Social media: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogging, etc. …. the legal workplace transformed

When Twitter gets a full-page analysis in the Financial Times, well … we guess Twitter has truly “arrived”.   As the Financial Times says, there is more to this new internet fashion than meets the eye:  “For in its deceptively simple way, Twitter has stumbled on a formula that a whole generation of recent web start-ups has been searching for: a way for people to connect with friends, express themselves and find information that stands a chance of one day becoming as popular as other mass online trends such as blogging and social networking”.  Full article here.

And with the announcement that Google has created a Twitter account (actually, several) there is some serious speculation that Google just might be looking to acquire the microblogging platform.  Access the PC World article here.

As Advertising Age put it in a recent article “Social media, at the end of the day, is about reinventing communication … If you really peel the onion on what’s happening across blogs, Twitter and other online communities, brands are setting up de facto listening labs that rewrite the rules of gathering and managing feedback. We’re getting more ideas faster. The funnel is broadening. The filters are sharper, more immediate and grounded in deeper levels of intimacy with the product or proposition”.   Full article here.

And lawyers of all backgrounds are all over it and in it:  they are using it, and they are also inmeshed in all the legal issues on the rise from its use.  Posse List members are using it constantly to network and find jobs, and Posse List members who have decided to strike out on their own tell us it is invaluable for building their practices.

For just a tiny, tiny slice of what’s out there for lawyers:

Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs

Gabe’s Guide series about social media and e-discovery 

Social Media Marketing 101

To Twitter or Not To Twitter? That Is the Question for Lawyers

Legal Marketing

Thousands of new Twitter Groups

Twitter for Entrepreneurs

Top 50 Recruiters on Twitter

And (no surprise here) there is a growing niche market for lawyers on developing policies for the use of social networks and internet forums in the workplace and policy guidance to protect employers from litigation liability.  We recently heard about the first CLE on this area titled “Facebook, MySpace & Blogging in the Workplace: What’s Legal; What’s Not” which you can access here.

Gabes Guide is running a series on social media, especially the medium’s impact on e-discovery.

The Posse List will continue with its articles on social media but focused on how it can help you find jobs, and also provide you (if it’s your inclination) the opportunity to freelance.  Much, much more on that in the coming weeks.