The humble hashtag on Twitter has become one of the quickest and easiest ways for people on the internet to know what's going on right now in the world.  Only about a third of law firms are using Twitter at all, but the ones that are aren't always using hashtags on Twitter appropriately.  In this guide, we'll explore some of the best practices for creating a new hashtag on Twitter, or for piggybacking on an already-existing hashtag that someone else made.  

Tip #1: Don't Overstuff Hashtags on Twitter

One of the biggest mistakes that some law firms make when they first learn how to create a hashtag on Twitter is creating too many, all at once.  If you overuse hashtags on Twitter, you'll possibly alienate your audience and your posts may be viewed by many people as spam.

Instead, try to keep your posts to a single hashtag on Twitter.  In some cases, it could be useful to use two different hashtags on Twitter—for example, if you want to use one hashtag on Twitter that is trending right now and one that is unique to your brand—but never, ever more than two.  If you feel like this just isn't enough, make two or three separate tweets instead of using multiple hashtags.

Tip #2: Keep Your Hashtags on Twitter Short and Sweet

When you make a new hashtag on Twitter, it's obviously easier to find one that hasn't been taken if you're willing to make a “long tail” hashtag with a lot of characters.  The problem is that long hashtags on Twitter aren't as popular, in part because of the character limit of the website and in part because they're harder for users to remember.

Try to keep your hashtag on Twitter at ten characters or less whenever possible.  Also keep in mind that the more memorable your hashtags on Twitter are, the more likely it is that other people will pick up on them and start using them.  You will have better luck with a slightly longer, easier to remember hashtag on Twitter than one that is shorter but involves a long, tough to remember acronym.

Tip #3: Use Searches to Find Unique Hashtags on Twitter

By searching for a hashtag on Twitter before you use it, you can make sure that no one else is using that hashtag to market a different product or service.  This is critical, because you don't want your brand's message being diluted by the messages of other brands trying to use the same exact hashtags on Twitter.

If you find that the hashtag on Twitter you wanted to use has already been taken, then what?  Consider adding a few characters to it—like the abbreviation of your law firm, for instance, or just “law.”  Obviously, the exact characters you'll want to add to a particular hashtag on Twitter will depend on what your hashtag is.  Make sure that it's easy to remember, and it will be much easier for people to follow.

Tip #4: Find Hashtags on Twitter That Are Trending Now

You don't always want to use a unique hashtag on Twitter.  In some cases, you may want to use trending hashtags on Twitter to build up more business and make sure that you're bringing in a steady supply of new followers to your feed.  By doing some searches, you can find a hashtag on Twitter that is currently trending and would be likely to bring in new followers.

Pay special attention to hashtags on Twitter that include any kind of local term.  You're more likely to be able to build local Twitter followers (who will, in turn, be more easily able to refer new business your way) by using this type of hashtag on Twitter.  Similarly, hashtags that involve law or the legal industry are more likely to help you gain industry contacts on Twitter.  

Tip #5: Limit How Many Posts You Use Each Hashtag On

You don't want to overwhelm people who are looking for a particular hashtag on Twitter.  Whenever you develop new hashtags on Twitter, you should keep track of how many posts you're using a particular hashtag on.  If you use the same hashtag on Twitter more than four or five times in a day, you risk oversaturating your target market and being seen as spam.  No one wants to follow a Twitter user who routinely re-posts the same content or very close variants of the same content every hour.  Have respect for your customers and for the Twitter medium when you use a hashtag on Twitter.

Tip #6: Talk to People About Your Hashtags on Twitter

If you're really lucky, you might be able to get a totally memorable, totally self-explanatory hashtag on Twitter all to yourself.  However, those days are rapidly becoming a thing of the past—with so many users creating new hashtags on Twitter every day, it's harder and harder to find dictionary words and relevant, easy to remember topics that haven't been used.

Consider explaining your new hashtag on Twitter with a longer post (for instance, on your blog or in a publicly accessible Facebook post) that you also post a Twitter link to.

Tip #8: Don't Reinvent the Wheel

If you used a hashtag on Twitter a month ago that had a great track record of success, consider creating a variant of that hashtag or using the ideas that generated it to make a new one.  There's no reason to continually think of completely new hashtags when you can get quite a bit of mileage out of varying the old ones.  Always monitor the performance of these variants, and stop using them if they turn out to be ineffective.

You should also monitor blogs and other websites about Twitter marketing, so that you can find out what has been working for other firms like yours.  This will also help you stay up to date with the latest trends in searches so that you can maximize the return your Twitter account generates for your law firm.

Backlinking strategy wasn't always part of the web.  When Venable created the first law firm website in 1994, there was no way that they could have known the worldwide web would become so vital to lawyers.  What was a curiosity in 1994 and an example of real progressive thinking in 1998 has become absolutely vital, and now lawyers have to think not only of how to design their websites, but also how to get traffic.  With so many more lawyers online, you need a backlinking strategy to get to the top of search results.  In this guide, you'll find out the best backlinking strategy basics, and can use these as the foundation of your 2013 backlink building campaigns.

