Social Media Overload? These 4 Tools Can Help
Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Pinterest. LinkedIn. Google+.
There are more, but those are the big six social networks that you should be aware of in 2014. But you don't have time for that, do you? You're a lawyer, not a tween with a smartphone. Between practicing law, abusing and interrogating associates, and dropping knowledge in blog posts, you don't have time to spend all day on Fapintwistagramin+.
Fair enough. These tools should help.
BufferApp (Posting)
A personal favorite, which we've reviewed on our Technologist blog, BufferApp allows you to schedule posts for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ throughout the day. Plus, their browser extension allows you to share any webpage, such as a brilliant blog post, with a single click.
Free accounts come with a limit of 10 posts in your buffer, which should suffice for some pre-coffee tweeting.
Social Mention, Google Alerts, and TalkWalker Alerts (Listening)
Want to know when people are besmirching your good name?
Social Mention is a search engine that combs public social media posts, especially those from Facebook, and even measures the sentiment of the posts (positive, neutral, negative).
Name-based searches can give mixed results. For example, a few awesome people have commented on my blog posts on Facebook lately, but there are also a lot of posts on genealogy and a man who shares my name who recently passed (my condolences).
Either way, if someone is ranting about your services, this is a good, free way to hear about it.
Google Alerts is a similar and widely-used service that will email you alerts whenever someone mentions a specified query, such as "Bob Smith Attorney," on the web, though in my experience, TalkWalkerAlerts is a superior, and also free service.
Klout (Reputation)
We did an in-depth profile of the social media reputation service yesterday on our Technologist blog, but the short version is this: much like a credit score grades your finances, Klout is intended to be your social media metric.
A score below the 30s means you are a nobody. Forties and fifties are mediocre. Sixties and above are the top-tier. Justin Bieber is a 100 (people frequently message him, tweet about him, etc.).
Got a favorite tool that we've missed? Tell us about it on Facebook.
Related Resources:
- 5 Grammar Mistakes Lawyers Make (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- Two Alternatives for TweetDeck (RIP) That Will Tame Twitter (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
- Small Firm Tech To-Do List for 2014 (FindLaw's Strategist Blog)
