What is a Thought Leader? A Rose By Any Other Name Should Use the Other Name

The term "thought leader" is attributed to former Harvard Business Review editor in chief Joel Kurtzman.  When Kurtzman was editor-in-chief of the magazine Strategy + Business, he first used the phrase in 1994, labeling those he interviewed for their forward-thinking, savvy business ideas as "thought leaders."

Today, "thought leader" is a phrase that has been so overused and misapplied that many find its use suspicious.  Use it, and be ready: for many, it sets off the internal "BS alarm." 

Last year, Rob Cottingham at Read.Write.Web. suggested that "thought leader" be one of those buzzwords we no longer use.  Once useful, Cottingham finds its had all its life sucked out of it by overapplication.

I agree.  Don't get me wrong:  I like the phrase.  I like it.  Problem is, so many have used it and so many have stuck it on folk that are so obviously NOT thought leaders that it's just not valuable any longer - at least not in a good way. 

It reminds me of fajita tacos.  Boy, were they great when they first arrived.  We'd all go to the restaurant downtown and await the hissing cast iron skillets as they sojourned through the dining room to our white linen tabletops.  Beef, chicken, onions, bell peppers, charred and lovely and steaming. 

Now, you drive through any taco franchise and order a couple of fajita tacos and they arrive in a paper sack, with some salsa and guacamole on the side if you're lucky.  Still tasty, but just not the same.

Twitter is a Bigger Search Engine than Yahoo or Bing: How Many Law Firms are Excluding Themselves From the Search Results?

This morning, I learned via a tweet from Ford Motor Company's social media guru, @ScottMonty, that there was an article worth reading over at Fast Company.  As usual, Mr. Monty proves he knows his stuff.

Austin Carr's article, "Twitter Now the World's Fastest Growing Search Engine," is definitely worth your time.  Carr is reporting from the Aspen Ideas Festival -- and he's giving the information shared there by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. 

Twitter is getting 800 million search queries every day. Do the math, and Twitter search exceed 24 billion/month -- according to Stone, that number is higher than the total monthly searches at Yahoo and Bing combined.

If you want to get down and dirty about what all this means, SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan has a great article written back in April 2010 giving lots of the details here, "Twitter Does 19 Billion Searches Per Month, Beating Yahoo & Bing, Sort Of."  In his post, Sullivan quotes Doug Cook of Twitter as predicting they'll hit 1 billion searches per day very soon. 

Wow.

For lawyers and law firms, take the hint.  It's important to be included in those Twitter search results, and unless you have one or more Twitter accounts, you're excluding yourself. 

For an easy step by step, practical guide for lawyers and law firms on Twitter -- how to join, how to tweet, etc. -- please feel free to download my free e-book, Twitter Nuts n Bolts 4 Lawyers: a How-to Guide for Law Firms.  The price is right, and I hear good things about this short little book being very helpful.

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand

Lawyers and Social Media: Examples of Law Firms on LinkedIn

When it debuted, LinkedIn was a free online service focused upon helping employers and employees: members could search the site to find new jobs or new hires. LinkedIn was smart to change with the times, and not limit itself to a job search site.

Today, LinkedIn is more of a professional networking service. Most larger law firms and legal professionals are likely to have a LinkedIn membership.

On LinkedIn, professionals “connect” with each other and the LinkedIn service then notifies its members of those who may know each other – or have connections with friends of friends. You link with an old friend from law school, and suddenly, you are given lots of potential "connections" through that friend's network of contacts. LinkedIn afficianados can have 500-1000 connections.

LinkedIn information such as Specialties, New Hires, Firm Size, Firm Revenue, and individual resume pages of firm partners and associates are provided for marketing purposes via Linked In.

Examples of law firms currently on LinkedIn:

Baker & McKenzie
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/baker-&-mckenzie

Clifford Chance
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/clifford-chance?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_2

Holland & Knight
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/holland-%26-knight-llp?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_1

Jones Day
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/jones-day?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_2

WilmerHale
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/wilmerhale?trk=co_search_results&goback=%2Ecps_1269812930126_1

For more information:

Web 2.0 for Lawyers: What is "Social Media" for Law Firms and Why Bother?

Facebook and Divorce: the new AAML Study and the Need to Know Client Web Chatter

Attorneys Take Note: Major Corporations Pay People Just to Tweet

Twitter for Biz Pros: The Debut of ExecTweets

Attorneys Take Note: Yesterday's Reputation is Today's Personal Brand