | conversation you please, you just simply need to |
| finished my profile, Twitter suggested that I start | | | | "follow" the individuals having the conversation. |
| following a bunch of famous people like Ashton | | | | Unlike two other social networking sites, Facebook |
| Kutcher and Shaquille O'Neal. Was it the real Shaq? | | | | and Myspace,you don't need to be accepted as |
| Turns out it was. These famous people have | | | | someone's "friend" to listen in on their |
| almost 80,000 people following them, and the | | | | conversation. For example, if MC Hammer and |
| truth is I just didn't get it. | | | | Vanilla Ice (both of whom are on Twitter) are |
| Week 2: I start following people I needed help | | | | having a Twitter conversation, then you may |
| finding some publishers to submit my manuscript | | | | listen in if you have a Twitter account- you can |
| to, so I used the Twitter search function. I | | | | even try to add your own clever enough |
| searched using the term "publisher" and turned up | | | | comment or question to be included in their |
| about 50 results. So I started following all 50 of | | | | discussion. |
| them. Some were small publishers, some were | | | | Week 6: Automated searches Using the free |
| big, but the cool part was that they were all | | | | program Tweetdeck, I set up searches so that |
| posting stories and links all about writing and | | | | every time someone mentioned "contract law" on |
| publishing, one of the articles was "10 Things | | | | Twitter, from anywhere in the world, their post |
| Every Author Should Do Before Submitting a | | | | was filtered through a search that arrived |
| Manuscript." This was good stuff, exactly the | | | | instantly on my computer. I soon learned how to |
| types of things I needed to learn in my situation. I | | | | create an alert that would send me an e-mail or |
| also realized that, as I started following people, | | | | text message any time the term "contract law" |
| the majority of them followed me back. Now I | | | | was mentioned in a Twitter post. That allowed |
| had more than 30 followers. I was feeling pretty | | | | me to respond in real time. Return for a second |
| good. | | | | to our cocktail-party analogy. Here you are at this |
| Week 3: A fortuitous connection Some total | | | | gigantic cocktail party, and you overhear a |
| stranger was asking about my book, this was | | | | conversation about contract law. "Excuse me, I |
| great. So I explained my book to him, and we | | | | couldn't help but overhear you are looking for a |
| chatted back and forth using Twitter's Direct | | | | corporate attorney. Could I recommend |
| Messages, which are kind of like an e-mail | | | | someone? And like that, a new relationship is |
| message or private messages on Facebook. He | | | | created that is specifically targeted. Here are a |
| was an author who has self-published in the past, | | | | few of the comments I saw posted on Twitter |
| and he gave me the phone number of one of the | | | | after setting up my search: "I urgently need an |
| gurus of self-publishing. Out of the blue, I call this | | | | immigration attorney, can anybody recommend |
| guy up, and he takes an hour and talks to me. He | | | | one?" "My friend is getting a divorce, can anybody |
| gives me advice and shares a few contacts with | | | | recommend an attorney?" "Does anybody know |
| me. | | | | a NY attorney I can ask a malpractice question |
| Week 4: Spreading the message When someone | | | | to?" |
| shares an interesting link to an article on Twitter | | | | Week 7 and beyond: A world of opportunity I |
| or shares a good quote, it gets repeated. This is | | | | have been on Twitter for 14 weeks. I have a |
| called a "retweet." I noticed that whenever I | | | | large following now, but more importantly, I have |
| posted articles, they never got retweeted. Why | | | | learned some amazing tools that are helping me |
| not? Because they weren't interesting enough. So | | | | to expand my zone of influence beyond just |
| I started paying attention to the types of articles | | | | Western New York. Every day I see potential |
| that were retweeted. Usually they announced | | | | leads- some of which I pass on or have to ignore |
| breaking news or shared really interesting content | | | | because they are outside of my area of |
| on blogs, so I started trying to think of something | | | | expertise. There are some 12 million users of |
| to post on my blog that might garner some | | | | Twitter now, mostly highly educated people in |
| interest. I posted a satirical response to an article | | | | urban centers, and they are talking about every |
| one of my buddies from law school posted, and it | | | | single legal topic imaginable. My recommendation |
| spread like wildfire, or at least like a small brush | | | | for any lawyer? You just need to jump in and |
| fire. I had 170 unique visitors to my blog in just an | | | | give it a try. |