Lawyers who aren’t on Twitter are missing out on the “optimal digital newspaper,” writes Betsy Munnell in Twitter for the Reluctant Lawyer. And there’s a lot to miss:

Twitter is a powerful news and data filtering platform for gathering premium information and vital insights about people, companies, industries, markets, national and world events, and ideas—information and insights that will inform both your client work and your development and business generation activities. Even if you do nothing more than follow, listen and learn, you can use Twitter, paired with a data management tool like Hootsuite, to deepen your understanding of the clients and industries you serve, or wish to.

Munnell’s post makes a powerful case for being on Twitter, and her arguments will convince even the most reluctant lawyer. But that’s just the introduction: she also lays out an easy-to-follow process for extracting maximum value from Twitter where even long-time users can learn something. Read the post. Jump into the fray. You’ll be glad you did.