Kevin O’Keefe of Real Lawyers Have Blogs has written about the merits of Twitter for lawyers, pointing out what co-founder Jack Dorsey said about the network in an internal memo:

Twitter is what’s happening, and what everyone is talking about (literally!). News and talk. We’re the people’s news network.

People choose us for news because we’re the fastest. Fastest to get news, and fastest to share news with the whole world. Now let’s strive to be the first. The first place people check to see what’s happening…and the first place to break what’s happening. In the moment LIVE, or a fast recap of what we know so far…what matters.

With 300 million users, Twitter is a network lawyers can’t and should not ignore, Mr O’Keefe points out.

Specifically he points out that there are 4 key reasons Twitter can be used by lawyers:

> Intelligence agent – helping to share and find out about news in your area, helping to establish your authority

> News curation – using Twitter to aggregate news for you means you’re up-to-date and following or being followed by others in your area.

> Building relationships – To quote from Kevin O’Keefe “Twitter lists, little known by lawyers, are powerful for building strategic relationships. Create a list of your best clients and prospective clients by company name. Add the principals and officers who are using Twitter. Retweet and/or like items they are Tweeting – especially items they might be proud of. You’ll hear back with a “thank you,” which can lead to a LinkedIn Connection and a face to face to face meeting.”

> Conferences – follow conferences online and elsewhere to establish connections in your area of interest.

Twitter, as the ‘People’s news network’ is a key tool in the lawyer’s arsenal and used intelligently can raise your firm profile, as well as helping to establish key connections and new clients.