Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Jesus, enough already! Neilson data shows 60% of people try twitter for one month, then abandon it. In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of those people.
Kevin @ LexBlog lists three reasons why lawyers should twitter;
First, a way to socially network with people, some of which networking may lead to work, speaking engagements, and the like.
Two, a means to amplify your message, i.e., spreading what you what you may be blogging, writing, or speaking on.
Three, if you blog, you are going to get news from other bloggers whose content you may want to reference in your blog or work.
My counter to each:
Social Networking: Yes, Twitter is good for social networking. But I find it odd that, after a year of being registered on twitter, (with just one ‘tweet’), 20 people have followed me – and I don’t personally know any of them. Getting popular on Twitter is like claiming you have 800 friends on Facebook; who cares if you friend everyone in town? Does it really make them your friend? Do they really care?
If you want to social network, LinkedIn is far more useful in my opinion. First, someone who is in your network are far more likely to consider offering you work or speaking engagements. Secondly, people who are inviting you to their network aren’t just doing so to gain more ‘followers’. They know you, know of you, or want to genuinely get to know you for professional reasons.
Amplify Your Message: In the case of internet marketing professionals, it may be quite useful for random followers of mixed professional background to understand how SEO may benefit them or their company. If you are an attorney and want to announce your speaking engagements to local followers, then perhaps Twitter is a useful way to get the message out quickly (assuming you already have a following). If you are like most attorneys who value their time, the ROI of Twittering is likely not worth it. Need to get a message out quick? Ask (or pay) someone in your industry that already has a large following to do it for you.
Inspiration for Blogging : Ok, this item i have less of a problem with. But is this really useful to you? Even easier would be to get an RSS reader. Anyone with a Google account has one (free). Just hit the orange “RSS” button on your favorite blog, and then you can preview all your blogs, in depth (ie, more than 140 characters) in one place.
The only reason you should be twittering is if you have a lot of time to kill. And if you have a lot of time to kill, shouldn’t you be doing something more useful?
