By: Tess Rows –

The 140-character limit on Twitter offers your legal firm a bite-sized way to reach prospective clients and to reinforce branding efforts already in place. Understanding how to use this social media marketing venue to achieve the best results can help your firm boost its traffic and ensure the greatest visibility for your entire marketing campaign.

Here are five of the top 10 tips that can put real power behind your Twitter presence.

1. Provide Links

Including links to your firm’s home page, blog, Facebook and LinkedIn pages can help to boost traffic from Twitter posts. Tweeting without attaching a link to your law firm’s online presence is the equivalent of turning in homework without your name on it. Adding the URL to each of your posts is well worth the added characters and can significantly increase visits to your website.

Be sure to add Twitter “Follow” buttons and widgets to your website and any content you distribute online.

Also be sure to add your Twitter handle to your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, as well as Twitter directories such as LexTweet, Legal Birds, Twitter Fan Wiki and Twellow.

2. Tweet Often

Tweeting once or twice a week will allow your company to slip off the radar of even your most loyal followers. Resolve to tweet once or twice a day at minimum. Don’t be afraid to tweet about events, new legislation or added legal services offered by your firm. These announcements can help to build loyalty among followers and keep interest high in your ongoing Twitter posts.

3. Monitor

Keeping an eye on the online activities of your local and national competitors can provide you with insight on the current trends and most effective marketing strategies being used. This can allow you to engage the marketplace proactively to increase traffic and build your client base more effectively.

Monitor Twitter continually for two very important additional reasons. First, you’ll want to see what people are saying about you and your firm. Countering any negative comments immediately is critical to maintaining your reputation.

Second, use third-party tools such as Tweetreach,Twittermap, Bit.ly. Awe.sm, Google Analytics, Monitter, Tweeteffect, Hootsuite, ArgyleSocial, Sprout Social and Buffer to monitor the effectiveness of your Twitter activity. Knowing what is effective and what is not will help you to work more efficiently, increase your reach and improve your chances of attracting new clients and generating referrals.

4. Create, Collect and Disseminate Fresh Content

Just as Google and other search engines provide higher rankings for original and informative content, your potential clients will also appreciate news and information they can use. By posting a short tweet and providing a link directly to an interesting blog post or article, you can boost traffic to your blog site and can establish your firm as an authoritative voice on a wide range of legal matters.

Use Twitter and third-party search tools to generate lists of Twitter users who consistently produce inspiring, provocative and educational tweets or blogs relevant to your followers. Distribute these lists to build trust and position yourself as a thought leader in your area of expertise.

5. Retweet to Build Relationships

You can build mutually beneficial online relationships by following thought leaders in the legal field on Twitter and retweeting relevant posts from these experts. Retweeting items of interest can serve three important functions:

• Retweeting can help you to build a more cordial relationship with top performers in the field
• By retweeting interesting posts, you can acquire fresh content for your Twitter feed
• Retweeting can boost your follower count by attracting new viewers to your Twitter

These five strategies, along with those I’ll discuss in an upcoming post, will help your law firm optimize the time it spends on Twitter to increase new client traffic and generate referrals.