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Twitter goes mainstream : Wall Street Journal reports on business use

November 2, 2008

Twitter is going mainstream reported the WSJ’s Jessica Vascellaro last week.

A wide range of people and businesses are finding interesting uses for the brief notes (140 cahracters).

  • Doctors are using Twitter to update patients about office hours.
  • Local groups such as the Los Angeles Fire Department are using it to share details about service calls with interested residents, occasionally with graphic descriptions of the victims’ conditions.
  • Dozens of major companies, like computer maker Dell Inc., use Twitter to share deals and product news with people who sign up for the service.

Lawyers should look at the professionals, including other lawyers, using Twitter for business development and to get business done.

  • Andrew Flusche, an attorney in Fredericksburg, Va., used Twitter to promote a webinar he was holding on trademark registration. The session got 15 attendees, compared with seven for a subsequent seminar he didn’t promote on the service. Flusche has also found the service handy for referring cases to experts in other areas, as well as keeping up with professional contacts he doesn’t see often. ‘You get interesting glimpses of them,’ he says. ‘It’s a different way to network with people and get to know them.’
  • A real-estate agent follows feeds from more than 1,000 people, including neighbors and fellow real-estate professionals looking for those who are seeking real-estate help in his area. He then provides an instant hotline by sharing info on Twitter. He’s also received responses to inquires he made on Twitter from a mortgage broker across the country allowing him to close a sale the next day.
  • Professionals are using Twitter during conferences to share a steady stream of news and information.
  • Online shoe retailer Zappos.com Inc., of Henderson, Nev., has more than 450 employees using the service to communicate with one another on topics ranging from politics to marketing plans. Zappos Chief Executive Tony Hsieh kicked off the trend by launching his own personal Twitter account, and continues to blast out updates about his activities to his more than 14,000 followers.
  • By listening to its corporate name on Twitter search, Comcast Corp. resolves dozens of customer-service issues a day over Twitter. When it hears of a complaint, Comcast looks up the customer and calls them.

I’ll add the story of Milwaukee business lawyer, Chris Moander, who I met last week. Just 9 months out of law school has picked up 5 good business clients via Twitter. And that’s just since Chris started using Twitter – 6 weeks ago!

Though Twitter’s user base is still relatively small (1 million plus users), it’s up from 282,000 last year. And these numbers are likely low as much of Twitters use is via unmeasured mobile phones.

Stay tuned.