Author: Tracy Thrower Conyers

Tracy Thrower Conyers is a long-time resident of Westchester 90045. Tracy closely follows local politics, political players and social chatter relevant to Westchester. You’ll frequently find her at Neighborhood Council meetings, as well as on all the social platforms where 90045 peeps hang out. Tracy loves a good conversation about our community, so don't be shy about leaving comments. 😊

15,740 Social Media Experts On Twitter — What’s A Lawyer To Do?

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in December 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Blogger B.L. Ochman has been using Tweepsearch to follow the proliferation of social media gurus on Twitter.  She found 4,487 of them in May 2009.  Seven months later, she found almost 16,000, leading her to write Self-Proclaimed Social Media Gurus On Twitter Multiplying Like Rabbits.

Other bloggers are having fun with her numbers, including one that projected Twitter To Be Nearly Entirely Composed Of Social Media Experts By 2013.

This video also does an amusing job of portraying social media gurus as snakeoil salesmen.

Lawyers would be fools to ignore social media for growing their digital footprint and ultimately their Continue reading “15,740 Social Media Experts On Twitter — What’s A Lawyer To Do?” →

Social Media Time Management

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in November 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Chris Brogan wrote a brilliant post today called How Much Time Should I Spend On Social Media?

Why brilliant?  Because his take is fresh and out of the box.

Instead of telling you that you need to spend X hours on this piece and Y hours on that piece, he gives you a simple formula like this:

  1. 1/4 of your available time should be spent listening
  2. 1/2 of your available time should be spent commenting/communicating/engaging
  3. 1/4 of your available time should be spent creating original content

You’re the only one who knows how many hours you have in a day to devote to your online marketing strategy and it doesn’t matter who is doing the telling, you’re not going to find four hours in your day that don’t exist, just because some guru told you four hours is the magic amount of time to devote to your social media efforts.

Other than the fact that he doesn’t dictate some magic number of hours per day to you, I also think Chris’ formula for how you divide up your time is right on the money.

Listening To Your Network

To start, you can’t authentically engage and provide value to your network, if you don’t know what is being said out there in your network.  This is where the listening aspect come in.  You have to listen to figure out where you can add value.  Once you understand the context within which your network is operating, you can safely proceed to sharing your opinion and adding value to your community.

Engaging With Your Network

At first glance, it might seem a little out of whack to spend half your total time engaging, but I think the point that Chris is making is that Twitter and Facebook have become a huge part of the social networking landscape and both of these platforms are more about sharing information than about pushing your own content.

You can’t share, however, without researching and reading materials to share. By the time you factor in reading the news in your space and discovering other nuggets to share, the engagement segment of the formula really does take the lion’s share of your available social media time.

And I agree that it’s a good use of your precious time to share lots of soundbites on Twitter and Facebook, using other people’s information. You can write a great blog post, but at the end of the day, it’s just one piece of information with your name on it.  Leverage other people’s information and share many soundbites during the commenting/communicating/engaging portion of your time.  Remember OPM?  Leverage, baby!

Creating Original Content For Your Network

Content creation can take a chunk of time — or not.  Great pillar content for a blog or a new white paper requires research and drafting and editing, but who says you need pillar content?  While I personally happen to think that a little pillar content is good for demonstrating expertise, you can probably also demonstrate expertise by banging out short blog posts commenting on events and other people’s material.

No matter what your opinion is on pillar content, it is good to be reminded that blog posts are just one part of a bigger formula.  Blog accordingly.

Take Aways

Finding success with this new thing we call “social networking” requires more than broadcasting your expertise in a one-way blog post.  True, authentic success in social networking requires you to engage in what is going on, and engaging is about community and the back and forth of multi-party dialoguing — the cocktail party.

Want more evidence that engagement is where it’s at on the web?  Check out An Insider’s Secret To Twitter Success.

Do yourself a favor and put a note on the wall next to your computer with Chris Brogan’s formula.  If you stick to its rough proportions, you’ll be hitting all your engagement bases.  To your unlimited social networking success!

Tupperware Anybody?

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in March 2008 for Living90045.com, a community blog featuring news, views, tips & chatter from Westchester, CA.

