This post was mentioned on Twitter by jaynenavarre: What IS Twitter, really?: http://wp.me/prRFJ-nV...

Glad to hear it’s working for you and all is well. If you ever come across someone who’s got data that makes sense, I hope you’ll share it here on the VMO!
Jayne

While I actually have gotten a client on Twitter (actually I answered a question on LinkedIn and then developed a client relationship with the attorney on Twitter), I don’t regard it as strict business development. I do think that Twitter is excellent for marketing, credibility building, professional development and expanding one’s network.

I use it for:
(1) education and information gathering; (2) winnowing down the vast resources of the internet into what is actually worth looking at (by my criteria); (3) projecting my expertise to thought leaders and my professional community at large; and (4) developing relationships with interesting professionals who I might not otherwise have had the opportunity to personally engage with.

I probably love twitter because I don’t do it right. I do not give a hoot how many followers I have. If someone follows me, I look at their tweet stream and if there is no relation to my professional life, I block them. If there is, I follow them back. If they add value to me and interest me in the first week or two, I keep them — otherwise, I unfollow. So my tweet stream has around 200+ people and over time I have learned to take in that amount of information. By being selective, I have 200 smart professionals screening the internet for me, and then recommending worthwhile reading and ideas. All day long. Fabulous! I am continuously intellectually stimulated and it does not require the amount of effort it did before Twitter.

Then, because I have a manageable number of people in my tweet stream, I have begun to develop relationships with them — via twitter, then email, then on the phone and sometimes, ultimately, in person. I talk to someone I met on twitter at least once a week, and when I travel I usually share a meal with one of these professionals. These are 200 senior, thoughtful people who are engaged in legal marketing and social networking who are enriching my life everyday and willing to share themselves and their knowledge and their contacts.

I have always reached out to professionals across the country whom I considered worthy of mentor status, but in the absence of something like Twitter, maintaining those relationships takes a lot of work. With Twitter, it is automatic.

Secondly, now these people know what I do, I have relationships with many of them, and they have provided referrals, opportunities to collaborate and recommended me for professional presentations, etc. I am certain that more opportunities will arise from these connections.

Isn’t this what we used to call ‘marketing’?

Do I jump in there today and tell my attorney clients to get on Twitter? No, not unless they are inclined toward social media and are in small or solo practices, or in practices that particularly lend themselves to twitter today, like IP, media law, etc.

But I DO recommend that my in-house marketing and biz dev clients understand and be adept at using social media platforms. That way, if and when Twitter (or some other microblogging platform) becomes more necessary for attorneys, the in-house support will be there. Beyond planning for the future, twitter is an excellent way for in-house marketers to stay current on their professional reading and have topical articles to share with attorneys and management when appropriate.

So there it is — my valentine to twitter.