Legal Marketing & PR

Twitter for Lawyers: Networking in 140 Characters or Less

By Amy Derby

Time Suck or Valuable Networking Tool? You Be The Judge!

In case you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, it’s a free online networking tool based on the question “What are you doing?”

Those random thoughts not interesting enough to make it to your blog have at last found a home! Finally, folks who are interested in knowing your every waking move can follow you around…. and you can follow back!

Twitter: it’s more than the self-obsessed geek’s wet dream.

Lawyers across the web are using Twitter to share resources, ask questions and make connections. It’s a free and easy way to stay on top of what’s going on in your practice area around the globe, meet colleagues you would otherwise never meet, and chat about baseball (or politics, or your Golden Retriever).

Are you with me?

I’ve been using Twitter for my own personal use for a while now. I just recently opened the door on my own Law Firm Blogger Twitter account. If you’re already on Twitter, feel free to follow me @lawfirmblogger! (Also feel free to follow Adrian Lurssen’s lovely long list of Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter.)

Get started using Twitter in 3 easy steps:

1. Create a free account at twitter.com. Your name or your firm’s name would be a good choice for a username. You can go to the Settings tab to edit your bio, add a link to your firm’s site or blog, upload your picture, etc.

2. Do a Twitter Search to find likeminded folks. The Advanced tab can be used to better target your search. (see also: Twellow, a twitter directory)

3. Start Twittering. Type what you’re doing into the box and voila! If you want to reply to someone else, you can scroll to the right-hand side of the person’s message and hit the arrow that appears. Or, you can simply copy/paste their username and preface it with an @.

You’ll be twittering away time in no time!

Twitter Tip:

Remember: as with all social networking tools, people are more apt to want to talk to you if you talk about other folks as well as yourself.

Questions? Feel free to ask! Drop your question in the comments box or shoot me an email at amy@lawfirmblogger.com.

P.S. I’m putting together a free guide to Twitter for lawyers. Any input you want to share or questions you want addressed would be most welcome!!

What do you think of Twitter? Are you finding it useful? Confusing? Worth the time?

Full post as published by Law Firm Blogger on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).