Twitter: where it's @

I haven't got time for any of this social media stuff" is something I regularly hear. Of course, doing the work will always come first - no clients, no firm - but few people are so busy that they have zero time for marketing. The trick is first to make sure your time is wisely invested and second that your effort has the best chance of producing a positive outcome i.e. to win work, differentiate the practice and raise your profile.

Twitter may not be everyone's first choice - for a start, the demographic/client link may be a bit off - but private client lawyers have interesting, often deeply touching stories to share and Twitter, to me, seems an obvious place to do so.

I accept that having only 140 characters at your disposal you will have to back it up with a blog or link to a website, but it seems to me with more and more people defaulting to Twitter for news and information, to ignore it misses a huge opportunity.

Finally, the key message is to consider how you can earn attention. If all you do is broadcast - "look at us" - it's unlikely you will grow your following beyond a few non­influential followers.

Below are my initial top 10 guidelines for law firms. It's just a foundation and it is up to you to consider what works best for you and your practice, but I do recommend that you have something written down before engagement starts.

• Check the firm's IT, HR, social media policies (if they exist) or at the very least your contract of employment and staff handbook. More firms are looking at relaxing their rules for engagement. Don't score an own goal of going against an express rule that forbids the use of Twitter in firm time, where you either set up a firm account or immediately start tweeting as if you are doing so on behalf of the firm.

• Assuming you have the go­ahead to use Twitter, make sure you have time to engage with the platform. I use "engage" deliberately because it is not a case of sitting at your computer and bashing out a series of tweets and expecting that to be the end of the story. Twitter followers expect engagement: a two­way process. And don't forget a lot of these folk may not be clients, in profile, type or interest.

• I am not saying you cannot block those people that are hell­bent on spamming you or sending inappropriate messages, but if someone sends a message to you or comments on something that is relevant to your reason for engagement on Twitter, you will be expected to say something, limited to 140 characters.

• Be transparent and if you are allowed to use a Twitter account that bears your initials and also the firm name (my preferred choice for those firms that do allow their staff to use the medium), then talk as you would normally do so.

• Don't be overly formal and use appropriate language. Unfortunately, the ubiquitous disclaimer won't fit into 140 characters although you may have decided in your Twitter profile to have something that makes it clear you are not seeking to or giving legal advice and nothing you say should be relied on, etc.

• Post something that has meaning and does not link automatically to your firm's website or latest published newsletter. How about a piece of news from a relevant site (clarifying the source) or retweeting a blog you like that has depth of content to your followers and those that you think may wish to follow you?

• Never represent yourself or the firm in a false or misleading way. I tend to adopt a pause button with a lot of my tweets. I like to pause and look at the tweets for at least 10-20 seconds before I hit the send button and in that way I have given myself a tool to moderate what I say.

• It is perfectly acceptable to reference your firm's blog, particularly if you have written it, but don't sit there for the next two hours shouting out the blithe message: "My new blog post just up" or "Just in case you missed it, here is my latest blog post". That's fine once or twice but not every time. Don't broadcast.

• If you want to tweet about the competition, be very careful. It may bite back. I would speak to someone internally before you go near this area.

• Please respect your clients' confidentiality, privacy and rights. Don't comment on current cases that you or the firm are involved in. I know this sounds obvious but you may find yourself contacted by a client. In those circumstances, you should seek at the very earliest opportunity to set up an offline discussion or communicate via email or as a last resort I would send a direct message on Twitter. Remember that content on Twitter will be around for a long time.

• Respect your audience. Don't become personal.

• Try to add value.

Julian Summerhayes is a non-practising solicitor who runs a business development consultancy

More about using social media in the private client space here

Photo credit: Marisa Allegra Williams