A Practical Guide To Using Social Media For Lawyers

L E A D E R NETWORKS

A practical guide to social media for

the business and practice of law

Vanessa DiMauro

CEO, Leader Networks

617 484 0778

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Goals

• Examination of social media and how it applies to legal professionals

– Survey of the applicable tools and an overview of how they work

– Examination of Law 2.0 trends

– Exploration of social media rules of engagement, ethics and participation guidelines

• Case study application of social media to key drivers in the business and practice of law

– Use cases built upon LinkedIn and Martindale Hubbell Connected professional networks

• Best practice knowledge and planning guide for using social media in the legal profession

2(c) Leader Networks 2009 http://www.leadernetworks.com


Presenter’s BIO

• Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of Leader Networks. A pioneer in business-to-business community building, Vanessa has been creating successful virtual communities and networks for more than fifteen years. Vanessa is a popular speaker, researcher and author on social networking, online communities and Web 2.0 for businesses. With a research background, Vanessa takes the approach of a cultural anthropologist to guide businesses on the use of social networking and virtual community building to get closer to the customer, generate revenue and achieve significant ROI. She has founded and run leading online professional communities such as Cambridge Information Network (CIN), Computerworld Executive Suite and CXO Systems' Peer Visibility Network.

• Vanessa also serves as an Executive-In-Residence at Babson College for their MBA program. She has led executive education courses at UCLA’s Anderson School, the University of Miami and at the University of Chicago. Women in Technology International (WITI) named Vanessa DiMauro one of "Boston's Most Influential Women in Technology." She holds both a B.A. and an M.A. from Boston College.

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(c) Leader Networks 2009 http://www.leadernetworks.com


Professional networking & social media

It’s all about connecting online

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Social media means you connecting and collaborating with other legal

professionals using online tools

Getting new businessExtending your reputation online

Finding new ideas and peers

Discovering answers to questions online

Reaching outside counsel Connecting online

The Benefits of Using Social Media

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Social Connecting & Online Professional Networking Differences

Social connecting is about fun, friends and family sharing online

Online professional networking helps business professionals find each other, interact, collaborate, and share information essential to achieve a business objective

• Virtual networks are today’s digital business cards

• Examples of online professional networks include:– LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) All types of professionals

– Martindale-Hubbell Connected (www.martindale.com/connected) Legal professionals

– Sermo (www.sermo.com) Physicians

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http://www.linkedin.com/

http://www.martindale.com/connected

http://www.sermo.com/


Lawyers Are Using Online Networking Now

According to the Networks for Counsel (2008) study by Leader Networks and LexisNexis…

Approximately 50% of counsel belong to a social network such as LinkedIn or MySpace (as of April 2008)

• Corporate Counsel are over 3x more likely to use their network for professional reasons

• Counsel prefer a private online network for just attorneys

• Martindale-Hubbell Connected is the online network attorneys favor most

And they believe it helps them work…

– Access to information I can’t get anyplace else – 46%

– Easier exchange of information – 45%

– More quickly find and evaluate the right legal partners – 29%

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The Social Media Landscape


Example of Digital Channels for Lawyers

Blogs andOnline News

ReputationAggregators Community Social Networks

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https://www.linkedin.com/home;jsessionid=1944EA57AF1DC713351A1F7BC8D346EA.app05?trk=logo

http://www.blogpulse.com/index.html

http://twitter.com/home

http://www.jdsupra.com/index.aspx


Primary Professional Networking Activities for Lawyers

•Alerts

•Feeds

•Scans

1. Listening

•Join an appropriate community

•Create a basic profile

•Connect with others

•Ratings and rankings

•Blog comments

•Discussions & groups

•Questions & answers

2. Collaborating•Enhance your profile

•Blogs

•Podcasts

•Photos & videos

•Social bookmarking

3. Promoting

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Utilizing Online Legal Business Tools

• Preferred provider management• Integrated search

• Client ratings



Social Media = A Business Process Redesign for Online Collaboration and Promotion

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Strapping new tools onto an old process won’t yield the desired results



Maintaining a Positive Online Reputation

Career Builder did a study (Sept. 2008) on how employers and hiring managers use social media to vet candidates. Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:

• 48% - candidate’s background supported their qualifications

• 43% - candidate had great communication skills

• 40% - candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture

• 36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image

• 31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others

• 30% - candidate showed a wide range of interests

• 29% - candidate received awards and accolades

• 24% - candidate’s profile was creative

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Keep your digital persona professional and appropriate

Clean up any digital dirt on personal sites



Listening: Reputation Management

• Discover your online identity

– Research yourself, your firm or company and your area of practice

– http://www.google.com/alerts

– Fix or edit any incorrect information about you or your firm.

