Twitter Do's and Don'ts

This is what I have been waiting for.

A comprehensive list of things for lawyers to do and things not to do on Twitter. The cultural norms of what is acceptable (and wise) behavior in the Twitterverse and what is not.

Law firm SEO guru Steve Matthews has written an excellent article titled Lawyer Twitter Practices: 29 Do's and Don'ts. Aside from losing 30 minutes of my life spent researching the proper spelling of "do's and don'ts" (which apparently involves not putting an apostrophe at the end of either word, even though it makes dos look like a computer operating system name), I found this article to be a quick read and utterly packed with useful tips on how lawyers should handle Twitter. It is a great and practical complement to the recent article by Jordan Furlong on Twitter that I referenced here.

You should definitely read the article in full, but here are a few of Steve's points that I really like:

Do:

• Do start by replicating your offline network on Twitter. There’s a much greater likelihood that people you already know in real life will follow you back. (#1)
• Do keep a balanced approach when demonstrating your professional and personal characteristics; don’t veer too much in either direction. (#9)
• Do use your real name as your username, the one that people know you by. Your name is your brand, after all!There is SEO value in Twitter only insofar as it can help extend the reach of your content and build a network — there’s no juice in the links you post or the URL in your profile. (#12)

Don't:

• Don’t follow more than 100 people than are following you. (#1)
• Don’t tweet more than 10 times a day or more than five times an hour. (#3)
• Don’t feel compelled to answer the question “What are you doing?” – but don’t worry if you occasionally are. (#4)

I still am not buying the "Twitter is river" metaphor that Steve is selling, but he's wearing me down with his librarian logic and innate Canadian politeness. Maybe I will concede it is a babbling brook.

Gotta go follow some of Steve's advice myself, hope you do the same!

Comments

[Mital]

Maybe it goes without say, but I think it's worth mentioning that lawyers and law students on Twitter:

Do be mindful of the diverse audience that could potentially read your posts (friends, even enemies or adverse parties, family, colleagues, employers...)

[Erik Mazzone]

That's a good point, Mital. Once you publish, it's out there in the ether. Not only could it be read by all those diverse audiences you mentioned, but it could be read by them a long time after it was initially published.

Thanks for the comment and thanks for stopping by.

[Courtney]

I think that Twitter is not a river or a brook. It's a running toilet that someone needs to go "tap" the handle on.

[Erik Mazzone]

You must have it confused with its similarly-named microblogging, social media cousin, Sh*tter. :)

Thanks for stopping by and for the comment, Courtney!