Why Twitter Matters to Lawyers (and Non-lawyers Alike)...

On Wednesday, I joined approximately 500 other attendees on the free Legal Rebels Webinar: Why Twitter Matters to Lawyers, featuring LexBlog CEO Kevin O'Keefe. The webinar was designed to explain how Twitter and social media are changing the dynamic for lawyers, but truthfully you could have changed the name of the webinar to "Why Twitter Matters" and it would have been relevant across industries.

The original agenda for the webinar was as follows:

• How is Twitter being used by attorneys and other industry leaders today?
• Who are some of the "big guns" in the legal industry using Twitter? What are some examples of how they use it?
• Which Twitter applications are worthwhile and which are lame?
• What are some etiquette tips on using Twitter for professional social networking?

I was most interested in point number two, so shared a little disappointment with others that the content focused more on the "how-to" of Twitter and desktop tools like TweetDeck (admittedly, O'Keefe said during the webinar that many of the attendees were non-Twitter users) but he did make some great points during the webinar that are worth reiterating here:

1. Twitter use is pervasive and anything but a trend. Twitter is at the New York Times; Twitter is at CNN. "Twitter is everywhere."
2. When it comes to breaking news, Twitter is unparalleled. In the last year alone, we've witnessed some fantastic examples of times where Twitter brought us first hand reports of major news events significantly before the mainstream media. This same trend is trickling down to business and industry-specific news as well.
3. Protect your brand! Even if your firm or business is not currently on Twitter (or prepared to jump in), claim your firm's name before someone else does.
4. There are significant marketing / business benefits to being on Twitter. O'Keefe walked through the major benefits as he saw them, including: brand-building; relationship building (an opportunity for firms to begin, nurture and develop relationships); information sharing (share interesting industry developments); and news distribution (one way firms are already using Twitter is to share the content they are already developing, from newsletters to press releases and client alerts). There is a big opportunity for law firms to promote its lawyers, firm events, community service activities and major news in the legal world and, to date, many firms haven't taken advantage of this opportunity.
   
5. "Don't forget that social media is SOCIAL."
6. Return on investment for time on Twitter? O'Keefe advises lawyers and law firm marketing managers alike to "Relax. Be a person. Build relationships. The more people who get to know you as a person, as a lawyer, the more business your firm will get." O'Keefe says firms need not take a shotgun approach to Twitter - he says he connects with people who may lead to new business opportunities.
   

If you're interested in checking out the archived webinar and its associated mindmap, you can find them online here.

One thing I was very interested in that the webinar didn't address: how many AmLaw 200 firms are using Twitter, and how are they using it? Kevin O'Keefe does a great look at the AmLaw 200 blogosphere every year, but I haven't seen an equivalent for Twitter. I might take this on next month, similar to my look at Washington's Tech Titans on Twitter last summer.

UPDATE (Nov. 2): Shout out to Erin West, a former colleague and Communications and Marketing Manager at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC for pointing me to some links that answered my final question about AmLaw firms on Twitter. Erin pointed me to this great post by Patrick DiDomenico at the LawyerKM blog from January 2009 on AmLaw 100 firms on Twitter. I'm still looking to do an update on this, so watch for that soon. Erin also pointed out this list of 145 Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to follow on Twitter. Worth checking out, especially for anyone who is jumping into the new Twitter Lists functionality! Thanks Erin!

-Stephanie Stadler
@stephstad