Legal News

The Legal Is on Twitter, and You Should Be Too

By Brian Harris

By Jaime L. Bochet
Of the Legal Staff

Confession: I have finally broken down and joined Twitter.

I have been on Facebook for years. I use it, like many do, to keep track of friends and family, see what everyone?s kids are up to and otherwise virtually socialize. (It is called the social network after all.) I know some professionals have had great success using it to promote their businesses, and as a professional entity, The Legal Intelligencer has its own profile on Facebook. (Which I highly recommend you ?like?!) And while I know that what I post there is discoverable by my employer, I don?t have a formal ?professional? presence there as an editor for The Legal Intelligencer. 

I also have a Linked-In profile, which I see as an online resume, useful for keeping track of professional contacts? movements from firm to firm, but not much else. Again, others have made it work for them professionally, but I haven?t really paid much attention to it other than to read the updates that come to my in-box occasionally.

But I never really understood Twitter, until now. I realized recently that I was looking at it through the same lens as Facebook. But for me, and for anyone interested in ?professional-social networking,? Twitter?s true value is as a professional tool.

It?s especially so for those of us in the news industry. It dawned on me that Twitter is great for sharing up-to-the-minute information, breaking news and upcoming projects to keep your ?followers? informed. That?s why The Legal has its own Twitter account, @TheLegalIntel. It?s a win for us, because we can deliver instant updates through a medium created just for that, rather than cluttering up your e-mail inbox.

It?s a win for you, too, because all the links to stories that get tweeted are free content -- so for anyone who doesn?t have their own subscription to the paper, Twitter is the perfect way for you to get your Legal news!
So in the interest of trying to connect more with our audience by sharing information about my own projects, the special supplements and magazines, I?m now tweeting as @JaimeBochetTLI. I hope that you?ll follow both me and @TheLegalIntell!

But tell me, readers -- have you seen the Twitter light, or are choosing to stay in the dark?

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on February 02, 2011 (boomark / email).