Ok, I admit it.  

Today I launched my blog, so I’m a bit more excited than usual and a bit more socially active than usual. Social networking active that is. 

Not that I don’t have Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In open on a daily basis, it’s just that I don’t always look at them. It takes so much time… whine whine…

Anyway, today I am excited. And today I saw a post at legalinformatics about CLE and Social Networks that got me even more exicted.

Legalinformatics Blog mentions that:

Of particular note in recent months is the use of social networks by CLE providers. Many CLE services and content creators are using social media to market their programs and connect with lawyers and other customers.

Yes, that is true. Though this has actually been going on for a bit more than recent months. I think I met the handsome Tim Baran of uMCLE (@umcle) via twitter pretty early in 2009. And I’ve been staying in touch with Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA , #aclea) members Mark Rosch (internet for lawyers @MarkRosch ) and Sean Carter (professional CLE speaker, @lawhumorist) via twitter instead of email, for the most part, for almost least a year. 

All three of these CLE related folks have been posting CLE announcements, interesting legal news tidbits and connecting with folks for much longer than I have, and I’ve been at it since Christmas 2008.

Many of my competitors have been posting announcements about their upcoming CLE seminars on twitter for quite some time as well, though I have to admit that just posting your own CLE seminar announcements on your twitter account gets a bit boring for your followers. 

Me, I haven’t quite gotten into the swing of that form of twitter posting – yet. I still abide by the "provide value, don’t just advertise" twitter manners mantra found on Mashable and elsewhere.  And I can’t point to a single customer I have gotten via twitter – yet.  But I have made some great CLE contacts!

Some of my speakers have posted upcoming CLE events on Linked-In and Facebook (for example, see Nikki Mehrpoo Jacobson’s linked-in post about an Pincus upcoming immigration CLE and Vickie Pynchon of www.negotiationlawblog.com @vpynchon). 

And while I haven’t met him yet, @Richards1000, a law librarian in PA, posts about upcoming CLE all the time.

But what is most interesting about Social Networking and CLE is… 

how providers like myself (and CLE speakers like Sean, Mark, Irwin Karp and others) will be integrating Social Networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook during our CLE seminars.

This is a topic that has been discussed among professional public speakers (people who get paid to speak in public) on linked-in a bit. Some speakers have complained of seeing audience members "twittering" during presentations. The response has been mixed and may be slightly generational (that’s my non-scientific impression). 

I have invited people to "tweet" at our CLEs about the CLE a few times recently, though I don’t know the results. I have tweeted tips from my speakers as they are speaking at a Pincus CLE and seen these tips re-tweeted.

I am currently talking with some of my techies on how to intentionally integrate Twitter and Facebook into live CLE seminars and especially in conjunction with our webinars. 

I noticed that Peach New Media already appears to be doing stuff like this.

Maybe it is time for Tim Baran to do another Survey?  Since he has more followers on Twitter, I’ll let him do it – but Tim, you have to send me the results!

And, if you are looking for a primer on using Twitter for your own business (CLE, law firm or othewise) I recommend Mashable’s Twitter Guidebook and also Twitter 101 for Business. 

And please, feel free to follow me at @PincusProEd (CLE conversations) and/or @faithpincus (public speaking tips and quotes)

Merry Twittering and Happy Facebook everyone.

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