Twitter for the Law Firm

As an avid Twitter user, I was a bit disappointed by the stats in this recent article regarding Twitter's use in law firms, written by Legal Marketing Consultant, Larry Bodine.  He says that Twitter is not effective for "closing the deal" in law firms.  I agree with him on that front but Twitter can also be very effective for building relationships which might help to close the deal or benefit a legal marketer.  After all, isn't building relationships the whole point of Twitter?  I've found and hired freelancers via my followers on Twitter, made new press contacts, met real-life friends, and even received a bit of news coverage from photos posted in my Twitter feed (not the bad kind of coverage, mind you).

Using Twitter can be a bit time consuming.  In fact, I'd say that it is probably the most time consuming social networking tool on the market right now.   Those that don't see the value in this tool are the ones who expect to sign up for an account, post one "tweet" a week and see return on their investment.  It just doesn't happen that way, folks.  You have to interact with followers, pay it forward and share valuable information if you expect to see the benefits of this tool.  If you put a penny in your bank account and let it mature for 25 years, you might have $1.00 in the end, but if you invest $100.00, you're sure to see higher returns.

Take a look at Larry's article, here.  I encourage you to hold off on making a decision on Twitter until you've tried it out for yourself.