Twitter can work to generate new business for the every day practicing lawyer
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Rick Georges posted today that Twitter may work for guys like Kevin O'Keefe, but not for the day to day practicing lawyer like him.
Rick's post followed Chuck Newton's comments that 'A small part of [Twitter] might be beneficial but most of it is not.'
Bottom line is individual lawyers need to decide what works best for them. Some will find Twitter a good fit in their quiver of networking, PR, business development, and marketing tools. Others may not. But let's not lay out rules that this works or that this doesn't to legal professionals who may be looking to us for wisdom.
I just don't buy that for everyday practicing lawyers Twitter is not useful. I was told as a small town lawyer in rural Wisconsin in 1996 that the World Wide Web and the Internet were no place I should be wasting my time. 'No one uses the Internet, especially the blue collar type clients I wanted as a plaintiff's personal injury trial lawyer - and especially in rural America where no one has even heard of the Internet.'
Well, turned out folks were wrong. I figured out by the seat of my pants, guided by a love of helping folks, how to answer relevant law questions at AOL, archive the questions and answers at my website, lead law chats at AOL, and more. Doing so lead to plenty of good work and a state wide reputation in 18 months.
Imagine meeting local reporters and business people you could not even imagine would be using Twitter as a customer service, relationship building, or investigative tool. They're there. Imagine local people following you (people you do not know) that think you are a pretty good person/lawyer and spreading word of your law blog posts around the community via Twitter.
Will it be most reporters and most community members that you'll connect with through Twitter? Of course not. Who cares? I'll take 1% of them who amplify my message. It doesn't suck.
I didn't get Twitter the first, second, or third time I looked at it. I thought for a year plus it was the dumbest thing ever. But when I saw a lot of business people, far brighter than this kid, talking about how Twitter worked for them, I kept experimenting with Twitter.
At some point Twitter clicked for me. It can click for everyday lawyers too.
Give me Twitter as a practicing lawyer in any town in America and I'll run laps around offline marketing and many lawyers using blogs alone.
For guys like Chuck and Rick who think the 'Tweets' (140 character limit) are unmanageable, use Twhirl or TweetDeck (my preference) as an application to access Twitter. Your Twitter home page, something I never go to, is unmanageable as a means of following conversation on Twitter.
For me Twitter is nothing like Chuck's experience that it felt like listserv content overload. I'll take Twitter over the blather I hear on some listservs. On Twitter I control who I want to listen to. I can even group those I follow by subject and monitor only words I want to see.
Twitter's been a good ride for me. And though I am not an everyday lawyer, Twitter is now in the top three tools generating new business for LexBlog. I don't see why a practicing lawyer can't do the same.
I initially thought twitter was useless but in the last few months, i have started to gain a bit of a following, although very small. i must confess, i haven't fully learned how to maximize its value and haven't spent much time on it, but i agree that it could become a powerful marketing tool.
And here is the comment I put on Chuck's post right after it was posted yesterday:
With all due respect to you and Rick, Chuck you guys just don't get it. There are more and more lawyers getting on twitter every day. Not so much to find out if someone's 2 year old pooped in the potty. But to network. Twitter if used right is a great place to interact and learn from those you follow and who follow you. Imagine having instant access to 800 thought leaders in your field and asking them a quick question and in a matter of a few minutes getting a quick, down and dirty answer. Imagine the power of interacting with some of those same thought leaders in planning a conference. And imagine feeding your blog post to this group of people who are following you to see what you have to say. It is like having 800 subscribers to your RSS feed. I am using 800 as only an example. You don't have to follow any more than you want.
Yes twitter can be overwhelming if you allow it to me. Just as email, faxes, phone calls and blogging can. But used correctly, twitter can be one of the greatest marketing and networking tools one can use.
Don't discount it because someone is not progressive to see it benefits. After all, Rick is not progressive enough to use a Mac in his law office either. And like a TV or email or phone or heck the kids, you can shut it off and leave the room.
I am happy to visit with any attorney thinking about using twitter and how it can be used right.
Kevin, I agree with you completely. Jumped onto twitter about 4 or 5 months ago on a whim. I started my own firm at the beginning of the year and have been looking for new and different ways to network. Twitter has been a great tool for that. I have met people and lawyers (sometime not the same)from all over the country whom otherwise I would never have had the opportunity to meet. Yes, you need to fine tune it over time and figure out who you really want to follow. But at this point, I find it a very valuable tool in growing as a business, lawyer and individual.
I haven't really looked into twitter, although I understand the basics.
Is the idea that you could put together a group of experts in a field that could give you a quick answer to a legal question?
How does that differ from using the features at linked, facebook or other social networks?
Kevin:
Twitter is really just like everyday life. Sometimes we talk about serious matters and sometimes we don't. I have been fortunate to meet some successful entrepreneurs in my area through Twitter. A couple are now clients and another has made it a real point to refer me business. You just never know where the next case will come from. Blogs and Twitter have been effective tools in getting business.
Lawyers on Twitter should be sure to reach out to those in your home areas.
Kevin-
I think Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread, and like you, did not "get it" when it first hit the circuit.
However, after reading a post at this blog, I followed your lead and signed up and have not looked back since.
In my opinion, it's an invaluable tool-for professional networking, for a sense of community, for getting a true sense of "virtual" colleagues' personalities, for personal branding and for personal expression.
Twitter is, by far, my favorite social media resource right now. Thanks for encouraging me to join the club;)
Twitter continues to intrigue me, but definitely have a love-hate relationship with it - http://tinyurl.com/0