Twitter for Professionals – How to get the most of 140 characters

What should lawyers and professionals be tweeting? As I was preparing to write this article, my weekly LinkedIn newsletter landed in my inbox.  It included an article on 11 Professionals to Follow on Twitter. If these professionals were worth following, they had to be doing something right. What are they doing that the rest of us could learn from?

Many of these professionals posted news stories, personal opinions, words of appreciation to their peers, and advice for their followers.

Ok, good place to start, but those 140 characters aren’t going to write themselves.  So, let’s get started.  Below are 10 tips for Twitter:

1. Write, then edit – Start with writing your full message, and then edit it to meet the character limit.   This often requires multiple rounds of editing, but by considering your audience and the message you are trying to deliver first, you remained focused on the most important elements of your communication.
2. Share links – Share links and commentary about developments and trends that will be of interest to your followers.
3. Ask questions  – This is a great opportunity to solicit feedback directly from those who are likely to interface with your business.   What would your stakeholders, potential clients and partners think?  Ask them.
4. Respond to your followers – When someone posts something that overlaps your area of expertise, reply with your opinion, support, or advice.
5. Re-tweet – If you encounter a tweet that interests or inspires you, share it. You can check out this article on how to re-tweet with adding a comment.
6. Share your blog posts – If you blog, share a link to your most recent article.  You can set up Twitter to automatically share your blogs posts if time is an issue.
7. Share photos – We all know that a photo is worth more than 140 characters, so use it to your advantage.
8. Share information about yourself – Don’t forget that Twitter by its nature is a personal medium, and you should tweet about both professional as well as personal interests.
9. Minimize the use of abbreviations –  It is tempting, given the character limit, to use abbreviations whenever possible, but if the majority of your audience wouldn’t know what the abbreviation stands for, it is probably best to avoid it.
10. Share controversial information – Don’t afraid to be controversial or thought-provoking.  These types of posts often garner more re-tweets and new followers.