Archive for the ‘Viral Marketing’ Category

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

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.

Fans are more likely to keep checking your Facebook page if you give them a motivation to do so. 

How about holding a contest?

One quick and easy idea is to put everyone who ‘fans’ your Facebook fan page during the month is entered into a raffle.  The prize could be an Amazon gift card or a great book?  Or how about a discount on estate planning?

Contests get attention.  Please love to win things.

Be sure to use all of the media outlets to announce your contest using all of the social media outlets that you use…Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, and others. Also, don’t forget to email your house list and put it on your blog.  This idea can be implemented quickly.  It’s easy.  Most importantly, it works!

So, you’ve created a Facebook fan page, you have a Twitter ID, a LinkedIn account….

Now what?

First, let me congratulate you on taking the first step toward harnessing the power of social media and social networking to grow your business.

Second, know that you are not alone in not knowing how to leverage this technology to grow your law practice.

Let’s start at the beginning….

Estate Planning clients ARE looking for you through social media.

If you don’t believe me, listen to this:

According to a 2008 Cone Business In Social Media Study, 60 percent of Americans use social media, and of those, 93 percent believe a company should have a presence in social media.

Or….

Twitter Traffic Explosion Being Led By 45-54 Year Olds

And more….

Twitter is older than it looks.

Convinced?

Oftentimes, after attorneys are convinced that they need to use social media marketing, they begin by creating a Facebook profile and fan page, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn account, and quickly become frustrated by the amount of time necessary to really be effective in using this technology. There is a good reason for this….they did everything backwards!

If you were building a house would you begin by hammering nails into wood?  Of course not!  You would start with a PLAN.

Social media marketing is just like any other significant effort.  You begin at the beginning!  Over the next few weeks my posts will walk you through the steps of a plan that I’ve developed that will help you determine exactly what applications you should be using and where you should be spending your time online.  The four steps involve:

1.            Identifying Your Audience

2.            Identifying Your Objectives

3.            Creating Your Strategy

4.            Executing Your Strategy

By following these four steps, you will maximize your efforts online and spend your time at quality sites, reaching your target audience.

So stay tuned!

Here’s an example of missing a huge opportunity to go viral.

During the September 16th Philadelphia Phillies baseball game, something incredibly viral happened.  Phillies fan Steve Monforto caught his very first foul ball and in his extreme joy handed it to his 3-year-old daughter – who promptly threw it back into the field!

Steve was visibly shocked, but in the end gave his daughter a huge hug as fans cheered wildly.  It was an incredible moment and would have received so much attention from fans and non-fans alike.

Yep, I said “would have.”

The video, which was captured by the MLB, was an immediate viral sensation. But instead of using this opportunity to promote the MLB, the Phillies, and generally improve the nature of the nation’s favorite past-time, they promptly embedded code into the video to disable the ability to share it.

Huh?

If they hadn’t pulled the “copyright card,” they would have received a tremendous amount of the right kind of attention. Heck, they may even have gained a few new baseball fans.

Oh well, guess I’ll do what I normally do when hubby is watching baseball…

surf YouTube!

I would share the video with you right here but since I can’t you will have to go here.

It’s worth the click though….enjoy!