Today we are going to discuss the best way for a legal professional to create a Twitter profile. Twitter is only one aspect of Social Media that Legal Professionals need to master. My Project Social Media presents my thoughts regarding the impact of social media marketing on the practice of law. See my page to for more information.
The best way for a legal professional to create a Twitter profile
Creating a Profile
On your new account click on the icon that looks like a gear.
Select: Settings
In the right hand column, select Profile.
• Photo: Up load a picture of yourself. You need to demonstrate to the twitter world that you are a real person. Everyone is more accepting of a bad picture and more likely to follow you if an icon.
• Header: Next upload an interesting picture for the background. Try to make it relevant to some of your interests. Don’t leave it blank or use a default template. Be creative. You might as well look good while using the service. Do look professional. Keep it to something you are interested in or one of your favorite locations.
• Name: this is the name that will be displayed.
• Location: this information is static. I picked San Francisco because it is easily recognized through out the world. This is different that allowing twitter to broadcast your present physical location.
• Website: enter the URL of your personal or firm website. You want people to click through to your website.
• Bio: Twitter gives you 160 characters to describe who you really are. Spend some time developing this and making it as interesting as possible. Twitter bios are indexed on major search engines. Therefore include keywords in your bio that your practice would like to rank for on Google, Bing, Etc. Check up on other interesting people to see what they have done in their bios for ideas that you can use in yours.
• Facebook: by clicking this you all twitter to post your tweets on your Facebook page. I choose not to do this. I use twitter for business therefore some things I post on Facebook I don’t want to be seen by potential business associates. I may change my mind in the future.
Next select Account:
Here is where:
• You can change your username. Keep it as short and simple as possible. When people retweet, the number of character’s in you user name will count towards the 140 limit. You want them to retweet.
• And email address. This is where Twitter will send notifications.
• Click on language to see the many options. Select the one you use for your clients. If you conduct business in different languages, you might need multiple Twitter accounts, one for each language.
• Make sure the proper time is selected.
• Here also, you can select country.
• You can request that sensitive media will not be display. Sensitive usually means sexually explicit. Don’t forget the professional responsibility issue of moral turpitude. Just don’t do it at all.
• You call also request a copy of every tweet you ever posted. This makes life easy for eDiscovery.
Next selection: Security and privacy:
• Login verification: This is the start of two step verification process of logging into Twitter. To log in will require you to have a phone available to receive the extra pass code. The default is the one step password. If this was my personal brokerage account, I would tolerate the two step process, but I am no ready for it on twitter. If I had been hacked, I might change my mind. I’ve taken the default.
• Password Reset: Again this is more helpful and useful security.
• Photo tagging: I have not had a problem of people tagging me in inappropriate photos. At a lawyer, I usually avoid potential problems. Again, I may change my mind in the future.
• Tweet Privacy: One of the reasons you are on twitter in the first place is to gain new clients. Locking them out is not a good idea. Keep your tweets professional and let the world see them.
• Tweet Location: I personal do not want the entire world to know I am on the golf course on Tuesday morning. I also do not want the world to know I am meeting with a new client at a location that should not be disclosed. You have the ability that if locations were previously attached to tweets, they can be deleted.
• Discoverability: This can be useful in allowing people that want to follow you on Twitter, to search for you by the email address you have given Twitter.
• Personalization: Twitter at some point has to make a profit and this is how they do it. They are analyzing you information, followers, persons you follow and yours and their tweets, and then presenting products and services that might be of interest.
• Promoted Content: This is the same reason Twitter uses personalization.
Now the Password:
This selection gives you the opportunity to change your password. It will force you to create a strong one. 123456 and PASSWRORD will be forbidden. Historically, these have been very popular passwords in the technology field.
Mobile Setting:
With this setting you are able to add your smart phone or other device to your account so that you can receive continuous tweets. Personally, I do not have this activated. I do no believe that I should be reviewing tweets all day long. This is especially true, when I am trying to use social media with the minimum amount of time.
Email Notifications:
With this selection you are able to control the amount and type of notification you can receive via email. Without email notifications you would have to continuously monitor Twitter to see what might be happening to your tweets and retweets. I keep all the notification actively sending me email. That way I can quickly respond and communicate to anyone that has commented, retreated, mentioned me in a tweet, and/or one of my tweets is marked at a favorite.
Web Notifications:
This is the same as email notification except it is to your browser when you are logged on to it.
Design:
This selection is the proper place to set up a theme, or create your own. This is the background picture for your twitter account. I prefer to create my own. It is therefore more original and unique. If you have a theme (picture) that would look good repeating throughout your account, then tile it. Otherwise, most users do not use the tile option.
Apps:
Apps or Applications (really small computer programs) are developed by third-parties apart from Twitter.com or Twitter’s official mobile apps, and that is used to access Tweets and other Twitter data. They are very useful in helping you use the same content across different social media platforms. Simply put, you can tweet something and have it automatically listed on your Facebook and Linkedin accounts. This saves typing besides logging on and off the various social media.
Widgets:
These are custom computer programs that manipulate tweets on your account. I currently don’t use any and they are beyond the scope of this blog.
**Why the picture of flowing water? Twitter is a constant flow of information and communications.
About the Author: Ken Strongman (www.kpstrongman.com) has years of experience and a growing national reputation as a mediator and arbitrator. He has successfully resolved more than a thousand disputes in the fields of construction defects, real estate, intellectual property, and employment. He is also a Mediator and Arbitrator for FINRA.
© 2020 Ken Strongman. All Rights Reserved. Please do not copy or repost without permission.