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Ever since our daughter was born, I have been fortunate enough to work a flexible schedule, close to home. This has been important to us because our daughter was a premature baby, born 13 weeks early, and had many special needs, especially in her early days. I’m a big fan of entrepreneurs any day of the week (especially women entrepreneurs), but I have a special soft spot for women who take the entrepreneurial leap to support a family-oriented lifestyle.

So the other day, I was sitting at the therapist’s office waiting for my daughter to finish her occupational therapy session, and I saw a stack of Tupperware brochures. Being an organizational nut, I naturally gravitate toward these kinds of things. My husband calls me “The Containerizer.” I think he means it affectionately….

Anyway, I was leafing through the materials and I was impressed with the package. It was neat, organized and branded well to the consultant who left the brochures. Anybody who knows me knows that I am a branding and internet marketing nut, so I carted the package home and looked up the consultant’s Tupperware website.

I don’t think I’ve ever met this woman, but I wanted to give her a shout out to support her as an entrepreneur, as a mom and as somebody with a great sense of humor. I love the fact that she found her way to an entrepreneurial opportunity that gives her a creative outlet. If you check out her website, you’ll see what I mean (hint, it has to do with acting, parties and drag queens). Sound a little risque for a mom? Not at all, but you’ll have to go find out for yourself.

If you’re in the mood to organize, order yourself some Tupperware. You’ll get some great products and you can support Maggie at the same time.  Now that’s a deal!

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See you around the neighborhood!

What Is Google Chrome And Why Does It Matter?

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in November 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Google held a big press conference today to reveal new details about its Chrome OS, the operating system launched in July.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds in store for desktop OS’s and apps, but I for one believe that we’re all moving online and Google is positioning itself beautifully to capitalize on that trend with its advertising revenue model.

Here are five ways that Chrome OS is different, courtesy of  Ben Parr at Mashable.com:

  1. The browser IS the OS. Unlike Internet Explorer and Firefox, you don’t have a browser sitting on top of an operating system.
  2. The OS is designed to fix itself. Applications are placed in “security sandboxes,” and if the system finds that its code has been compromised, it reboots and fixes itself.  Kinda reminds me of a starfish regenerating arms.
  3. Web apps only, no installations. No MS Office, no Tweetdeck, no nothing that requires installation.  Not even Google’s Android apps will Continue reading “What Is Google Chrome And Why Does It Matter?” →

Crushing It With Social Media

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

Captain Crush

This article was originally written in November 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Wall Street Journal Blogs ran a post on Friday called Gary V’s Five Commandments of Social Networking, based on Gary Vaynerchuk’s new self-help book titled “Crush It!“

The book is about using free social media tools to transform personal passion into a successful business, and the book is No. 5 on the Wall Street Journal business best-seller list.

What does Gary V know about social media?  Let’s just say that he has 851,000 followers on Twitter and 33,000 fans on Facebook.  He knows a thing or two about social media.

These are Gary V’s Five Commandments of Social Networking (as presented by WSJ Blogs) and yes, they all apply to lawyers playing in the social media sandbox:

  1. Treat it like a cocktail party. Social media is about conversations and relationships, not selling.  Put on your marketing hat to create your strategy and action plan, but “change your clothes” before your guests arrive.  Nobody wants to talk business at the party, but they’ll contact you Continue reading “Crushing It With Social Media” →

Way More Concerned With YEO Than SEO

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Jeff TurnerOne of my biggest influencers in the world of social media has been Jeff Turner, a guy who was at the forefront of blogging and all things social media in the real estate world before we even had the term “social media.”  Jeff is one of the most authentic, plugged in and generous voices I’ve ever found on the web.

I haven’t checked in recently on what Jeff has done, but I’ve been busy digging up my thoughtleaders and their Twitter information so I can reconnect with my roots.  That led me to Jeff’s Twitter homepage and his amazing, stop you in your tracks bio statement, “Way more concerned with YEO* than SEO….  *You Engaging Others.”

Not only does this statement capture the essence of who Jeff Turner is, it captures the essence of what social media and social networking should be all about.  SEO still has its place as part of a smart social media marketing strategy, but search engines, for all their complicated mathematical algorithms, are (at the end of the day) looking for relevance.  Engagement is what is relevant on the web right now.