Old Backlinking Strategy—And Why it Stopped Working

Building backlinks became important when search engines started taking these statistics into account for ranking purposes.  When backlink building was considered a relatively new strategy, some search engine marketers started developing the best backlinking strategy of that time.  The problem was, many of the backlinking strategy ideas they developed made the internet worse even as they made their own marketing performance better.

Back then, it was fine to use tricks to bring up the number of backlinks you had.  The best backlinking strategy guides of even a few years ago would recommend strategies like using article marketing websites to copy the same article onto hundreds or even thousands of different websites, each giving a link back to your law firm.  After people figured out backlinking strategy techniques that worked, they could automate the entire process and just generate large-scale backlinking for any website about any topic at all.

The problem was, this made countless “zombie” websites that just reposted other content as a backlinking strategy.  These junk websites began to fill up people's search results, and Google and other search engines started making changes so that the best backlinking strategy would be one that emphasized quality instead.

How Backlinking Strategy Has Changed

As of 2012, you won't get very far using a lot of links on press release websites or article marketing sites.  That's because Google today wants you to use the best backlinking strategy for quality, rather than for the quantity of backlinks.

The way that Google has made it optimal to use quality link building strategies is by penalizing websites that are clearly using so-called “black hat” techniques involving purchasing large quantities of non-contextual links.  If you used strategies to artificially inflate your number of backlinks, you may find that they're now backfiring on you.  About 15 percent of websites have been affected by these changes.

Backlinking Strategy 2013 Basics: High Quality Links

Obviously, quality is a key aspect to the best backlinking strategy today.  If you don't have a backlinking strategy that emphasizes quality first, you're going to be caught by Google's over optimization detection algorithms.  Even if you think you've found a loophole, remember that searches don't stay the same forever.  If your loophole is exploited by other people (or even if it's not), Google can find it and close it so that your backlinking strategy no longer works.

High quality links are typically those that come from a prestigious (.edu, .gov) top-level domain or that are from websites with a high Google PageRank.  The best backlinking strategy will have a comprehensive plan for getting these high quality links whenever possible.  If your backlinking strategy involves using primarily or exclusively low PageRank links, it's time to reconsider: this strategy is likely to backfire in the form of big rankings penalties.

Backlinking Strategy 2013 Basics: Social Media Fluency

Today, getting the best quality links means that you'll need to talk social.  If you're not already familiar with social networks, you need to get there quickly.  The best backlinking strategy today incorporates social network websites and social bookmarking sites, and requires you to have a broad and deep knowledge of how to use these websites.

Get started by reading up on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and starting your profiles there.  Once you're using social media on a daily basis, you'll be well on your way to using the best backlinking strategy.  These websites tend to give you high PageRank backlinks that will make your search rankings soar more quickly than they would by using almost any other technique.

Backlinking Strategy 2013 Basics: Avoid Purchased Backlinks

If you want to take risks with your website, try making an app or doing something flashy—don't take risks by buying backlinks in direct violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.  If you do, Google will feel free to de-list your website or punish it in search rankings.  Because over 80 percent of legal clients use web searches to find their next lawyer, this will destroy your competitiveness in today's legal world.

The best backlinking strategy tips for 2012 and 2013 should not include anything about buying backlinks or automating spam backlinks.  If they do, you can safely disregard anything else they say about backlinking strategy.  

Backlinking Strategy 2013 Basics: Do Something Different

If you really want to have the best backlinking strategy today, you need to do something that is completely unique for your firm.  Going viral, by creating a video or app or other content that people re-post again and again, is the best way to get the largest number of backlinks quickly in 2012 and 2013.

You may want to hire a marketing agency with a track record of getting viral traffic if you're not sure about a concept that could go viral.  Agencies can help you decide what you want people to see and what messages your viral promotion should project, and then can help you get the link started.  With good quality viral content and a little bit of luck, you could build hundreds of backlinks the most old-fashioned way of all: by getting them organically from people who love your content.

Less than .1% of websites have a PageRank of 9 or 10, but those high PageRank backlinks are more valuable than any other type of link you can obtain.  The relationship between backlinks and Google's PageRank system can seem complicated, so this guide will break it down for you and help you understand the parts that really matter for law firms.  Keep reading to find out why it's a worse idea to buy high PageRank backlinks than to make them yourself, and why low PageRank backlinks can actually be worse for your website than no backlinks at all.

Why Your Law Firm Needs High PageRank Backlinks

In order to make sure that law firms were building backlinks from high quality, authoritative websites, Google started determining how much “link juice,” or authority, a particular website gives when it links to someone.  High PageRank backlinks give much more link juice, all else being equal, than low PageRank backlinks.

The reason that Google makes these distinctions isn't to privilege the most elite websites.  Instead, it's as a way of recognizing that usually, high PageRank backlinks mean that a website has established a certain amount of authority in its subject area.  Whether you buy high PageRank backlinks (we don't recommend it—see the section below about buying high PageRank backlinks), build them yourself, or get them organically, you will see your search rankings become higher after getting these links than low PageRank backlinks.

