Using social media increases your exposure to potential clients. By sharing your content and actively engaging with others in the legal tech industry on social media, you start building the type of relationships that result in partnerships and sales.
But, that’s only if you engage with the right legal professionals on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
So, how do you locate social media influencers who can give your legal technology business the boost you need?
Below are several methods to find influencers on Twitter, and how you can apply those tips to LinkedIn and Facebook. I also share several tips for determining whether the accounts you find are actually worth following.
It’s difficult to know who to follow on social media without doing some research. But it’s clear that the more active you are on social media, the more exposure your business receives.
For social media to work, you have to engage in the actual “social” aspect.
You have to interact with others, leave thoughtful comments on their posts, ask questions, hit like, and share.
But, fake-social actions won’t cut it. Take action whenever it feels natural to do so — as long as it feels natural several times a day. I mean force yourself into action if you have to at first in order to become more comfortable and act naturally on social media.
Because nobody is ever going to call you up and say, “Hi, I saw you creeping on Twitter and think you’ll do an amazing job for us!”
Even if you feel awkward at first, being active among folks in the legal industry, particularly those in your specific niche, will make you feel comfortable soon enough.
Follow and engage with legal tech industry influencers.
As nice as that florist lady is, you could tweet with her all day long and never gain a shred a business. Follow and engage with legal technology industry influencers in order to connect with an audience of potential clients.
“Influencers” are members relevant to your legal niche, who post often and actively engage with a high number of followers. Major influencers are Hollywood stars, professional sports players, a Kardashian. These folks are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for one Tweet! They are not who you’re looking for.
The influencers you want to follow will have anywhere from 3K to 250K or more followers. Because the legal industry itself is a niche, and the specific area you focus on serving is an even smaller niche within it, worthy influencers won’t necessarily have millions of followers like teenage rock stars.
Influencers will be well respected in their legal field and highly engaged on the platform. Members with just a couple thousand or even fewer followers are fine to follow, too, of course, as long as they are relevant to your business, post frequently, and engage with their followers. They might not be “influencers” in the typical sense, but they can still be very influential. And they can be easier to build relationships with as you’re on the same “level,” so to speak. Years later, who knows where the things might lead?
Join in conversations with influencers, retweet and share their posts, and always @-mention them when you share their content. Hopefully, they’ll notice you exist and, at some point, give you exposure to their large audience of followers through a share or shout out of their own.
Join in conversations with influencers, retweet and share their posts, and always @-mention them when you share their content. Click To Tweet
Don’t follow accounts where the last tweet is older than 2-3 months.
Before you follow someone on Twitter, you want to make sure they’ve posted fairly recently. It’s highly doubtful that someone who last tweeted 2-3 months ago is an influencer. I may look at their tweet history to see if that’s their normal rate of activity or to see if they’ve left a post indicating they’ve moved to another account. I follow only if I fear I’ll miss out if I don’t.
When checking the date of their last tweet, make sure you scroll past the “pinned” tweet at the top (if there is one). Go by the dates on the second and third tweets.
You also want to scroll through recent posts to get a feel for the type of content they post and comments they make. I recently found what seemed like a great influencer for me only to discover she used her Twitter account as a political grandstanding stage — and not in a polite manner.
How to Find Who to Follow on Social Media On Twitter
While you’re on Twitter, search your keyword #hashtags specific to your legal industry niche. Use combinations of keywords. You can run searches that include the hashtag as well as ones that omit it.
- When you find someone you want to follow, check out who they are @-mentioning in their tweets to see if you want to follow those folks, too. You can hover over an @name until its bio appears.
- OFF TRACK BUT IMPORTANT: As you go through these motions, watch for new hashtags to use when you share future content. If you think one is interesting, click it to see what kind of activity it generates. If it looks like a fair number of relevant people are actively using it, add it to your list of hashtags to use.
