Thanks to Law Librarian Blog, I sauntered over to Typealyzer, a name ominously similar to Breathalyzer, to analyze the personality type of my blog. The Swedish site apparently applies the Meyers – Briggs Personality typology to blog entries in order to suss out the writer’s personality type.

I entered my blog URL into the box and hesitated briefly, fingers poised over enter button, wondering whether I would pass the test.

Apparently, I am INTJ – a scientist. Here is what the site had to say about this type:

The long-range thinking and individualistic type. They are especially good at looking at almost anything and figuring out a way of improving it – often with a highly creative and imaginative touch. They are intellectually curious and daring, but might be pshysically [sic] hesitant to try new things.
The Scientists enjoy theoretical work that allows them to use their strong minds and bold creativity. Since they tend to be so abstract and theoretical in their communication they often have a problem communcating [sic] their visions to other people and need to learn patience and use conrete [sic] examples. Since they are extremly [sic] good at concentrating they often have no trouble working alone.

My mis-spent youth competing on the high school Chemistry team has finally come home. But that physically hesitant thing? Clearly they haven’t seen the Penalty Magnet play soccer.

Stumbling around, I discovered a great page of Twitter applications over at the lo-fi librarian blog. Some I knew, but most I didn’t, including Twitclicks, which shortens URLs and gives stats, FriendOrFollow, which tracks who is or is not following you back, Hip & Twendy and Twitter Patterns backgrounds and Twitly, which groups friends and followers. Pimp your Twitter experience with these tools and believe the Bunny!

As I spend time on the web involved in social networking and business development, I am noticing certain truths and trends. We lawyers, actually all humans generally, are curious creatures faced with an explosion of information at our fingertips. I am learning that part of the attraction to the on-line connection is the opportunity to organize and share that information in new and increasingly efficient ways. The problem for us on-line marketers is managing that information, catching the attention of passers-by on the information superhighway and ensuring that they are glad that they stopped at the rest area for a bite to eat.

I first stumbled onto JD Supra early in my social networking trajectory and was impressed with the concept: “JD Supra is a repository of free legal information shared by the professionals who generate it.” Taken from their site:

• We give everyone access to a database of documents – court filings, decisions, forms, articles, alerts, newsletters – uploaded daily by lawyers & law firms, public interest & advocacy groups, law professors & their students, and numerous other members of the legal community.
• We give legal professionals a platform to publish top-quality work to a wide audience, maintain a profile online, and be credited for their experience, and expertise.

I book-marked the page with the intention of returning later to flesh out a profile and jump into mix with some sample work.

I recently had cause to revisit my interest: Adrian Lurssen at JD Supra asked if I would be willing to try out JD Supra’s new Facebook application prior to public press release. I eagerly agreed. I completed a profile on their web site, uploaded a couple of documents and switched over to Facebook to install the application. It loaded easily. I quickly was rewarded with a box in the sidebar showing my documents and a new tab at the top titled “My Docs”, which directed me to a schedule of my JD Supra docs. A click on the document opened a window showing the text. Easy peezy. Another tab accesses my profile highlighting my research and writing business. I returned to JD Supra and loaded another doc. A short while later, the doc showed up in my news feed for all to see.

Nearly instantly, I was able to provide a quick visual conduit to my work product to all of my Facebook friends, who might not otherwise think to visit JD Supra’s site. Unlike my Advantage Advocates Facebook page, which requires deep digging into my profile or a lucky search, JD Supra sits front and center on my profile with new additions popping up in the news feed.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Facebook. But until now I have told anyone willing to listen that LinkedIn appears to be for professional networking while Facebook is all about the “social.” Thanks to JD Supra, I am beginning to rethink my bias.

Check out how it looks: come on over to Facebook, search “Martha Sperry” and feel free to connect!