Sources for High PageRank Backlinks

Some of the best places to get great backlinks without needing to buy high PageRank backlinks are social networking and bookmarking websites.  You won't get low PageRank backlinks by circulating your message on Facebook or Twitter—instead, you'll get the kinds of high PageRank links that you might have thought you'd need to buy.

What's more, when you get links from these websites, you may be able to get additional low to mid PageRank backlinks simply through word of mouth.  This kind of viral spreading of your link is exactly why high PageRank backlinks are so valuable.  If you buy high PageRank backlinks instead of generating them yourself or having them created organically by interested web viewers, you will miss out on many of these benefits.

What Link Quantity Has to Do With High PageRank Backlinks

While it's true that low PageRank backlinks won't give you as much link juice as high PageRank backlinks when all else is equal, all else isn't always equal.  The biggest factor that can make a difference is link quantity.  When there are too many links on a single webpage, you'll get much less of the link juice from your high PageRank backlinks.  In fact, if there are hundreds of links on the webpage where your link is, you might receive less link juice from a very popular website than from low PageRank backlinks that you built organically on websites with few links.

Because of this, it's important to check how many other links are on any page where you create high PageRank backlinks.  If you buy high PageRank backlinks, make sure they aren't appearing in places where they'll have to share their link juice with too many other websites.

Can I Just Buy High PageRank Backlinks?

This is the first question of many marketing professionals after they realize how difficult it can be to get organic high PageRank backlinks.  While low PageRank backlinks can be quite easy to build just by talking to colleagues and friends, it's not always easy to build links on websites with more traffic and more name recognition.

However, even though it may be tempting to buy high PageRank backlinks, it's better not to.  For one thing, if you buy high PageRank backlinks, you'll usually be posting them in a pattern that appears non-organic.  These non-organic patterns can be detected by Google and lead to your website being penalized.  In the end, it might have been better for you to have low PageRank backlinks than to buy high PageRank backlinks.

What's more, you actually lose most of the benefits other than the search engine optimization benefits when you buy high PageRank backlinks.  When you grow your backlinks on your own, there's a much better chance that even a low or mid PageRank backlink will start your content going viral.  Purchased backlinks tend to look more like spam and have a much smaller chance of being picked up virally.

Are Low PageRank Backlinks Ever Worthwhile?

Before you decide to buy high PageRank backlinks, consider creating a new strategy for making more low and mid PageRank backlinks.  Why?  Because these links are actually the lifeblood of most law firm backlinking strategies that work, and they offer you the best chance of getting picked up organically by people who will post your content elsewhere.

For example, a low PageRank social bookmarking website like Metafilter might seem like it doesn't have enough users to make it as worthwhile as a StumbleUpon or Reddit.  However, upon closer inspection, you'll see that the users of this website are very likely to re-post content they find there on their own Facebook or Twitter accounts.  That kind of viral potential makes it much more worthwhile to build low PageRank backlinks.

Generally, you'll only be penalized for low PageRank backlinks if you're buying them and using automated techniques.  Organically built backlinks are unlikely to be penalized, no matter what website they're built on.

Finding New Places to Get High PageRank Backlinks

Since you probably won't buy high PageRank backlinks after reading this guide, how should you build them?  The best way is probably to start really using the internet to learn on a daily basis.  If you're keeping track of a dozen or more websites with frequently updating content relating to law or legal marketing, you'll find out the newest sources for building the best high PageRank backlinks possible.

There's no reason that your law firm should have exclusively high PageRank backlinks, though.  Keep trying to find mid PageRank backlinks as often as possible, which also helps Google to see that you're not gaming the rankings.

According to surveys, only 26 percent of law firms currently have a firm wide Twitter account that is being used for marketing purposes.  That's such a small number that any lawyer getting into the Twitter game still has a lot of room to define his or her brand and make a name for himself or herself.  One of the most difficult aspects of Twitter marketing to master is the hashtag.  Hashtags don't need to be mystifying—in this guide, you'll learn the basics of hashtagging and how to ensure that whenever you make a new hashtag, it's a winner with your audience.

What is a Hashtag?

On Twitter, hashtags are created by including the pound sign character (#) before a word or phrase.  They are used to designate a topic that a post is about.  For example, if you were tweeting something about the 2012 presidential election, you might use the hashtag #election2012.

Hashtagging doesn't just tell people what your post is about.  By clicking on a hashtag, you can see a realtime feed of all other people who are using the same tag.  Hashtags are one of the primary ways that people use Twitter and search for content that is relevant to their interests.

On some non-Twitter websites, hashtags will still be used to designate a topic, but won't be as easily searchable.  The audiences on some websites are friendly to the use of a hashtag to denote a topic, while others are hostile to it or accepting only when the hashtag is meant to be tongue in cheek.

How Can Hashtags Help My Law Firm?

By creating a hashtag that corresponds to a particular promotion you're having or a topic that you're discussing on Twitter or your blog, you can use hashtagging to help people identify other posts on the same topic.  In order to use hashtags this way, you'll need to make a new and unique hashtag that only is being used when you're discussing the promotion or topic—we'll talk more about how to create them in the next section.

