Richard Susskind discusses Twitter and Facebook, Ctd

Richard Susskind, legal technology specialist, continues with his discussion of social media:

"If my clients are sending out regular messages of about what they're doing, where they're going and what they're doing, I would want to be part of that; even if the mechanism of communication is a daft name."

Richard Susskind then stressed again that embracing change and new practices is all about being "open-minded". He said:

"Again it's an open-mindedness point. Why don't they think: well we can embrace Twitter and we can have a broader communications channel with our clients."

Susskind has said earlier in the discussion:

"Above all else, what I ask from law firms leadership is to be open-minded."

He then made an interesting point on the social media habits of more junior lawyers:

"Most junior lawyers on Facebook don't use it for business purposes."

This echoes what Brian Inkster said here:

"Of the 165 students it transpired that nearly all of them were on Facebook but only 4 on Twitter, 7 on LinkedIn, 1 on Quora and 2 had their own blog/website... clearly young lawyers need to teach themselves how to use social media for their careers. They cannot wait for their firms to catch up–not if they wish to build self-sustaining practices, not if they wish to survive this economy and the coming revolution in the delivery of legal services."

Richard Susskind finished up by laying down a challenge:

"My challenge is this: what is Facebook about? It's a way of putting information on the internet about yourself. It's a way of growing and maintaining a network of contacts. It's a way of communicating more effectively. Why would lawyers not want to use that kind of technique? Why would law firms not want to use the latest, the most effective and the best techniques?"