Archive for the ‘social media strategy’ Category

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.

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.

Facebook has a new feature that allows you to repost other users’ shared items, much like the ‘retweet’ function everyone uses on Twitter. To try it, just go to a friend’s posted item in your news feed, click “share,” and you’ll see a “via [your friend’s name]” (with an option to remove it). Once shared, the item will appear on your profile, with a ‘v’ia link that points to your friend’s profile. Your friends will also see the item in their News Feeds, creating a viral loop, much like ‘re-tweeting:’

This function has many good uses: for example, if you are a fan of a page that keeps you abreast of changing estate planning laws, you could ‘share’ a relevant post of that page with all of the friends and fans of your own page, thereby educating your audience on a matter important to them.  Or, you could just repost a review of a good book or blog post someone else shared, giving your client base a chance to get to know you on a more personal level and strengthening your relationship.  Test it out and see for yourself the response you receive!