Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

This post was originally written by Tim Baran and published on the Legal Productivity blog, created and maintained by Rocket Matter, (c) 2011.  Read the full version of "How Lawyers Can Use Twitter to Get Speaking Gigs.

Twitter is useful for many things — creating relationships, building community, marketing, even starting revolutions. It’s also useful for getting speaking gigs.

Start tweeting and build your reputation as an expert. Once you’ve tweeted and retweeted, your follower count will start to grow. Now it’s time to focus your message and join the conversation. Or start your own. Weigh in on debates, but be respectful. Post links to your blog posts, journal articles and Slide Share presentations.

Develop relationships with other lawyers, bar associations and CLE providers

Lawyers will generally recommend other lawyers whom they know, like and trust. So will organizations looking for speakers.

Strategically build your community. Bar associations and CLE providers are where you’ll find the bulk of available speaking gigs. Follow them. Look for trade associations in your practice area. Engage them.

I’ve created an MCLE Twitter list of over 150 continuing legal education organizations and professions. Click on “Follow this list” and that’s it! Mark Rosch has curated a terrific list of over 200 bar associations on Twitter.  Head over to Listorious for a directory of more targeted lists to follow.

Now what?

Take the relationship one step further. Contact lawyers, bar associations and CLE providers and send a direct message (DM) or email offering to speak. They know you and will be glad to hear from you. But first check their Twitter stream:

Search for opportunities

Twitter search sucks. There is no better way to describe it. Try Topsy, a marginally better search engine, and try a search like — looking speaker attorney, and you’ll get this:

Looking for attorney experienced in Sweepstakes/copyright/Trademark for possible speaker at Social Media Conf….any takers?

Search for — looking speaker legal, and you’ll get this:

looking for a high end speaker who can discuss the legal implications of social media….any suggestions?

You get the idea. Play around with the search terms, then create an email alert or subscribe to an RSS feed and you’ll get a notification every time a relevant tweet pops up.