Everybody should be more concerned with YEO than SEO.  Jeff was smart enough to recognize and articulate the concept. Big, big, “drop everything and create a post” hat tip to Jeff Turner for his social media brilliance.

By the way, I see from Jeff’s bio that he has also added two more little ones to his brood since I last checked in.  So glad there are more little Turners in the world.  🙂

Jump Start Your Legal Practice With Social Media

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Cari Rincker posted a beautifully written paper on JD Supra called How Social Media Helped Jump Start My Practice.  In it she writes about quitting her job in Wyoming four months ago to relocate to New York and hang a shingle in an area of law she apparently had a passion for, but wasn’t practicing in Wyoming.

In her paper, Cari lays out a beautiful roadmap for any attorney to follow in establishing an effective social media strategy.  More importantly, she does an excellent job of demonstrating how and why she is connecting with her desired audience with her efforts.  As she points out, connecting with your desired audience starts with defining that audience and making sure that you’re writing to them, not somebody else.

Success with Cari’s strategy is self-evident in the post.  She lays out the facts like a skilled advocate and a reader can’t help but come to her intended conclusion.

I’m used to reading slick marketing white papers on the web, so it still cracks me up to see something less flashy that screams “lawyer” like Cari’s piece, but she did a beautiful job of blending the two worlds of law and social media.

For the traditionalists out there, you’ll really appreciate the style in which she writes the paper.  If you know me from prior posts, you know that I tend toward the flashier web 2.0 marketing style, but as a lawyer, I can still appreciate a good footnote or two.

Job well done, Cari!  I’m in total awe that you dropped everything to follow your passion.  You, in my humble opinion, are the new face of law.  You go, girl!

Lawyers, Just Say Yes To Social Media

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Yes

Inc. ran a great piece this morning called Don’t Be Afraid Of Social Media.  The piece underscores that anxiety comes from not understanding this new media, noting that social media giant Mashable has a how to section that draws thousands of responses to every post.

If it helps take the pressure off, Andy Sernovitz — a highly respected commentator on social media — is quoted in the post saying “companies should think of themselves not as pioneers of a new technology but as ‘fast followers.’”  You’re not the inventor.  You’re the adopter of something that somebody else already invented.  Find yourself a guide and follow along — somebody like PluggedInLawyer who thinks this stuff is fun and can translate jargon to simple, easy-to-follow instructions.

Also consider what your expectations are for your social media campaign.  Sernovitz points out that many companies consider social media to be a marketing tool, and are disappointed that direct sales (as in “clients” for lawyers) don’t follow.

Social media is more of a listening tool, not a sales tool. Continue reading “Lawyers, Just Say Yes To Social Media” →

Organizing All That Twitter Input

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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The goal of Twitter is to amass followers and people that you follow.  Following all the data that comes with that can make your head spin.

Making sense of all that twitter input can make your head spin, and plenty of companies have stepped in with desktop applications to help you out.  Mashable did a great review a couple months back comparing 19 different apps for power users, mac users and pc users.  The screenshots are excellent and each review lists pros and cons.  The application that gets the most buzz from the commentators I follow is TweetDeck.

The thing that annoys me about these applications is exactly that they are “desktop”  — as in one desktop.  I happen to work across two desktops — my office and my home office.  Should I ditch one desk and go mobile?  Doesn’t seem likely until Verizon and Apple make nice with each other.  Dump both desktops and go netbook?  Somewhat appealing, but I sure like Continue reading “Organizing All That Twitter Input” →

WordPress Websites So Easy Even A Lawyer Can Set Them Up

Posted on by Tracy Thrower Conyers

This article was originally written in October 2009 for Plugged In Lawyer, a blog about social media for lawyers.

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Lightbulb4How many lawyers does it take to put up a wordpress.com site?  Only one and it’s you, if you follow the simple videos outlined below.  These videos show you how to set up all the pieces that I personally think you need to get your wordpress.com site up and ready to roll.  These videos and $35, that is.

So whip yourself up a latte, roll up your sleeves, put on a little Radio Margaritaville and let’s get going.  Reviewing these videos will take about 40 minutes, but it won’t hurt a bit.  I promise.

You’ve already signed up and created your profile, right?  Start here with a nice little welcome message.

Blog Set-Up