Law firms big and small are using dynamic, interactive such as Facebook and
Twitter to connect with the public. Here is rundown of recent social networking
tech news that your firm should be aware of.
Facebook did some back-to-school shopping this week, grabbing up the
12-member company FriendFeed for $50 million. And to further primp and preen
for the new school year, it also starting testing out "Facebook Lite"--a
streamlined, Twitter-like feed for microblogging.
FriendFeed is a social networking site, much like Twitter, and
was launched in 2007 by 4 former-Google employees. They envisioned the site
to connect friends like Facebook, but without many of the bells and whistles
that also tend to slow down the Facebook site. FriendFeed acts to view and
report back on a user's activities. If you take a quiz, Digg an article, post a
blog, your FriendFeed account will update your stream with the activity. And
the stream can be shared with friends. And like Facebook, all of your actions
are up for comment by friends. FriendFeed's real-time search has also been
considered hot stuff and Facebook may stand to gain from incorporating the
souped-up search functions to its existing service.
"Does this make me look fat?" Facebook must have wondered that this week before it
began testing 'Facebook Lite' a streamlined version of Facebook feed comparable to Facebook mobile that aims
on faster load times by limiting actions to commenting, accepting friends
requests, writing on walls, and viewing photos.
Twitter is restocking its tool belt by developing a way to easily retweet
(or re-post) a message, crediting the original poster. Retweets allow posters
to effectively follow how far their tweets reach and also to connect with a
broader audience.
If your firm hasn't already created a presence using social networking tools, it
may be the time to make a move into the microblogging hemisphere.