You can also use hashtagging to help you get new clients or just build brand awareness.  By talking about hashtags that people are already using, you'll be able to get eyeballs on your tweets from anyone else who is searching for that hashtag.

Generally, you should be mixing it up: sometimes, use hashtags that you've created yourself, but don't be afraid to use a hashtag someone else made if you want to get in on a conversation.  If you overuse one hashtagging strategy or the other, you could miss out on viewers or even be regarded as spam.

Creating a Unique Hashtag

In order to make your own hashtags, you'll need to do some searches.  Usually, the first few things that you think of that are related to the topic you need a hashtag for will already have been used.  With so many Twitter users already and more joining every day, it's becoming very hard to find any dictionary word or simple phrase that hasn't been used at least a few times.

One of the great ways to get around this is to use your firm's abbreviation, if it has one.  Then, you can use the abbreviation before a dictionary word and you'll usually be just fine in terms of uniqueness.  What's more, if you're consistent about using the same abbreviation before topic keywords, it will be very easy for people to remember exactly what hashtag you're using and where any hashtagging with that acronym comes from.

Remember that hashtags should generally be kept as short as possible.  If your hashtag is too long, it will be more difficult to remember accurately and it's much more likely that people will change the tagging on your post.

Getting on the Bandwagon

The other hashtagging strategy that works is finding a hashtag someone's already using.  Usually, when you do this, you'll want to find hashtags that are actually trending, so that you can make sure you'll get the most bang for your buck.

If you want to get on the bandwagon for your hashtags, make sure that you're not jumping onto the wrong bandwagon.  Try to stick to topics that are at least somewhat related to the law.  This will help you define your brand and make sure that the followers you're building for your Twitter account are following you for all the right reasons.

Hashtagging Gone Right

The best users of hashtags are those who use a variety of tags, mix things up, and don't overuse the same exact hashtag with every single tweet.  A good tagger won't repeat content with the same hashtag a dozen times in a day.  Hashtagging works much better when each tag is confined to a few tweets daily from your law firm—mostly to catch people who weren't able to see your new post the first time it was posted.

If you do hashtagging right, it will seem to be a well integrated part of the post, rather than having a large number of hashtags at the end of a single tweet.

Hashtagging Gone Wrong

Several companies have seen firsthand how badly hashtagging can go.  If you try to jump on the bandwagon by using a popular hashtag, you may find that the hashtag you're using is being used in relation to a disaster or other negative event.  If this is the case, your use of those hashtags can be perceived as extremely insensitive and unprofessional.  Avoid using any hashtag that you know to be related to a disaster unless you have something to say about that specific issue.

If you're using more than one hashtag in a single tweet, you're also probably doing it wrong.  Two is the absolute highest number of hashtags you should use in order to avoid being seen as spam by other users.  You should also never use the same hashtag more than a few times a day, to avoid having people see identical or near-identical tweets.
 

It used to be significantly harder to create your own Twitter hashtag.  Just to make new Twitter hashtags, you'd have to follow @hashtags, and then start making your own.  Now, all you have to do is use the pound symbol (#) before a phrase, and it becomes a searchable Twitter hashtag all on its own without any further intervention from you.  Here are seven tips that can help you get the most out of Twitter hashtags when you're using them to market your law firm.

Tip #1: Use Twitter Hashtags Sparingly

Less can be more when you're making a new Twitter hashtag.  Sometimes, when people start learning how to use Twitter, they try to fill every last character in their message with additional Twitter hashtags.  However, this typically doesn't give the kind of results that you really want.  Why?  Because often, when people use several different hashtags in the exact same post, it seems more like spam than like a real message.  It looks—to put it bluntly—desperate.

Instead, use just one (or, very rarely, two) Twitter hashtags on each tweet.  If you want to use more than one Twitter hashtag, make a new tweet so that you can put one tag on one, and one on the other.  This will be a much more effective way to create a new Twitter marketing campaign than being repetitive and oversaturating your hashtag market.

Tip #2: Draw People In Using Trending Twitter Hashtags

One of the things people use a Twitter hashtag for is to see who else is talking about the same topic, and find out what is being said.  While you'll sometimes want to make Twitter hashtags that only you're using (more on that in just a minute), those unique hashtags won't usually attract new followers.

To get new followers, you'll want to find out what other people are talking about, and use the same Twitter hashtag they're using to tag your own content.  When you do this, anyone that is searching for people using those Twitter hashtags will find your post and be able to follow you.

If you're going to use this technique, it's imperative that you only use a Twitter hashtag that actually has some bearing on your post.  Using Twitter hashtags that aren't actually related to your post is a technique that is very unlikely to get you new followers—in fact, it's likely to make sure that people label you as spam, and stop listening very quickly.

