What Can Twitter Do For Your Law Practice

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers What Can Twitter Do for Your Law Practice? Lawyers ask me frequently what Twitter can do for their law practice. I begin my answer by telling them that the I doubt the CEO or the General Counsel of my largest client are on Twitter. Keep in mind that when I finished practicing law I had several really large construction company clients and a substantial practice. In part, because I wrote a monthly column for Roads and Bridges magazine, everyone in the highway construction industry knew of me. Listening, Learning and Keeping Up with What is Going On So, what can Twitter do for you? First, you can use Twitter to find out what is going on in the world and your client’s world. It is a great listening tool and research tool. If you chose, you could follow what is being said at a House or Senate hearing about a topic impacting your clients. You can search specific topics. You can follow leaders in your clients industry, associations they belong to and publications they read. Raising  Visibility Twitter can raise your visibility. If you have an industry based practice and you tweet every day, people in that industry who are on Twitter will eventually find you. I know a lawyer who has a trade practice. He told me he did not want to spend time blogging. Instead, he finds topics lawyers and businesses trading across borders find valuable and he tweets them. Chris Cheatham @chrischeatham is a construction lawyer and consultant on green construction and construction claims. Last I checked he has 6737 followers on Twitter. My guess is that many, if not most, of those followers have an interest in construction law topics. Connecting Third, it is a tool to connect with people. I have met many lawyers from different cities in the US and Canada, including Dallas, on Twitter before I ever met them in person. I met Chris Cheatham on Twitter before I ever met him in person. Like Chris, once I have connected with those lawyers on Twitter, I meet them in person. Showing What You Know If you are a regular reader, you have read before that today it is not what you know, or who you know, it is who knows what you know. Twitter is a tool you can use to make a comment on a topic that shows what you know, link to a blog, an article or presentation you have written or given that shows what you know. I am not the only one suggesting using Twitter in these ways. After I drafted this post I did a Google search to see what others have suggested. I found:  How To Use Twitter To Promote Your Law Practice  by Matthew Hickey. Take a look I think you will find our ideas are remarkably similar. As I said at the beginning, I doubt the CEO or the General Counsel of my largest client are on Twitter. But, there are company managers who are on twitter. In addition there are construction association executives and construction publication editors on Twitter. If by chance I have tweeted something the CEO or General Counsel need to know, I am betting it will get to them. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.