JD Scoop

Twitter - what is it good for? (More to the point: what's it good for ... for lawyers and legal professionals?)

Like a bad rash that won't go away, the Twitter value debate continues - given new life this week in the legal space after a post by Larry Bodine titled Twitter Not Effective for Law Firm Marketing.

I'm not going to rehash the many responses to the original post here. If you follow me at all, you know my position. You know that I am online and talking to lawyers and law firms every day - on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, by email, even - gasp - sometimes by telephone. I'll use whatever communication tool is available to me, even smoke signals (if only I knew, re: the latter, how to say something other than "Fire!").

What I do want to say is this:

For a while now JD Supra has delivered one value to lawyers and legal professionals that involves Twitter, and you might not have considered it. But you should, because you stand to benefit from it.

Twitter as News Channel: An Audience for your Expertise

Last year, we saw that Twitter is not only a terrific conversational tool (and boy is it ever that) - it also serves as a robust and engaging news channel.

We're not alone in that thought - which is why traditional outlets such as the New York Times, NPR, the BBC, and many, many others started streaming links to their stories via Twitter. And why new news outlets used the platform to either expand their reach (Global Voices) or define their model (BreakingNews).

We began streaming legal information posted to JD Supra via subject-specific Twitter news feeds: Employment Law, Securities Law, Real Estate, Taxes, Bankruptcy, Intellectual Property, Energy & Environmental Law, Law Practice, and numerous others.

For every subject or practice field represented on JD Supra, we created a Twitter news service, aggregating all of the work and feeding it out to a willing audience. (In fact, each feed is now included in its respective Law Center on the site.) And the willing audience found it.

We noticed, from the start, that a considerable number of professionals in any given field  (the very audiences many lawyers and law firms hope to reach) started following those feeds.

For example, readers of our Real Estate Law News Twitter feed (currently surpassing 2,600 people) are mostly professionals within real estate: agents, landlords, real estate investors, property managers, media services, and the like. 

Our Labor and Employment Law Twitter news feed is read in no small part by human resources professionals, recruiters, and others within that field (including HR associations and, again, media outlets).

Environment and Energy Law feed? Read by numerous professionals in the green-tech, sustainability, and environment and energy space.  All of the feeds are also read by fellow lawyers; a frequent source of referrals in this profession (I don't need to tell you that).

How do we measure the value? Just look at the numbers. Some of the older and more active news channels number followers in the thousands. Every day we witness the audience and exposure grow as readers "retweet" the links to their own followers - and in this way even a feed with just a few hundred followers can become an audience of thousands.

And we watch the engagement (the retweeting) daily.

What does this mean to you?

Start posting your work on JD Supra. We've grown an audience for it on Twitter. It's really that simple.

As to the conversational aspects of Twitter, that's for you to decide. Don't let anyone else tell you what to think about it - jump in and evaluate for yourself. You'll find plenty of us in Twitter ready to connect whenever you are...

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Related:

- Legal News Feeds on Twitter

- Lawyers to Follow on Twitter

- Twitter Not Effective For Law Firm Marketing - Not So Fast! (Nancy Myrland)

Today we announced a feature that makes it even easier to find and be found on JD Supra:

Our new Law Centers aggregate by subject all of the documents and legal information posted daily to the site. Organized into four broad categories (Business Law, Personal Law, Government Law, and Law Practice) the centers cover topics such as:

• Real Estate & Construction Law,
• Bankruptcy Law,
• Immigration Law,
• Insurance Law,
• Labor & Employment Law,
• Trusts & Estates Law,
• Intellectual Property Law,
• and Legal Marketing.

(See full list of Law Center topics here.)

As we've said in this blog before, our goal is to provide maximum exposure for the lawyers, law firms, and legal professionals posting their work on JD Supra - these Law Centers are simply another step in that direction. From this morning's press release:

"It takes me less than two minutes to post my work and see it show up in the Law Center to which it relates," said Seattle-based bankruptcy attorney Marc Stern. "I am pleased to know that anyone looking for information on that subject will see my work and be directed to my entire portfolio and professional profile on JD Supra."

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Besides featuring top news and recent articles, the Law Centers also make it easy for anyone to browse all documents on a particular subject and to browse a list of professionals and firms contributing work in that particular field:

Every Law Center also includes a list of the top contributors (by document count) for each subject and a link to the related Twitter feed. Stay tuned for RSS feeds in each Center, to be rolled out within the coming weeks.

Thank you to the many lawyers, law firms, and legal service providers who have posted the work that populates these new Law Centers - and thank you to the sponsors who helped us to launch the feature: Lane Powell PC, clio, Waste to Water LLC., and UrbanIgloo.

JD Supra Law Centers - what are you trying to find?

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Related:

- JD Supra Unveils Law Centers (Robert Ambrogi's LawSites)

- JD Supra Launches Law Centers (Clio Blog)

- Free legal online service launches today (Mitch Kowlaski, National Post)

- JD Supra Adds Law Centers (Stem Legal)

Looking for a way to be found online? Post your work on JD Supra today.

