Opinions of the reputation of law firms and attorneys are quickly formed based on what is being said online – in news outlets, journals, blogs, and social media. As social media has grown, more attention is being paid by law firms to enhance and manage their online reputations using social media. Twitter can be an especially useful PR and communications tool for law firms to promote their good news via tweets about awards, events, new laterals and partners, client alerts, byline articles and blog posts, for example.

However, Twitter is not just about self-promotion. With any social media strategy, you need to think about your clients and what information would be of the greatest interest to them. Here are three simple steps to using Twitter for PR:

1. Engage reporters. Follow reporters on Twitter to stay on top of stories and issues in which your attorneys could comment. For example, you can use Twitter’s direct message feature to pitch your attorneys as resources for interviews on issues that reporters are covering.
2. Strike a balance between firm news and industry news. In addition to firm news, you should tweet news articles and links to reports that impact the industries in which your clients’ businesses operate. Relevant articles don’t have to be ones in which your firm is mentioned or attorneys are quoted.
3. Monitor your firm’s brand. PR professionals are not only responsible for promoting the news of their firms, they are also responsible for managing their public reputations. You can use Twitter to manage your firm’s reputation by “listening” to online conversations about it using Twitter’s search tools and taking corrective action, if necessary, to inaccurate or negative tweets.

Twitter offers opportunities to build relationships and instant communication with the media and can help law firm PR professionals identify key influencers online. If your firm is thinking about Twitter or already has an existing account, make sure you are using it to not only promote your firm, but also to build relationships with key media and other influencers, provide useful information to your clients who are following you, and to manage your firm’s reputation. Following these tips will help you make the most out of Twitter and enhance your firm’s PR strategy.