I’ve had two Twitter accounts for a while, but as with so many applications, I had barely scratched the surface of their potential. Now, under the guidance of IT780, I have converted one of my accounts to a “professional” account, including setting a profile, adding a picture, and syncing it to my cell phone.
My next task will be to select other accounts to follow, not based on random interests, but rather, carefully selected based on applicability to Web 2.0, 3.0 and the law office.
Twitter, by itself and in combination with blogging can be a powerful tool in the business industry. My examples are based on the legal practice, but they could apply to any field where many professionals are working together on one issue. Let’s assume that my law firm is defending a client in a cotton candy exposure case (because anything that feels like insulation, tastes like sugar and dissolves instantly when exposed to moisture has to be toxic.) Our client, in Mississippi, hosted the local fair where the cotton candy was served. The distributer of the cotton candy mixture (Vermont), the maker of the cotton candy machine (California) and the cotton candy vendor (Texas) are also being sued in this same lawsuit. So there are four defendants, with four sets of insurance, and four sets of attorneys, in four different states. Opening a private group Twitter account accessible by these defendants, their agents and attorneys, would be a fast, confidential, archivable, and free way to communicate in this litigation. scheduling could be tweeted. Travel arrangements could be tweeted. And, if the litigation had a multi-user, private blog created for it, anytime the blog was updated with new evidence, facts, or communication, a tweet could be sent out letting all of the users know that new information is available.
I’ve handled multi-state litigation, with different time zones, different climates (winter snow in the north and hurricanes in the south), and different in-house technology capabilities (firewalls, faxes, and emails that just don’t get along). Having a centralized Twitter account and blog would help aleviate a lot of the problems that come from coordinating business across the country.
My shiny, new professional Twitter account, I hope, will be the first step in the process to pushing, shoving, and dragging my corner of the legal industry into the 21st century.
Clicking on “Twitter” in the center column of this blog (where the Twitter feed is) will take you directly to my account.
Juris Processor 