Tip #3: Create Your Own Twitter Hashtags for Marketing Purposes

Having a unique Twitter hashtag when your law firm starts a new promotion can be a fantastic way to get the word out.  Start by searching Twitter hashtags for a few terms that are related to your promotion.  If you can find a combination of words relating to your promo that haven't yet been used as a Twitter hashtag by anyone else, you're in luck!  Otherwise, being unique is going to take some creativity.

Consider using a name or abbreviation from your firm as part of your Twitter hashtag.  That will usually make sure that there are no other Twitter hashtags that are identical to yours.  You can also simply create a new word, or make an acronym—just make sure that they're memorable enough that people will remember to keep using your new Twitter hashtags.

Tip #4: Notice Twitter Hashtag Trends as They Happen

You should be keeping an eye on Twitter hashtags, especially the ones that are currently trending.  If you aren't monitoring trending hashtags, it will be much harder to get the kind of new traffic that you're hoping to identify.

You should pay particularly close attention to any hashtags that have any connection locally.  A local Twitter hashtag is more likely to help you get local attention, which in turn will lead to more clicks and more conversions on your website.

Tip #5: Contextualize Your Twitter Hashtag With Social Networks

One of the best ways to make sure that people can understand why your Twitter hashtags are what they are—and to help them remember them after they're posted—is to contextualize them.  Write a short blog post or public Facebook timeline post about your Twitter hashtag and why you're starting to use it.  For example, if you're using Twitter hashtags pertaining to a particular case that is now in court, you can talk about those hashtags and the case that made you use them.

By contextualizing each Twitter hashtag you create, it becomes much easier for people to know why you're using the tags you're using, and this in turn makes it easier for them to be fully informed participants in the discussion.

Tip #6: Keep Your Twitter Hashtags As Short As Possible

Twitter posts are limited to just 140 characters, so obviously, every character really does matter.  What's more, studies show that people tend to prefer tweets that don't use up more than 100 characters out of that 140 character limit.  Because of this, it's absolutely critical to make your Twitter hashtag as short as it can be while still being memorable.

This means you should never make strange or esoteric abbreviations to make your Twitter hashtags shorter—this would tend to make them harder to remember, defeating the purpose.  What you can do instead is make each Twitter hashtag an easy to remember acronym, perhaps a “backronym” that uses an existing word in English to form the acronym.

Tip #7: Use Twitter Hashtags to Find New People to Follow

Just like other people can use a Twitter hashtag to find other posts related to yours, you can use hashtags to identify other Twitter users that could be valuable followers.  By tracking other people who are using your hashtags or a hashtag you have an interest in, you'll find people with common interests who may be posting about many of the same topics you are.  These people, in turn, can lead to new business leads in the future.

With just over a quarter of law firms maintaining a firm-wide Twitter account, many attorneys just getting into the Twitter game are unsure of what all the terms mean.  One of the ideas that gives people the most trouble is hashtagging.  Whether you just need someone to explain how to define a hashtag, or you want to learn a hashtag meaning for a tag that is trending, you'll find the answers in this guide.

How Do You Define a Hashtag?

Twitter's algorithms define a hashtag as anything that comes after a pound (#) sign and before a space.  Sometimes, people like to define a hashtag with just one clear word—like #twitter or #working.  Other times, a hashtag meaning is encoded in an acronym, or acronyms are mixed into words, like #SCDP (a Twitter acronym based on a fictional advertising agency in the television show Mad Men).  You can also define a hashtag to include several words in a row, as long as there are no spaces between them, or even to denote a court case: for example, #roevwade.

As you can see, hashtag meaning is only limited by your imagination.  Because anyone can define a hashtag and start using it, it's very easy to create new ones and start using them on a day to day basis.  As a law firm marketing professional, it's a good idea to get used to the different types of hashtags that can be on Twitter before you start to create them on your own.

How Do I Find a Hashtag Meaning?

Tagdef (www.tagdef.com) is a website that can help you define a hashtag whose meaning you don't know already.  Much like Urban Dictionary or other “slang interpretation” websites, Tagdef works by crowdsourcing hashtag meaning from its users.

In order to define a hashtag on Tagdef, just do a search for it.  You may see several different results, for several different reasons.  In some cases, hashtag meaning may be different in two geographic areas or for two different interests.  In other situations, it's possible that someone has decided to define a hashtag incorrectly as a prank.  It's up to users to figure out which hashtag meaning is correct, and how to define a hashtag for use in their own tweets.

It's very important that if you don't really understand how to define a hashtag you've found, you don't use it yet.  Be confident about any hashtag meaning before it's used, because you do not want to make an embarrassing mistake, especially as a professional.

What Hashtag Searches Are Essential For Lawyers?

In addition to helping you uncover hashtag meaning, Tagdef can work to define a hashtag level of popularity over time.  Using its graphing tools, you can see whether a hashtag you're considering using is becoming more or less popular at the moment.

Hashtags.org offers a similar graphing tool, without the ability to define a hashtag in the same way that Tagdef gives.  When you search for a hashtag using hashtags.org, instead of finding the hashtag meaning, you'll be able to see the several most recent posts to use that hashtag in addition to the graph.

