Social Media

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Last week during our annual conference, one of our delegates wanted to sit down with me and talk about content. He mentioned that his firm’s website didn’t have the capability for publishing articles, and there were no current plans to change that, but indicated that he had things he wanted to say about his area of practice. 

While some of you may think a blog is the answer, he had some other caveats – he wanted something that he could update and publish to as frequently or infrequently (due to his busy schedule) as he liked, and something that wouldn’t require too big of a learning curve.

"Ah ha!" I thought – LinkedIn’s new publishing platform is exactly what he needs.

I know I said last week that I wasn’t sold on it yet, but I’m coming around – it’s exactly right for this type of attorney: someone who doesn’t have the ability to publish articles on their website, is looking to get more information out there, but without as big of a commitment as a blog would be. 

On a side note, bloggers, I can hear you arguing with me already – I LOVE blogs, and I think they’re a great tool for many people. But I see LinkedIn’s publishing platform as providing a compromise between blogging and not blogging, and offering a comfortable place for lawyers such as the one I’m referring to to get their feet wet. Plus, I like that for an infrequent writer, having a full and complete LinkedIn profile keeps the page from looking abandoned, which can be very obvious on a blog, with the date of the last post always so visible. Continue Reading LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform – Could I Be Convinced?

For today’s Two for Tuesdays, I want to spend some time talking about Facebook. I can hear many of you rolling your eyes, either because we’re talking social media, or because we’re talking Facebook, or both. 

But, as I say regularly, social media is nothing more than a set of tools for building relationships – just as client lunches, cocktail receptions, and conferences are. If you use these tools to connect with people, and share yourself in the same way as you would in person (and, of course, combine the use of these tools with meeting in person), they can be extraordinarily valuable. 

So why Facebook? There’s a couple of reasons – the first is that likely most of you reading this are already on LinkedIn, which I consider to be the most professional of the social media tools. I think that will always remain the case (unless another, unique platform comes along), and I find LinkedIn to be incredibly valuable. Continue Reading Two for Tuesdays: Facebook

I’m bringing you another recap from LMA14 today – this one focused on "LinkedIn…or Left Out? An Opportunity to Big for Smart Firms to Ignore." The session description reads: 

LinkedIn is radically changing the way General Counsel evaluates outside firms. Greentarget’s 2013 social media survey found that two-thirds of in-house counsel use LinkedIn on a weekly basis. LinkedIn threatens to sideline firms who ignore its impact, and presents an opportunity for firms who mobilize their partnerships to embrace social business. In this panel, we’ll explore how leading firms are using LinkedIn to burnish their brands, enhance attorney reputations, and continuously engage clients with thought leadership." 

The panel featured Patrick Baynes (@patrickbaynes) of PeopleLinx, John Corey of Greentarget (@greentarget), Lindsay Gotwald (@lindsayweb) of Faegre Baker Daniels, Megan McKeon (@meganmckeon) of Katten Muchin Rosenman, and Michelle Woodyear (@mwoodyear) of Orrick. Continue Reading LinkedIn or Left Out – A Recap

The very last session I went to before our wrap up at LMA14 was "Can the C-Suite Lead the Social Media Law Firm?" with presenters Deborah Grabein (@dgrabein) of Andrews Kurth and Michael Hertz (@michaelhertz) of White & Case and moderator Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) of LexBlog. 

The description of the session in the conference book reads:

While Fortune 500 executives are beginning to leverage social media, law firm executives are lagging." 

Two C-Level decision makers (not practicing lawyers) in Am Law 200 firms made the decision in the fall of 2013 to start using social media, personally . They wished to experience how their use of social media could help change the perceptions of their brand, better equip them to lead their marketing and business development teams, and help them guide individual lawyers in their use of social." 

With five months of strategic consulting and coaching, these executives became active content creators and social media contributors on blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+."

Learn about the personal and firm wide challenges and rewards these law firm executives experienced, and will continue to experience in their personal use of social media." 

Continue Reading Key Takeaways from “Can the C-Suite Lead the Social Media Law Firm?”

Several years ago, when we first started to see social media take the stage, I jumped right in with both feet and never looked back. I was fortunate to be an early adopter – I say fortunate, because that means that most of my mistakes in using social media were seen by only a few people early on. I got to learn the lingo and understand the norms for each of the platforms before I was connected with hundreds or thousands of people. 

When I speak about social media, I still recommend playing around on the platforms first to understand how to use them. But today, I want to talk about the incredible importance of listening first when you join a new platform (and this advice goes for even the savviest social media user, since every platform has its own unique style). 

To give you a little background, before I switched my major to computer science, I was an anthropology major, and ended up minoring in it. I LOVE anthropology, and what really ignited my passion for it was the work I did in linquistic anthropology, which is defined as:

the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life"

Continue Reading Social Media: The Importance of Listening First

Yesterday, we discussed the first part of the excellent webinar with David Ackert & Jonathan Fitzgarrald on LinkedIn 2.0. When chatting last night with my fellow SIG leaders, Nancy asked me why it was I considered this to be the best session we’d had. She wondered if it was because they got into the "how" of using LinkedIn as opposed to the "why." 

My answer to her was that it was the 2.0 nature of it – it’s safe to assume that those participating in a social media group like ours would be those most likely to have already bought into the idea of social media, and are more focused on how to sell it to their attorneys and its practical use. Even more than that, pretty much everyone has a LinkedIn profile these days – but the idea of setting objectives and fine tuning your strategy to meet those objectives is something that’s really useful to both attorneys, and the marketing professionals trying to get them to use LinkedIn for business development.  

It also doesn’t hurt that Jonathan and David are not only excellent presenters, but also extremely knowledgeable – both when it comes to using LinkedIn and working with attorneys. 

So, if you’re a part of the LMA and have the opportunity to see the recording of the session once it’s circulated, make sure that you do so! Now let’s get into Part II…

Continue Reading LinkedIn 2.0: Efficient Strategies for Busy Lawyers – A Webinar Recap (Part II)

Apparently, this is the week for excellent webinars, because I had the privilege of attending another amazing one this afternoon. The LMA’s Social Media Shared Interest Group offered LinkedIn 2.0: Efficient Strategies for Busy Lawyers, featuring presenters David Ackert (@DavidAckert) of The Ackert Advisory and Jonathan Fitzgarrald (@JRFitzgarrald) of Greenberg Glusker, moderated by our own Nancy Myrland (@nancymyrland) of Myrland Marketing & Social Media. 

Before I get into the meat of the session (and boy, was it meaty!), I want to make sure to note that if you’d like to join the Legal Marketing Association, you can take a look at the options and categories for membership over here. 

And if you’re already a member of the LMA, and want to join the Social Media SIG (we’re cool, I promise!), you can join through the LMA website here. LMA members can also join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups (whether or not you officially belong to the SIG). Continue Reading LinkedIn 2.0: Efficient Strategies for Busy Lawyers – A Webinar Recap (Part I)