Law firms begin advertising on Twitter : Reputation and relationships?

Law firms have begun to advertise on Twitter. Below is a screen shot of my Twitter home page from Friday depicting the ‘Promoted’ Twitter acount of Strasburger & Price (@Strasburger), a full-service Texas law firm founded in 1939 known nationally for its litigation and business capabilities. Businesses, law firms included, may advertise on Twitter in three ways.

1. Promoted Tweets. Allows you to extend the reach of your Tweets to a broader audience.
2. Promoted Trends. Allows you to feature a trending topic at the top of Twitter’s trends list.
3. Promoted Accounts. ‘Turbocharge’ your follow rate to build a strong base of Followers.

Strasburger is advertising via a ‘Promoted Account.’ Twitter bills promoted accounts as a way to quickly scale a follower-base of advocates and influencers for your brand.

Whether you are gearing up for a big product release or looking to expand your online presence, building a strong base of engaged Twitter followers who share and amplify your messages can help your marketing take off. Following on Twitter is one of the strongest signals of online affinity. These are people who have indicated an active interest in your brand and who want to hear more from you. The Promoted Account is featured in search results and within the Who To Follow section. Who To Follow is Twitter’s account recommendation engine and identifies similar accounts and followers to help users discover new businesses, content, and people on Twitter. Your Promoted Account appears in this section for users who have been identified as most likely to have interests similar to your account. Promoted Account campaigns can be geo-targeted at the country level and at the DMA level within the U.S. (emphasis added)

With its promoted account, Strasburger could target Texas Twitter users or even users within designated market areas within Texas or elsewhere. Their promoted account would display in the ‘Who to Follow’ section for Twitter users whose interests are similar to Strasburger’s interests. That may not be the ideal audience if it’s other law firms. However, if Strasburger is ‘tweeting’ information and news relating to particular industries or areas of business, people within those industries and areas of business could see their promoted account. A few take aways for law firms:

• Strasburger & Price is a traditional law firm with a strong reputation. The firm has been named as one of the top companies to work for in Texas for four years and running. The firm likely gets its best work by word of mouth and relationships. The firm appears to look at Twitter and social media as a means of extending its reputation and growing relationships.
• We have not advertised on Twitter so I am unfamiliar with the costs. But it’s possible that by targeting your firm’s audience, the costs could be very low.
• Tweeting regularly by sharing other’s articles, posts, and tweets is likely to help Twitter better define an audience whose interests are similar and thus the target audience of your firm.

Though advertising on Twitter by a law firm may seem a little off to some, I think you’re going to see more and more of it. I am sure Strasburger is not the only law firm who has tried it already. 16% of the adult population using the Internet uses Twitter. That’s 30 million people. In addition, the vast majority of a law firm’s most important target audience (bloggers, mainstream reporters, association leaders, trade media) use Twitter and regularly share what is shared on Twitter and build relationships with others on Twitter. I am not promoting that lawyers and law firms drop everything and begin advertising on Twitter. I do think it’s something some firms may want to look at and that we’re going to see more of in the days ahead. After all Twitter is social, something that can grow a reputation and relationships.