Twubs.com (the name is a portmanteau of “Twitter” and “clubs”) allows people to make groups based around any hashtag they want.  If a hashtag meaning is very important to you, you can actually look at these groups and see which other hashtags they're using.  For example, there are some groups that are actually all about legal issues.  By looking at these groups, you can define a hashtag about some legal issue so that you're participating in a conversation rather than just bringing up your own brand new tag.

Ways to Use Hashtags Wrong

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when you're new to hashtagging is to #hashtag #all #of #your #words #like #this.   It's not only annoying, it's also something that Twitter recommends against doing in its own documentation.

You can also use a hashtag wrong by co-opting a hashtag meaning that was originally intended in one way and that you're using in another.  For example, if there has recently been a natural disaster, trying to use one of the hashtags that is trending due to the disaster is likely to end up becoming a public relations disaster of epic proportions for your firm.

Similarly, you shouldn't try to use any hashtags that might be seen as too controversial for a law firm to get involved with.  Unless your firm is already very active politically, getting too involved with political hashtags could turn a lot of potential new business off.  Keep those kinds of tags reserved for your own personal Twitter account, not the account being used as an official presence for your law firm.

It's often a good idea to use a hashtag more than once in a day, because especially with popular hashtags it's easy for your tweet to get lost in the shuffle and only seen by a few new people.  But if you use the same hashtag repeatedly, eventually people will get tired of seeing it.  Try to vary things up enough that you don't seem like you're spamming, and followers will come to you more readily.  No one wants to follow a Twitter account that seems to exist mostly to issue repetitive content.

Creating Local and Unique Hashtags

Another tool that you can use to help you define a hashtag that will work well for your law firm is Trendsmap.  Trendsmap lets you look at where particular hashtags are most popular, so that you can make a hashtag that will actually work best with people right in your local area.  Since most law firms get their clients from their local geographic region, this kind of hashtag targeting can be extremely valuable.

You can also create your own unique hashtags, with their own definitions.  Just keep in mind that it's always possible for someone else to use a hashtag you originally used—and they won't need to define it in the same way you did.  Try to pick hashtags that aren't easily repurposed if you're making your own.

Doing a hashtag search is a great way for your law firm marketing professionals to understand what conversations your law firm should be joining in on.  Three quarters of law firms aren't even using Twitter yet, and the ones that are don't always know how to search hashtags effectively.  In this guide, we'll teach you seven different ways to use Twitter hashtag search tools in your legal practice.  You'll find out about specialized websites for specific hashtag search functions as well as some creative ways to use the results of your search.

Intro: Where Can I Do a Twitter Hashtag Search?

When you're new to using Twitter, you may be under the mistaken impression that the only place to search hashtags that are trending is on Twitter itself.  However, many search websites have popped up that include significantly more robust ways to do a Twitter hashtag search.

One of the most popular of these websites is Hashtags.org.  This website not only allows you to see what trends are currently associated with a hashtag, but has several other functions as well, including an autosuggest tool.  Using this tool, you can learn new tags and do your next hashtag search with even more information.

#1: Find New People to Follow

One of the best reasons to search hashtags when you've just gotten a Twitter account is to find new people to follow.  When you follow people after a hashtag search, you're more likely to gain followers, and you'll also find more new things to talk about.

Try doing a Twitter hashtag search that involves a legal topic you're interested in, using Hashtags.org.  After you search hashtags there, you'll be able to see some of the most recent tweets about that topic from users all over the world.  When you see people posting about topics that interest you during your hashtag search, you can start following them.  Remember, since you can always unfollow someone later, there's no reason not to follow just about anyone that you find interesting.

At the same time, when you search hashtags you'll be following people who are more likely to enjoy your posts.  Doing a Twitter hashtag search is a very good alternative to simply following a large number of accounts that may or may not have much relevance to your law firm.

#2: Find New Followers For Your Twitter Account

The flip side of tip #1 is that you can also search hashtags to get new followers for yourself.  While there's no guarantee that any particular hashtag search will lead to new followers, every time you follow someone after a Twitter hashtag search there's a chance that they'll check up on their followers and follow you back.

This is more likely when you search hashtags and then look for people posting them who currently have a relatively small number of followers.  For these users, every new follower counts, and they're likely to take notice of you adding them after your hashtag search and follow suit.

#3: Find Out About Trending Hashtags First

WhatTheTrend.com is a website that can help you search hashtags for trendiness.  You can also do a Twitter hashtag search exclusively for the most active trending topics and the most trending topics on a particular day.

One of the best parts about WhatTheTrend is that it also allows users to see which trends are being created through real buzz, and which ones have been judged as likely spam.  Make sure you search hashtags for which trends are spam before deciding to use a buzzword that you think sounds like a good idea—you might find out that the only ones “listening” are robots!

#4: Learn What the Accepted Hashtag Is for an Event

By using a resource like Tagalus.com as a hashtag search tool, you can search hashtags to find out what the most common and best accepted tag is for something you want to talk about.  Tagalus operates a lot like Google Instant, by giving you immediate suggestions as you type based on what other users have wanted.  This Twitter hashtag search functionality makes it much easier to figure out what other users are thinking and how to phrase a particular concept for your hashtag.

