There is a new feature offered by Outlook and LinkedIn where, if you use Microsoft Outlook, you can now have more insight into the people with whom you email.  Basically, once you download the application, you will see a summary of the contact’s most recent LinkedIn activity, status updates, accepted connections and e-mails. You can sort these updates by news feed updates and RSS articles about this person; If you are not yet connected on LinkedIn, you can click “Add” to add them to your network.

This feature is a great way to keep closer tabs on your LinkedIn network, and is helpful in building your marketing lists, as well!

To learn more about this integration and to download the feature, click here.

As anyone who participates in social media knows, Twitter has a great capacity to educate and influence a large amount of people on a daily basis.  Businesses have definitely picked up on the effect Twitter can have on their bottom line, and, as an estate planning attorney, you should be tweeting regularly, reaching out to your target market.

There are some tools you can use to help maximize your Twitter use, and make sure you are following relevant people, and, more importantly, to make sure your tweets are reaching your relevant audience.  Below is a list of a few you might want to check out:

• http://www.twellow.com – Industry/keyword search directory
• http://wefollow.com/ – Find new followers based on your inputted keyword
• http://justtweetit.com/ – Find other “Tweeters” with similar interests
• http://mrtweet.com/ – Get relevant followers by recommending them and discover people relevant to your current needs
• http://www.socialwhois.com/ – helps you decide whether to follow someone or not
• http://whoshouldifollow.com/ – suggests people who are similar to those you already follow

With so many professionals using social media and posting articles, blogs, and ebooks today, part of your social media strategy should be making sure that nobody else is plagiarizing the work you submit online – and, also, that the work you submit is not already out there, so that you don’t get accused of plagiarism.  If you outsource any of your social media plan, having a tool to occasionally check what is being submitted under your name is especially helpful.  Check out www.copyscape.com, where you can enter search terms or your own blog page, for example, and see whether or not others are taking credit for your work.

You could also use that site as part of your online reputation management strategy.  What if someone has a running negative commentary regarding your blog or your practice?  You’d find such a site using a tool like CopyScape.  Consider implementing a site like this into your social media strategy, to protect the content you work so hard to produce.

A ‘Tweetup’ is an offline meeting of people who have met and organized on Twitter.  This is a great way to find other Twitter users in your area, who share your common interests.  Here’s an HR related tweetup I found in the San Diego area on http://twtvite.com/:

http://tweetup.meetup.com/ is another good site, because it draws users from the already popular meetup.com.  These sites can be a great tool to take your networking strategies to the next level.  You could organize a Tweetup with local financial advisors to establish a referral relationship, or hold a tweetup with local parent publications for marketing purposes, for example.  The possibilities are endless!

We found this great video that explains RSS (Real Simple Syndication) and wanted to share it with you.

Video Created by Commoncraft

If you would like to know more about RSS, feel free to send us an email.