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To my own surprise, I’ve been using Twitter lately (“tweeting,� for those in the know).  I say surprise because I really still don’t understand what all the fuss is about. But there’s an awful lot of fuss and I hate to be the last one to show up at a party. Since Sam encouraged people last week to use Twitter, I thought I’d share how I’m using Twitter so that maybe others will be persuaded to give it a try as well.

Although many people put personal, clever, and/or random thoughts on Twitter, I find I have too many of my own random thoughts to focus on anyone else’s. I also don’t have the time or inclination to tweet repeatedly during the day.  Instead, I tweet on topics relevant to my practice, which is focussed on all aspects of legal ethics, law firm disputes, attorney-client privilege, and related topics.  So when I get wind of a new ethics decision, a proposed rule, or the like, I tweet it with a link to a document if possible. For example, a recent tweet:

SCOTUS granted cert on Q of appealability of orders to disclose atty-client privileged info.http://www.timesurl.at/93cb64

Because a tweet is limited to 140 characters, it’s important to use one of the URL-shortening services such as TimesURL or TinyURL!

Posting to Twitter has become an easy way for me to comment on information that comes across my desk without having to compose a complete blog entry (if I want to be a little more self-serving, I can tweet a link to my blog posts to try to increase traffic to Lawyerist). Over time, my Twitter page becomes full of short, helpful tips or links to documents that lawyers can use in their practice. I have even gone back to my own Twitter page to find a link to an article. By periodically deleting some of the posts that are indecipherable to others (such as my replies to other people’s tweets), my Twitter page remains substantive. I am trying to provide worthwhile content to the people who follow me.

I am a Twitter neophyte — as of this writing I had a mere 50 followers.  Most of the people who have chosen to follow me are not from Minnesota, so it seems unlikely that Twitter will be a source of business or referrals, at least in the near term. But it’s fun to be a part of the latest internet experiment, notwithstanding my curmudgeonly attitude.

You can follow me at www.twitter.com/Ethics_Maven. If you don’t like it, it’s just another click to stop following.

Notes from a Twitter curmudgeon is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com