Strategic Legal Technology 
Sometimes answers just fall into your lap unexpectedly. That happened to me today about Twitter.
I attended a lunch today of local legal knowledge management professionals. We meet monthly and at our last meeting, Twitter came up. One thing led to another I agreed I would demo Twitter today. After a quick orientation to Twitter, I said “Let’s see if we can find the answer to a key question about Twitter using Twitter” so I Tweeted:
- I am at DC Legal KM lunch demo’ing Twitter. Any comments on the single best reason to use Twitter?
Within the space of about five minutes, I received the following replies on Twitter. Both the substance of the answers and the fact that I got so many answers so quickly was quite a good demo of the potential value of Twitter:
- CarlJacobsen Best thing about twitter is the unexpected. I love the serindipity nature of it – finding things I never knew I didn’t know
- jeffrey_brandt Its a great resource for whats happening, stimulating questions and links to more indepth information
- IntegreonEDD Twitter is a great medium for building relationships with other people and organizations that share like interests
- stevematthews Best twitter use is asking questions & getting answers from those you choose to follow. A personal advisory board.
- KMHobbie 1 Replace Google Reader as the best way to find the good articles on #km in law and business. 2 Make nice with @VMaryAbraham.
- bobambrogi Single best reason is to monitor the buzz, see what colleagues are talking about.
- bschorr Colleagues I respect often Tweet articles or ideas that I might otherwise have missed.
In fairness, I explained that not every question I asked on Twitter elicited so many answers so quickly (I think my ‘followers’ understood the demo circumstances). But I’ll let the self-referential nature of this post speak for itself. And also for how one can integrate blogging and Tweeting.
Ron -
It’s been great to see you move from Twitter skeptic to Twitter demo pro! I’m sorry I wasn’t online to participate during your demo, but if I had been I’d have said that Twitter has been an extraordinary professional and social resource for me. I’ve met so many people in the law and other industries who are all seeking answers to the same knowledge management questions that keep me up at night. These folks are a rich resource of advice and have spurred me to more critical and creative thinking. On top of all this, my Twitter mates are great fun. (Witness David Hobbie’s response to your question.)
All in all, Twitter has been a fantastic investment of time for me.
- Mary
Comment by VMaryAbraham 10/20/2009 @ 9:04 pm