The LinkedIn Lawyer: BubbleTweets for Distinguished Social Media Lawyers

Friday, January 30, 2009

BubbleTweets for Distinguished Social Media Lawyers

Names like “Tweetbubble” or "BubbleTweet" can make even the toughest trial lawyers’ eyes roll back in the head. Much like the International House of Pancakes patrons ordering the “Rooty Tooty Fresh N’ Fruity” with an embarrassed whisper, many of today’s distinguished attorneys use the new nouns and verbs of social media with some trepidation.

While waiting in line for the court clerk, during a break at trial, or when counsel awaits the verdict of a jury deliberation, the shift to this new whimsical language can be downright amusing:

“hey um … have you started using Tweeter … Twitted … I mean Twitter?“

“well I just started that stuff … I guess yesterday was the first time I Tweeted, but I felt pretty good about it. I figure the more Tweeple I get, the more well known my new DUI defense practice will be.”

“nice going … the other day I Facebooked someone, but I just about lost it when I got a message on LinkedIn from this guy who had a Twitter-bubble or something … um, did I miss this class in law school?”

Counsel, hang tough. Just like learning the new vocabulary of the law when we were just starting to quack like a duck as first year law students, seeing the social media forest through the trees can enable you to overcome this foreign landscape for your profit – this time by taking advantage of some of the most cost-effective legal marketing available.

Bubble Guru Kevin Sherman’s BubbleTweet is not only worth a try, it may have a huge online social media impact.

His primary product of self-executing videos is the BubbleTweet – which makes a great introduction to your Twitter profile. It is great because BubbleTweet puts the people in the media, and does so very effectively.

Even as Portalfuse's Social Media Blog cautiously and critically reviewed the article "How Will Social Media Change in 2009?"

they had to “agree the most with her #1 point: It’s About People:

…(S)ocial media is bringing back the human element to all digital interaction. People now deliberately seek meaningful connection, self-expression, and a relevant and receptive community.”

Feedback on my Tweetbubble from New Media Product Manager at LexisNexis, Alin Wagner-Lahmy (who also blogs at Sleepless in NY and Virtually Social) struck a similar note:

“Seeing your (BubbleTweet) clip brought a huge smile on my face and I hurried up sending it through to all my friends and connections - it was one of those rare moments on web when two media formats were sitting together in such harmony, complementing each other in a perfect mix. Just a drop from each, and voila - there's a real taste of personality here!

Seems like Twitter's nuggets-sized content bits form a perfect base for different formats to be layered within and/or on top of one another - and what a tasty dish it is! [I could go on and on here about Jeremiah Owyang's "Content like Shish Kebob - bite sized media" theory (see Slideshare presentation under “Appendix A - The Future of Social Media in the Social Era" below), but maybe best to chew one idea at a time...).

I am always very curious about the role of video with 'conversational' communities, I think this is a great example of a simple yet brilliant start: will it just remain an introductory video or will it develop into a 'status update' either in its own right or complementing textweets, and how will that work with 12seconds.tv ? that, I guess, remains to be seen - and we'll all be watching every second of it. literally.”

Thanks for the conversation Alin.

BubbleComment may Revolutionize Micro-blogging

Bubble Guru Kevin Sherman has another similar product, BubbleComment, which is very similar to BubbleTweet but allows one to create a webpage overlay – so that a bubble video can allow users (and micro-bloggers) to provide a video comment to any existing web page.

Let’s face it, as we use Twitter more our demand for quality Tweets increases. We are quickly becoming bored over Tweets like “having lunch” or “having a ham sandwich for lunch … mmmm” or “boy I’m tired … having coffee” and a recent Retweet from Adrian Lurssian of JD Supra captured the need for high interest content well -

@JDTwitt RT LOL @davewiner Twitter should replace the question 'What are you doing?' with OMG NWAY!

“Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user.“

But it wouldn’t really take much to “revolutionize” micro-blogging, as after a while many folks sharing links get around to sharing the same ones – and scanning websites in the race to be first isn’t always the best use of a lawyer’s time.

However, adding a BubbleComment to a shared website link, not only allows an added human factor, but it adds an ability to comment on, add to, or interact with the content on the shared link to add value.

For example, I was able to get involved with Larry Bodine’s blog post on Are (Law) Marketers Really Using Twitter? - even apparently after having missed his solicitation for comments.

Pointing out links I haven’t seen is great, and I appreciate those who do share interesting and useful content. At the same time, I would love to see a quick comment from many of the professionals I follow in response to many of those links, as the social media landscape is forever evolving and there are few authoritative resources. Publishing about social media is just becoming "part of the conversation."

Creative uses for combining BubbleComments seem to be only beginning. I have added them on my own blog posts (LinkedIn QuickLink Invitations (Quicklinks are Great!)) and I have added one to my own LinkedIn profile.

Still skeptical?

I have noticed on Twitter Search that there has been some favorable buzz on Twitter about the BubbleTweet that I use as a profile introduction -

@econwriter5: RT @JDTwitt if you haven't seen it - go to @barrettdavid and click on the link in his twitter bio. grab some popcorn, oda & turn off yr cell

@JDTwitt: if you haven't seen it - go to @barrettdavid and click on the link in his twitter bio. then grab some popcorn and a soda & turn off yr cell

@JDTwitt: @barrettdavid that bubble tweet on your twitpage is COOL. wild, crazy, cool. i'd imagine as the concept spreads it'll become like

alinwagnerlahmy: started writing a comment 4 @barrettdavid 's fab bubble & got so carried away I almost wrote a booklet. no worries ive cut it into a par ...

"Appendix A - The Future of Social Media in the Social Era"

The Future of Media in the Social Era

View more presentations from jeremiah_owyang. (tags: socialmedia media)