Attorney is a Twitter about online networking resource

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A couple of months ago, I read about Twitter and thought, “Why would anyone care what I’m doing right now? Do I really care what anybody else is doing right now?”

While I dismissed it as a diversion for geeks, it turns out that Twitter can be useful to lawyers, as yet another effective, Web-based marketing and information-sharing tool. That’s per sole practitioner Chris Moander, of the Moander Law Firm in Milwaukee.
Twitter is probably the best-known microblogging service. It’s free and easy to use; just go to www.twitter.com. Begin by creating a short profile — a bio of 160 characters or fewer, with options to list Web and blog addresses, and to upload a photo. It takes five minutes.

Then, every time you log in, you may answer the question, “What are you doing?” Your response must be 140 characters or fewer. Once posted, it’s known as a “tweet.” Or, you can just see what others are doing. You select others to “follow” – people you might know or strangers. Wisconsin Law Journal tweets. So does the ABA Law Journal.

Moander visits Twitter several times daily, following a wide variety of people, from local lawyers, artists and businesspeople, to venture capitalist Guy Kawaski in California, to law firm management consultant Susan Cartier Liebel in Massachusetts, and blawgger Kevin O’Keefe in Seattle. He’s able to participate in discussions with them and about 168 other people.

Moander might write that he’s going to meet with a client in a neighborhood, and then someone near there, reading his Tweet, contacts him to meet for coffee.

He has also used Twitter to acquaint himself to people he’d like to know professionally. For example, he might have noticed that a particular business owner also follows someone that Moander follows, or posts a link to an article on a topic of interest. He sends the business owner an introductory e-mail, mentions the shared contact or interest, and asks to meet for lunch. Most times, the business owner accepts (especially if he or she is under 40 and grew up being comfortable with technology, like Moander). At the face-to-face meeting, they discover mutual connections and ways to help each other. Those kinds of meetings have led to legal representations.

Twitter is just one tool in Moander’s box, and he cautioned against expecting overnight results. Still, he’s been using it for just five months, putting in a minimal time commitment, and it has worked for him – meaning it has put cash in his pocket.
In my case, once I registered at Twitter, I searched “attorney” and “lawyer” and “Wisconsin,” and found a handful of other lawyers to follow. I then looked at some of the people they follow, and who follows them, and poached a few people from their and Moander’s profiles. I was able to build a list of about 20 within minutes.

Interestingly, a few hours later, I checked the site, and found a few people were following me – some I know, most I do not.

If that prospect scares you, Moander said you can secure your profile, so that only certain persons may follow you. But if you’re using it to market yourself professionally, that might defeat the purpose. Along these lines, you can upload a photo of Betty Boop or Bucky Badger instead of yourself, but why would you want to do that? Unless, of course, you’re exceptionally unattractive.

Getting back to where I began, I told Moander that I didn’t think anyone would care if I’m driving my kids to school. He agreed – he’s weeded out the people who discuss weeding their gardens.

Moander nonetheless reassured me, “It’s an oversimplification to assume that Twitter is just people talking about their mundane daily activities. It’s a library. It’s a professional diary. And, it’s a research tool. People post questions or articles, they look for referrals, and they share ideas.”

So, I tweeted about the topics I’m investigating for future articles. Thus far, no one’s “retweeted” me to tell me they have a great idea or source for my works-in-progress. But hey, it’s only been a few days. And, truth be told, if for no other reason, I like Twitter because it’s fun — there’s no shortage of interesting political or sports commentary. They keep it brief because they must. And, I choose whose comments I’ll read – as opposed to a list serve, where invariably there’s somebody on there who writes too much, too often, and really has nothing to say.

Give Twitter a try. Follow me at @janepribek; I’ll probably follow you right back! And let me know if it works for you.