One of the great frustrations I hear about every day from attorneys is how difficult it is to keep up with the rapidly changing technology and new opportunities with social media.

The fact is, social media is like any other marketing tool and if you don’t use it right — by developing and executing a plan and following up — it is not going to work.  If you’re just out there winging it when it, you may be making one or more of these Top 10 Egregious Errors Lawyers Make on Social Media:

1. No clear objectives and specific goals.

2. Too short of a time frame — social media is a long-term play of building relationships, not a “get rich quick” scheme.

3. No budget allocated — most social networks are free, but you either have to do it yourself or you have to pay someone else to do it for you.

4. No responsibility or accountability – not assigning social marketing responsibilities to specific individuals and holding them accountable for results.

5. No tracking of results.

6. No blueprint of what works and what doesn’t so you waste time on strategies and tactics that don’t pay off for you.

7. Only using one social media network — most attorneys prefer the business focus of LinkedIn, but more consumers are on Facebook and Twitter. Don’t try to just use one — you need to experiment with all of them to see where you get the best ROI.

8. Not using social media to build your database –contacts are leads, and social media provides some great ways to build your contact list by pushing out calls-to-action to download a free report, attend a free webinar, etc.

9. Not taking your social network contacts “offline” – the fortune is in the follow-up!

10. Outsourcing your social media marketing to an individual or firm that doesn’t have experience working with attorneys – it is important for lawyers who outsource their social media programs to ensure those executing the programs understand and abide by the rules and regulations attorneys must adhere to in their marketing.

The bottom line with social media is that – like most things in life – your return on investment is directly related to the effort you put into it.