Here's a look at some of the latest lawyers and law firms to be publishing their great work on JD Supra. We're thrilled to have them on the site:

	Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge - offers a full complement of legal services to clients worldwide from its eleven offices in Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Hartford, Madison (NJ), New York, Providence, Stamford, Washington D.C., Wilmington, West Palm Beach, London and an associated office in Hong Kong. ... [legal documents]
	Johnston, Moore & Thompson - has successfully handled cases involving brain injury, plane crashes, stock fraud, truck wrecks, deadly exposure to negligently manufactured drugs, intoxicated or drug impaired drivers, and numerous other cases where the injuries were so severe that the person died or became totally disabled ... [legal documents]
	Daniel Cummins - partner at Cognetti, Comerford, Cimini & Cummins with 15 years of insurance defense experience. Attorney Cummins has focused his practice on defending motor vehicle accident liability cases and UIM/UM arbitration matters along with premises liability and products liability cases. Mr. Cummins is also routinely summoned by his clients to handle matters involving insurance coverage questions and insurance subrogation claims... [legal documents]
	Melina Benninghoff - a former Kings County Deputy District Attorney who provides a criminal defense to indigent clients in Kings County as well as devoting her law practice to private clients, with a strong emphasis on the trial phase of legal advocacy. Although she considers herself first and foremost a trial lawyer, Ms. Benninghoff also routinely represents individuals whose main interest is in resolving their case as expeditiously as possible.... [legal documents]
	James Haddow - representing and advocating for individual, corporate, and small business clients in matters ranging from complex litigation to estate planning, and from personal injury to land use regulation. Firm includes trial lawyers with cases at the federal, state, and appellate levels who also regularly advise clients with regard to business formation and governance, contract drafting and interpretation, real estate transactions, employment and environmental issues....  [legal documents]
	Audrey Mross - Labor and employment lawyer with prior experience as HR professional in hospitality (Brock Hotel Corp), oil & gas (Core Laboratories) and IT industries (MTech, EDS). Partner and chair of labor and employment group at Munck Cater LLP in Dallas, TX. ... [legal documents]
	Jonathan Gill -  practicing in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death for over 20 years.... [legal documents]
	"Peggy" Margaret Hoyt -  full service estate planning practice providing family wealth and legacy counseling including wills and trusts, elder law asset protection, estate administration, small business creation and succession, real estate transactions and animal law. ... [legal documents]
	Foley Hoag - a national law firm in the areas of dispute resolution, intellectual property, and corporate transactions for emerging, middle-market, and large-cap companies. The firm helps companies in the biopharma, high technology, energy technology, financial services and manufacturing sectors gain competitive advantage..... [legal documents]     Kurt Stitcher - trial lawyer and Chair of the Litigation Practice Group at LP with focus on business torts; commercial and class action defense; product liability and mass/toxic tort defense; and white collar criminal defense and corporate internal investigation.... [legal documents]         Christine Wilton - a consumer advocate who helps people with their debt. Her practice is limited to bankruptcy practice, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies... [legal documents]             Grant Scheiner -  specializing in criminal defense and handling all types of state and federal criminal cases, throughout the Greater Houston Area and across Texas... [legal documents]

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Looking for an effective way to showcase your expertise to an online audience?

Join JD Supra, build a professional profile, and start posting your legal documents today.

For your reference: a reading list of articles and alerts recently posted to JD Supra broadly covering developments in the Labor & Employment space.

These articles touch upon the numerous issues that determine how we conduct our businesses today: the Employee Free Choice Act, employee termination issues, HIPAA, EEOC, FAR rules, tax reform, swine flu concerns, immigration policies, and more...

JD Supra Labor & Employment Law Updates - May, 2009

- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Overview ... [Philip Bluestein]

- WHAT'S UP WITH THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT? Reports of its Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated ... [Ford & Harrison LLP]

- The Seven Ws of the Employee Termination Meeting/ Washington Healthcare News ... [Williams Kastner]

- Department of Homeland Security Announces Shift in Focus to Criminal Prosecution of Employers That Hire Undocumented Workers ... [Duane Morris LLP]

- Obama Administration Proposes Broad International Tax Reforms ... [Morrison & Foerster LLP]

- New Tax Benefits for Investing in Small Businesses ... [Lane Powell PC]

- EEOC Charges Soar as the Economy Sours ... [Littler Mendelson]

- EEOC Issues Guidance Regarding ADA-Compliant Workplace Preparation for the Swine Flu ... [Ford & Harrison LLP]

- Preparing Your Workplace for a Potential Swine Flu Pandemic - A Checklist for Employers ... [Duane Morris LLP]

- Government Turns up the Heat on Employers ... [Szabo, Zelnick & Erickson, PC]

- State Department Publishes New Exchange Visitor Skills List ... [Littler Mendelson]

- Preparing Your Workplace for a Potential Swine Flu Pandemic - A Checklist for Employers ... [Duane Morris LLP]

- President Obama Announces Nominations to fill NLRB Vacancies ... [Ford & Harrison LLP]

- Employment Alert: H1N1 Flu Readiness: A Summary of Employment-Related Concerns ... [Mintz Levin]

- FAR Rules for Stimulus Funded Contracts: Enhanced Whistleblower Protections ... [Duane Morris LLP]

Looking for more Labor and Employment news? Three ways to stay in touch:

- Follow Labor & Employment legal updates on Twitter.

- Read JD Supra's Labor Law news in the Linked:HR and Employment Law Network groups on Linkedin.

- Read Legal News in Facebook (choose "Labor & Employment" during installation).

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Lawyers: showcase your expertise and reach new clients. Join JD Supra today, build a portfolio of legal work online. For more information see Our Services.