FindLaw's #FirstTweet: Social Media Then and Now

Twitter -- one of FindLaw's neighbors in Silicon Valley -- turns 8 years old today. The social media messaging company is celebrating its anniversary by remembering a wave of #FirstTweets.

USA Today shared that Barack Obama's first tweet involved ending the war in Iraq, while Oprah Winfrey hilariously said "HI TWITTERS" [sic].

But more importantly, what did FindLaw say in our #FirstTweet?

@FindLaw's #FirstTweet

The @FindLaw account made its debut on Mar 10, 2011, with this tweet:

FindLaw Release: Tips for Your Remodeling or Landscaping Projects - http://t.co/dXdP3Kw

-- FindLaw (@FindLaw) March 10, 2011

Remodeling seems to be an appropriate theme for our first tweet, and the author of the linked piece, Tanya Roth, has transformed from a blog writer to the FindLaw Blogs Team Lead.

Roth's own #FirstTweet followed a few years later with a #JerseyShore reference for the Garden State's Supreme Court -- "My first tweet wherein I screwed up the @mention," laments Roth, reflecting on her first foray into the Twitterverse.

But what about our Consumer and Legal Professional #FirstTweets?

@FindLawConsumer and @FindLawLP

Like a Greek god or a balloon-animal artist, the FindLaw social media team has taken a null space on Twitter and breathed life into two colorful, well-followed Twitter accounts.

@FindLawConsumer tweeted just months after @FindLaw with:

Hi everyone! Excited to join the Twitter community and share interesting and entertaining legal news with you!

-- FindLaw Consumers (@FindLawConsumer) June 22, 2011

Stephen Chang, a FindLaw Social Networks Specialist, reflected that a lot has changed since those early days.

FindLaw's "shyness" has mostly evaporated since its first days on Twitter, Chang explained. "Besides sharing our own content, we also share more outside content, such as retweets ... kinda like someone would share with friends."

FindLaw Bloggers' #FirstTweets

Although Twitter has been around for about as long as the iPhone, our writers have had mixed experiences with their first tweets.

Some were all business, like yours truly (I just retweeted a @FindLawConsumer tweet):

Court strikes down Arizona 20-week abortion ban - http://t.co/sim3gsRBc4

-- FindLaw Consumers (@FindLawConsumer) May 21, 2013

Others, like Legal Professional Blogs Senior Writer Willie Peacock, started with something elegant yet simple:

Tweet.

-- William Peacock, esq (@PeacockEsq) March 30, 2012

Still more, like experienced Consumer Blogs Editor Andrew Chow, skewed a bit more toward an Andy Rooney-esque #FirstTweet:

How does this work? How do I add friends or whatever? I'm old & confused.

-- Andrew Chow, Esq. (@legalchow) March 21, 2008

You can follow even more FindLaw writers on either FindLaw Consumers' or FindLaw for Legal Professionals' public lists.

Have some thoughts about your #FirstTweet? Share your story on our feeds @FindLawConsumer or @FindLawLP.