Practice Management

They use to call it your elevator speech.  Now they are calling it the "Twitpitch".  It is taken from the Twitter phenomena, or microblogging.  A Twitpitch means you can convey your law firm's practice area or niche, in a compelling way, in 140 characters or about 20 words.  That is the maximum length of a Twitter post.

Stowe Boyd of /message developed the term.  He used the term more in the context of pitching company meetings with at an expo he was attending.  He called it the "twitterized style" of business where you "cut to the chase".

I have got to admit that I have set up a Twitter account myself, but not used it.  I guess my problem is that I think in terms of paragraphs and fully developed ideas, concepts and opinions.  I am king of the 50 page legal brief that reviews the conept from every conceivable angle.  Twitter does not lend itself to this.  Maybe a Twitpitch does not either.  But here is the thing.  In promoting your uniqueness and your practice niche, you will never ever get a chance to deliver a full throated explanation of what you do, want to do, and where you want to go.  Anymore, you do not even have minutes to catch someone's attention.  People are on guard to avoid windbags like me.  We are in that phase of the information age when people think that less is more.  They suffer from information overload.  Brevity combined with relevance is key.  Decision makers might need to look at your services and your style and your practice area more in depth, later, but you have got to get your foot in the door, and you do not have much time.  People who want to listen these days want focus and precision presented in a way that benefits them.

Back in the day when I drove from office to office ("riding circuit" as Abe Lincoln might have called it), and back when motivational cassette tapes were popular to pass the time (pre CD, DVD and MP3), I purchased one called, "How To Get Your Point Across In 10 Minutes Or Less".  The damn tape was a hour and a half long, and boring.  A little like this post, I thought maybe the person who recorded the tape missed his own point.  Mabye this overly long post does as well.  And, that is the reason I have not favored Twitter.

But, the point should not be lost.  Brevity.  Relevance.  Focus.  Precision.  These will do more today to get your foot in the door than you know.  Call it an elevator speech, a esculator speech, a Twitptch, or speed dating.  I do not care.  If you cannot describe what you do in a compelling fashion in 20 words or less, you are not going to be very effective at network, relationship or social marketing.