Friday, March 16, 2012

Using Social Media Effectively Before, During and After Conferences

Posted by Amanda Walsh


As I mentioned, Laura Powers and Gina Rubel have been attending the Legal Marketing Association annual conference in Dallas, Texas. Laura shared a great post from Lindsay at Zen Legal Networking outlining the Twitter handles of various people who are also attending the #LMA2012 event.


There are many benefits of social media engagement pre- and post-conference. Here are some tips and things to keep in mind when going to your next conference and what to focus on afterwards.


- When preparing for an event, do some research by using the event hashtag on Twitter (in this case, #LMA12) and seek out those that will also be there.


- Identify thought leaders and like-minded attendees in advance and make a note of those that you would like to meet in-person.


- Be on the lookout for special meetings or events at the conference geared toward the attendees who are using social media.


- Stay in touch post-conference and maintain those relationships. If the conference is an annual event, you probably will see the same people next year.


- Building solid relationships online and in-person can also open the door to tap these contacts as a focus group in various parts of the country for legal marketing ideas and tactics.


By being active on social media and using a hashtag for the event while you're tweeting, you can start conversations and build relationships pre-conference, during and post-conference, as well. 

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