- OFF TRACK BUT IMPORTANT: As you go through these motions, watch for new hashtags to use when you share future content. If you think one is interesting, click it to see what kind of activity it generates. If it looks like a fair number of relevant people are actively using it, add it to your list of hashtags to use.
- Go to your competitors’ Twitter pages and check out who they are following.
- As you follow new accounts, pay attention to Twitter’s suggestions on the top right of the screen for “Who to follow.” Those run the gamut from spot-on to totally ridiculous, so follow with caution.
Use Buzzsumo.com to find influencers.
Buzzsumo has an awesome feature to find influencers, even if it is limited on the free version. Use it by search keywords and phrases. BE FOREWARNED: The free version allows you only 3 searches a day and reveals only the top 10 or so on the list. But it works so well, you have to do it.
Get a Tweepi account.
It’s super simple and free to sign up for a Tweepi account. Look through the users it recommends you follow. When you see one you like, click “Add to follow list.” When you’re done reviewing its suggestions, click “Visit list on Twitter.” Then actually follow the accounts from there.
Finding Influencers On LinkedIn and Facebook
Look for the corresponding accounts for whomever you follow on Twitter and follow them or connect with them on Facebook and LinkedIn.
A word of caution: Follow as many people on LinkedIn as you want. But be selective in who you send a connection request to. LinkedIn is not nearly as open and freewheeling as Twitter. Don’t attempt to connect with people you don’t know or can’t strike up a genuine conversation with on LinkedIn. You’ll get in trouble with the LinkedIn authorities if too many members report that they don’t know you.
LinkedIn Unlocked: Unlock the Mystery of LinkedIn to Drive More Sales Through Social Selling is an excellent guide to finessing the art of connecting with potential clients and influencers on LinkedIn without coming across too eager or salesy. (This is not an affiliate link. I just like the book.)
LinkedIn Unlocked by @MelonieDodaro is an excellent guide to finessing the art of connecting with potential clients and influencers on LinkedIn without coming across too eager or salesy. Click To TweetMany businesses that aren’t on Twitter do have accounts on LinkedIn or Facebook. So really, it’s back to the drawing board. Perform the same keyword searches on LinkedIn and Facebook as you did on Twitter. Look up your competitors to see what they’re doing.
But there is one advantage LinkedIn and Facebook have over Twitter.
LinkedIn and Facebook offer relevant groups you can join. (On LinkedIn, find the “Groups” option under the “Work” tab to the right of your photo in the menu bar.) Once you’re signed up, review the member lists. Check the latest posts to see who is most active. Then do the reverse, and look those folks up on Twitter as well.
These Strategies Take Time and Effort
Finding good people to follow is not a one-time job. Social media is a fast-moving, ever-changing beast. After your initial run at these steps, rinse and repeat every 3-6 months to stay on top of things.
None of these methods is going to give you an automatically qualified list of 100 influencers to follow. You’d need to invest a lot of money (relatively speaking) into a paid solution for that. And unless you then also paid someone to run that solution for you, you’ll still need to put a fair amount of time into developing your preferences within it.
Like everything else in business, it’s a matter of which resource you want to part with least: time or money.
If you’re opting for free, you simply must slog your way through each process. To give you an idea of what kind of plodding work it truly is, it took me over two hours using most of the methods above to come up with about 15 Twitter accounts to follow.
But it is well worth the effort. As you begin to connect with more people in the legal industry, it’ll become easier to engage naturally. You’ll find it can be a lot like chatting over the sales counter or a cup of coffee. You’ll develop your own voice on social media and through it, clients and potential clients will relate to your business on a more personal level.
If you’re looking for more help with social media, try reading:
LinkedIn for Legal Tech Vendors: 8 Tips to Look Like a Pro (Even if You’re Just Starting Out)
Resources to Help Legal Tech Vendors Build a Strong Social Media Strategy
And of course, please feel free to connect and hit me up on LinkedIn and Twitter any time!