As a legal professional, in what ways do you participate online?
This is my follow-up question to the list I published earlier this week: lawyers and legal professionals to follow on Twitter. Please share your answer below - post a comment.
As a community, we have much to learn from each other (the original point of my list!). Let's start with a look at how you are experimenting (and succeeding) online. Key word: experiment.
Twitter and Beyond: How Do You Connect the Dots?
I'm thrilled to see the blogosphere buzz around the Twitter list (including Carolyn Elefant's Twitter: A Downpour of Information But the Sun Always Shines, among many others).
My feelings about Twitter are probably clear to you. Here's what one of my favorite attorney Twitterers, @nikiblack, says in a comment at Kevin O'Keefe's LexBlog:
...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.
Agreed. And at the intersection of the professional and the personal, Twitter not only allows you to influence, it also allows you to be influenced. This is one of its greatest strengths, I believe.
(I also agree wholeheartedly with @samglover, @stevematthews, @christinemartin and others who, in different ways, have pointed out that only following lawyers is probably a bad idea. Only blasting out marketing messages is also a bad idea. And only tweeting about the extraordinarily mundane details - not so good either. Mix it up.)
Many of the personalities represented in my list of lawyers who Twitter also actively participate in the open landscape. They are on LinkedIn and Facebook. Some of them podcast and conduct webinars. Some blog. Some share bookmarks and reading lists in a variety of excellent venues. More and more publish their legal documents on JD Supra.
(I'd be remiss if I didn't say this: if you are looking for attention online, post your legal documents to JD Supra.)
The trick: connect the dots. The open landscape is not a vacuum. Your role models should be those people who know how to use these tools in tandem with each other.
Participating online is not solely a marketing exercise, but it does borrow from many of the things that lead to good marketing: conversation, collaboration, networking, distribution, the influence of community. Always, it is varied mix of all of these, and more...
So. How are you connecting the dots online? Tell us.
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The original list, steadily approaching 25O:
Lawyers (and Legal Professionals) to Follow on Twitter...
Also see:
It's more about seeking out personalities that stand out, finding blogs and those who appeal to me who I might never have an opportunity to connect with otherwise. Then reaching out in casual conversation and finding commonalities, not just in business but in personal realms. Some of it is personal marketing, politicking..the humanness of it all. I've made a ton of referrals to those I've met, found resources for myself and others...it's just all how you use it.
I like getting newsfeeds on Twitter better than in any other way and live reporting on events. It's just really worked for me personally and ;professionally.
I guess in many ways it is hard to explain
For me, its helpful to see the conversations attorneys and legal professionals are having about the industry, and how they are being impacted by a variety of things - from the economy to new media and Web 2.0 innovations like Twitter and LinkedIn.
My hope is I can offer some insight into what the media is looking for from the legal profession, and how to help facilitate those conversations. Twitter has been one of the most valuable tools in accomplishing that goal
Coming from the tech/IT world into the legal world, via Litigation Support, it was an easy decision to bring all the social networking stuff I had been doing in the tech world over with me. Thus, I've simply changed a bit of the focus of my blog, created separate tech and Lit Support feeds for people who are only interested in one of the two topics, integrated things like Twitter, and Del.icio.us bookmarks into those feeds and kept up some presence on the Facebook/LinkedIn/Myspace worlds, mostly be pointing things back to my blog as the point of origin. It seems like a lot of work, but using tagging, and RSS, it doesn't take much time at all to keep things flowing al over the place. :)
I haven't been on Twitter as long as others, so my perspective may be a little different. What drew me in was the ability to get to know people, the real people behind the facades. I've unfollowed people who did nothing more than retweet their blog posts, because it didn't add anything to the conversation. If I wanted to read the posts, I'd subscribe to their RSS feed.
For information, news and hot law topics I follow legal blogs and other online publications. But on Twitter, I'm most interested in learning about people, especially lawyers with creative outlets, or those who balance a non-conventional lifestyle while working in a corporate environment. Following how others juggle interests and work similar to mine is personally as well as professionally inspiring.
I definitely enjoy Twitter for its personal aspect. I love blogs and blog posts, but some people are strictly business on their blogs. Twitter brings out the person behind the work and makes it all so real and interesting. I love when someone posts "I'm reading..." because they usually are sharing something they really enjoyed. I also love how Twitter allows me to follow and interact with so many niche leaders (in so many niches!) I can follow a professional blogger, a mom blogger and a law blogger all at the same time and get different things from each.