#5: Find Out Definitions For Hashtags

One resource no hashtag search should be without is Tagdef.com.  Tagdef works by helping you to understand exactly what a hashtag means before you use it.  Search hashtags on Tagdef, and you won't have to worry that you're missing out on the nuance of what a hashtag means, or that you're using a tag that could be perceived as inappropriate by some percentage of your audience.

#6: Find New Law-Related Hashtags

If you're having trouble thinking of a hashtag to use next, or can't quite come up with a new hashtag search to look for new followers, try using Twubs.com.  This Twitter hashtag search tool helps you to learn what hashtags are related to what other hashtags.  When you search hashtags in this way, you'll be able to map out not only some tags to use right now, but also a plan for using more in the future.

#7: Map Where Hashtags are Popular

As a lawyer, chances are that most of your business comes from a radius of less than fifty miles from your office.  So why would you search hashtags on a national basis?  Using Trendsmap.com as your Twitter hashtag search tool can help you understand exactly where certain trends are centered and which trends may not be as useful for your law firm to talk about.

By combining Trendsmap with TagDef, you can find out before you start doing a hashtag search which tags are most popular and what they mean.  This gives you valuable insight into the mood of a particular city or region, which you can use to orient your tweets.  If, for example, your Twitter hashtag search reveals that everyone in a certain city is mad about a football game, you might want to avoid using football metaphors for a while in your tweets.
 

When you're trying to narrow down a list of hashtags, how can you tell which one is best to use?  For that matter, how do you put together a list of Twitter hashtags that will be most likely to lead to the biggest increases in business?  Creating a Twitter hashtags list is a great way to start your tweeting on the right foot so that you don't have to do a big search for hashtags every time you make a new tweet.  In this guide, we'll explore how to put together a list of Twitter hashtags, and learn why not every list of hashtags is equally useful—especially for lawyers.

What is a Twitter Hashtags List?

Before starting your list of hashtags, you should be fully aware of what these tags are and what they do.  Any word preceded by a pound sign (#) is considered to be a hashtag by Twitter.  Typically, these tags are used to tell people what the topic of a particular tweet is, and to help to connect it to other people talking about the same thing.

There are several reasons that you might want to start compiling a list of Twitter hashtags for your own use.  Having a consistent list of hashtags that you use repeatedly can improve brand awareness and make it more likely that one or more of the entries on your Twitter hashtags list will go viral, making your topics even more heavily discussed.

Using Your Own Private Twitter Hashtags List

Developing a list of Twitter hashtags that is already greenlit for your employees is a great way to go if several people have permission to post to your Twitter account and you want to significantly restrict the topics they can post about.  This is especially useful if some of your employees aren't yet familiar with Twitter, and could make a mistake if they deviate from your list of hashtags.

To create a private Twitter hashtags list, mix up a few of your own hashtag creations and some relatively popular law related hashtags.  Any list of Twitter hashtags you use should also include some way of identifying how many times you've used a particular tag.  You don't want to overuse any item from your list of hashtags, or else your audience could start to feel spammed and alienated.

Creating a “Do Not Use” Twitter Hashtags List

Just as important as knowing which entries on a list of Twitter hashtags you should use is knowing which ones are best left to other people.  Especially if multiple people are able to update your Twitter account, it's a good idea to take a look once or twice a week at currently trending topics and add some to your “do not use” Twitter hashtags list.  This ensures that all employees at your law firm are on the same page and that there's one comprehensive list of hashtags that are considered inappropriate.

You won't need to include every inappropriate term on this list of Twitter hashtags.  Generally your staff should be competent enough not to include obviously scatological or sexual terms.  However, there may be some terms that would reflect an attitude your firm shouldn't have (think #dealwithit or #whatever) that you may want to include on the list of hashtags.

You should also check TagDef.com for information on the definitions of any tag on a popular Twitter hashtags list that you don't understand.  Sometimes, you will find out that a hashtag has a meaning you didn't know about, and that you should add it to your “do not use” list of hashtags.

Using a Twitter Hashtags List For Lawyers

If you don't want to develop a list of Twitter hashtags related to law, here's a bit of good news: some websites have already done a lot of the leg work for you.  By doing some Google searches for lists of legal hashtags, you can find more than one list of Twitter hashtags that have already been compiled by legal marketers.

What's more, you can take this list of hashtags and run each of the tags through a website like Tagalus.com, which will give you automated suggestions for related tags based on a comprehensive similarity finding algorithm.  This kind of search tool can help you to greatly expand upon a pre-made list of Twitter hashtags for lawyers—and it'll give you an edge on people who are just using the list that they were given.

By using your list of hashtags effectively, you can build new followers and make it much more likely that your Twitter feed will be seen by interested people.  Studies have shown that a law firm's Twitter presence has a great deal of predictive value when it comes to search engine rankings.  Tweeting can be very economically useful if you're willing to take some time and do your homework to make a really great list of Twitter hashtags.

