Legal Marketing & PR

Introducing Tom's Social Media Secrets: MentionMap

By Larry Bodine

My colleague Tom Ciesielka, president of TC Public Relations in Chicago, will be contributing a number of guest blog posts this year with the title 'Social Media Secrets.' His posts will reveal valuable social media applications you can use to unlock you firm's marketing and public relations potential. Questions?Comments? Social media suggestions? Email Tom at tc@tcpr.net.

Consider this scenario: You would like to make more connections with reporters in the legal profession and want to find out what those reporters are talking about so you can approach them intelligently.

Believe it or not, there is an application that can help you: MentionMap (http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap/#), which is a web-based application that visually shows what and whom a specific Twitter user is tweeting about most often. (See the graphic below for a MentionMap for Larry Bodine).

This application can be used to see which hashtags and topics are the most popular, and also which people are the most followed. No login to Twitter is required since it is a browser-based application. And you yourself don't even have to be a Twitter user to view others' Twitter accounts.

When a username is searched, a Constellation Framework appears, which displays the data in an easily identifiable format (similar to a web graph). Thicker connection lines indicate a particular topic/person is tweeted about more often.

So how can you use it to benefit your firm? Think about that scenario again. MentionMap is a great tool to find out what topics reporters are talking about. One of the biggest complaints the media have is that they hear from attorneys who don't actually know what the reporters typically cover or what the specific editor or outlet is interested in. Well, if that reporter or editor is on Twitter, you're in luck.

All you need to do is find out their Twitter username (easily accomplished via Twitter's search function, or a reporter's bio) and enter that username into MentionMap's search box. Hit 'Enter' and you will see a diagram come to life of the topics and other tweeters that are the most mentioned. You will be able to get an idea of what they are interested in, which will help you when you come to them with your own story idea and legal expertise.

Tell the media what they want to hear in your own way and soon you may see your firm's name on their MentionMap! 

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).