You don’t have to register for a Twitter account to read someone’s micro-blog site. You can simply point your browser to www.twitter.com/LitWorks_DTI and you can view all of our tweets (for example). However, it is a lot easier to “follow” someone if you actually have a Twitter account yourself. While it’s strongly encouraged as a two-way street, I really don’t see the harm in following and never actually saying anything yourself.

Using Twitter as an educational resource is simple.

1. Determine who’s tweets you will follow. I recommend that you start with folks listed on Tweet Discovery.com. Look for people who post links to interesting articles, blog posts and white papers that are relevant to your role as a Litigation Support Professional. Also, note who they follow… are they following people from outside of our industry? For example, we follow other trainers and project managers whether they are litigation support / e-discovery specific or not. If their tweets add value to our learning & research objectives, then we follow them.
2. Create a List & Get Organized. It is very difficult to keep up with hundreds of tweets every day. Creating a Twitter List will allow you to organize your Twitter feed into categories. You can also follow someone else’s list.
3. Define Your Personal Brand on Twitter. If you plan to re-tweet or post your own tweets (sharing information is strongly encouraged), be sure that you’ve selected a Twitter identity that is consistent with your personal brand. Remember, your current and future employers might read your posts… This topic recently came up on The Posse List blog here.