Problems to Avoid When Using a Twitter Hashtags List

Of course, one list of hashtags may be much more useful than another.  For example, if your Twitter hashtags list is almost exclusively composed of tags that are extremely popular, with thousands of posts made every day, it's very likely that your tweets will get lost in the shuffle.  

You should always have a good variety of tags in your list of Twitter hashtags, including both some with very high popularity and some that are more niche oriented and will be less popular.  These niche terms may get less traffic, but the traffic they do bring in is more likely to follow your Twitter feed and more likely to take positive action.

You should also check TrendsMap.com before you commit to a list of Twitter hashtags.  This website can help you to make sure that the hashtags you're planning to use are useful not only nationwide, but also right in your area, where you're trying to target new clients or other attorneys.

Even a few years ago, if you'd wanted to do a search engine optimized redesign of your website, you wouldn't have had many choices.  It was so tough to do good optimization that over three quarters of law firms outsourced their SEO.  What you may not know is that there's now an abundance of SEO tools.  Whether you're looking for free SEO tools or a paid SEO tool, this guide will give you six different ways to make your optimization efforts work better without hiring an expensive service.

The Old Standby: Google

When you start looking for free SEO tools, Google is the name you'll hear again and again.  It's easy to see why: the search behemoth offers some of the best SEO tools in the industry, and doesn't charge users for any of it.  How can Google offer such great results in a free SEO tool?  The answer to that question is both Google's greatest strength and its biggest weakness.

Whenever you use one of Google's free SEO tools (whether it's the Insights Finder, which tells you when search volume is heaviest, or the Google Analytics SEO tool, which can analyze the results of your split tests for landing pages and more), you're getting access to a great deal of Google's information—which is probably some of the best search information on the internet.  However, Google is also using the SEO tools to collect your information in return.

Since much of this information will be discovered regardless of whether you use a particular SEO tool from Google, it's usually not a bad idea to use the free SEO tools they provide.  It is, though, a good idea to know exactly what you're getting into and why a product is being provided for free.

The All-In-One: Raven

If you don't want to piece together a solution one specialized SEO tool at a time, you might want to consider the comprehensive set of SEO tools offered by Raven Tools.  While a free trial is offered for Raven Tools, after 30 days you'll no longer have access to their free SEO tools and will need to pay for a subscription.

The cost of Raven isn't excessive, especially compared to some other sets of SEO tools.  For $99 a month, you can have up to four users, and a $249 a month payment covers unlimited users from your company.

Raven's biggest strength is that it combines sources to learn as much as possible about your search engine rankings and results.  Many of the SEO tools on Raven give you the chance to automate tasks that used to be boring, time-wasting chores.  No free SEO tools on the market give businesses such a robust toolset, so this may be a cost that's worth spending.

The Copy Analyzer: Scribe

Maybe you don't want to spend forever getting exactly the right keyword density into your copy.  You may be on the right track—most SEO research today says that keyword density isn't as important as readability and quality information.  Just the same, you'd probably like to check your posts with an SEO tool that can help you identify opportunities for improvement.  What if you could find easy ways to “tweak” your copy with SEO tools without altering its natural flow?

Scribe is an SEO tool that can help you to do exactly that.  Unlike SEO tools that just tell you related keywords to add to your copy, Scribe analyzes copy to figure out the best way to massage it for search engines.  Because of its complexity (which is substantially beyond any free SEO tools), Scribe also charges monthly subscription fees ranging from $17 to $97 depending on your usage level.

The Add-On: The SEO Toolbar

If you are using Firefox, you can get The SEO Toolbar for free.  This toolbar combines several of the best free SEO tools, including Rank Checker and a comparison tool.  If you can't afford to buy SEO tools, having a toolbar like this can be almost as convenient.

The only disadvantage of the SEO Toolbar is that it, like many other free SEO tools, can be a bit complicated for any user who is new to search engine optimization.  Typically, people who are new to SEO tools should try an SEO tool geared toward beginners, which may come at additional cost.

The Free Tool for Beginners: Microsoft SEO Toolkit

An exception to the “beginners may want to avoid free SEO tools” rule is the user-friendly Microsoft SEO Toolkit.  This SEO tool analyzes the content of your website and gives you suggestions for optimizing it for any of several different search engines.

When you use these powerful free SEO tools, you'll also find out about problems with your website's code.  This is very important if you want search engines to index your site properly.  One SEO tool in the toolkit can help you find out how fast your website really loads for real people, which is increasingly important.  People with high speed internet access won't necessarily wait a long time for a page to load.

The Checkup: SEO Doctor

Another of the free SEO tools in Firefox extension form, SEO Doctor works by analyzing your website according to current Google best practices for SEO.  This is a great SEO tool when you're wondering why a particular web page seems to be over- or under-performing.

The great part about SEO Doctor is that unlike other SEO tools, it gives you a numerical score that estimates how well your website is optimized on a 100 point scale.  Knowing this score, and what your weak points are, can help you decide which other SEO tool you'll want to download to fix any problems with your web page.