Twitter for Lawyers: Best Practices for Crafting Compelling Tweets

In a world that moves a million Tweets per minute, it’s important to make every word you Tweet count. There’s no room for mincing sentences and certainly no room to ramble.  There’s also no denying that the Twitter platform is a powerhouse tool that can help your business soar. Even the reluctant attorney must admit that Twitter for Lawyers can help a law practice grow, but only if it’s utilizing compelling Tweets.

Crafting Compelling Tweets

Twitter’s been around for a while now, and the pros have learned how to make an impact through this medium. Following the practices below will help you become an effective Twitter user who knows how and when to craft compelling Tweets.

Short and Sweet

When using Twitter, remember, the shorter your Tweets, the sweeter they will often be. Some recommend keeping your character count under 140, which was the original maximum limit for Tweets until Twitter extended it to 280.

However long you make it, keep in mind that Twitter data analysis shows that longer Tweets tend to get retweeted more than shorter ones. According to a study by Track Social, the sweet spot for a Tweet to be retweeted falls between 71 and 110 characters. 

However, the data also shows that the shorter a Tweet, the higher the engagement. Tweets of less than 100 words have a 17% higher interaction rate than longer ones. So you probably want to shoot for 95 to 100 characters for your Tweets. 

Offer Up Your Expertise

Attorneys possess a lot of specialized knowledge, and the Twittersphere is always hungry for information. One of the best ways to engage an audience on Twitter is to offer up some of that expertise. Information is what it’s all about Twitter for Lawyers, after all.

Now, you may not want to hold forth about your latest law journal submission, but some well-chosen nuggets of useful or interesting information can keep followers coming back to your feed. 

If you’re an insurance lawyer like Maryland attorney Alex Brown, that might mean tweeting about the implications of a government emergency declaration for insurance payouts. Your audience may not know that claimants will have an easier time dealing with, say, damages from civil unrest if the authorities have acknowledged the scale of the problem.

Sharing expertise doesn’t mean only offering your original thoughts, either. As an attorney, you’re likely already reading constantly, whether it’s about new regulatory developments or the latest appellate decisions. A quick summary and a link to what you’re reading to educate yourself can help your audience learn something, too, and make your Twitter feed an indispensable resource.

Use Images

We live in a world of words and images, each more effective when used together. Taking the time to add an image to your Tweet is a proven way to hook readers into your message effectively. 

Make sure you use high-quality images that compliment your Tweet and don’t overshadow the words you’ve carefully penned. 

Strive to Be Interactive

Twitter is more than just a one-way method of communication. You’ve got a powerful interactive tool at your fingertips. When readers start interacting with your Tweets, your practice’s exposure will increase and lead to more business leads. 

To make your Tweets more interactive, invite your audience to respond to questions or concerns on specific topics and issues. You can even Tweet a survey or poll — anything that will keep your readers engaged. The key is to make some of your Tweets open-ended, inviting participation.

Twitter for Lawyers, you have the power to move people. With a little understanding of how to craft compelling Tweets, you can begin to increase your exposure and grow your client base with only a few simple strokes of the keyboard.