• If you find yourself quoted, mentioned or commented about on a blog or article, use comments area to respond – right away

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Activity + Credibility = Visibility


http://www.google.com/alerts


Listening: Monitoring the Online Channels

Find blogs that you want to read regularly and

follow those blogs

• Visit them regularly (manually) or

• Use a web browser to follow that RSS feed or

• Subscribe by email

• Follow bloggers & journalists through RSS

• Connect to peers and thought leaders via the Twitter follow feature

• Search SlideShare and YouTube and join groups of like-minded professionals

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Three Main Business Drivers for Counsel’s Use of Social Media

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1. Build connections and advance relationships

2. Collaborate with peers to problem solve and create

trust

3. Promote yourself and your organization; showcase

your own or your firm’s legal expertise

Online Professional Networks for lawyers are a unique opportunity to:



Factors for Choosing a Professional Network

Brand: Seek sites with a strong industry footprints to ensure longevity

Safety and security:– Participate in networks that you trust, and which provide sufficient

security and authentication to make professional users feel safe– This is a key benefit to private, members-only and legal-focused

networks

Global membership: One of the great benefits of online networking is its global reach. Seek out international communities for business

Diversity of features: Your Law 2.0 needs will change over time. Find a network that offers many different ways to participate

Size: Look for a critical mass of members in your specialty to achieve your networking goals

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Collaborating: Vetting a Professional Network

Be cautious when:

• The site allows legal advice to be offered electronically

• The site’s Terms and Conditions do not respect your privacy, or will sell or rent your contact information

• You cannot tell what company or entity created the site ... or why

• Members are allowed to advertise or solicit in the forums or interactive areas on the site without permission from the site operator.

• There is no authentication process following a registration to ensure you are who you say you are.

• Anonymity is allowed throughout the site

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Collaborating & Promoting:The Importance of Your Online Profile

• Peer referral is the strongest source of jobs, recommendations, new business relationships.

• Professionals are increasingly going online first to research firms, people and topics

• Online profiles are today’s virtual business card

– And they can be forwarded, emailed, bookmarked and linked to

• Profiles form the basis for connections as online networking grows in relevance.

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Case studies: Best Practice Social Networks for Lawyers

Martindale-Hubbell Connected

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LinkedIn



Collaborating: Creating an Effective Social Media Profile

• She is reachable and accessible

• Effective photo and contact information

• Expertise and area of practice is clear and well defined

• Credible authority established

• Bio is first person

• “She has spoken on 6 continents about the rule of law, women in the law, and the future of the law.”

• Links to others = well connected

• Interests give personal feeling

• Activity and frequency of use establishes commitment

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Another Effective Social Media Profile

• Approachable photo

• Bio written in the 1St person and includes summary

– Focus on helping others understand who he is not on impressing with how important he is.

• Invitation to connect in introduction

• Accessible summary of accomplishments

– authentic voice and tone

• Recommendations

• Blog feed imbedded in profile

• Links to website and blog in profile

• Groups displayed to show affiliation

• Inclusion of human experience– Volunteer focus, travel interests

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Example: How a Professional Network Profile Is Used

Sam maintains a profile on 2-3 key professional networks• 1 is public, 2 are private legal communities

• Sam’s profiles have links to articles, discussion posts, recommendations, & peer connections

The profile in action: • Peter is seeking a legal expert to contract out a matter

• Peter searches Google and surfaces Sam’s Martindale.com profile based on a key word search

• Peter discovers Sam’s Connected profile and logs in or joins Connected

• Peter sees Sam has extensive experience in the legal matter under consideration

• On LinkedIn, Peter notices that both he and Sam know Louis

– Peter calls or emails Louis to get the info on Sam as they are both connected

• On Martindale Hubbell Connected, Peter logs in to his account, reads Sam’s contributions in the discussions and requests a connection to him on Connected.

• Peter is pleased he has found an expert and hires Sam to handle the matter

• Because Peter reminded Louis about Sam through the referral network online, Louis updates Sam’s contact information on his preferred provider list.

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The Network Effect

• Jim connects to 14 people upon joining a Network

• Those 14 people live in 12 different states and 1 different country

• And represent 7 different areas of expertise

• Jim now has the ability to connect with all 14 people’s connections

• Jim is now connected to about 400 people

• Just by connecting to 14 people

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Professional networking success

means making connections

And using them well



How to Connect to a Peer Online

• Find people to whom you want to connect by searching the networks to which you belong or, if you encounter someone you want to know, invite them to connect with you on your preferred network.

• If someone initiates a connection and you want to connect:– Accept the invitation

– Send a brief thank you note to them

– Best practice: If they are a remote connection: email them or send an InMail to them occasionally to keep the connection alive. Be sure to include updates to your work such as recent articles or information.

• If you do not want to be connected to someone initiating a connection:– If you do not know the person, it’s OK to ignore the invitation

– If you are uncomfortable with ignoring the invitation, send an email or InMail message offering a reason for not connecting (i.e. don’t use that channel often, trying to limit connections, etc.)

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Inviting Others to Connect Online

Call it “the Virtual Handshake” – Best practices include:

• Asking permission to connect is encouraged

• Individually decide if it is appropriate to initiate a connection

• Always write a personal email – do not use an email template

• If a person doesn’t respond, generally do not send a reminder

• Thank people for connecting to you

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Keeping Connections Alive

Best Practices & Opportunities

• OK -- you’re connected. Now what?

• Unfortunately, people often ignore connections until they need something!

Instead ....• Outreach to your contacts every so often

– Choose a few a month and email them

• Focus on accomplishments, recent wins, new blog post etc.

• Send them articles, ideas, discussions they may be interested in

• Use feeds and other features on networks to keep your profile active (i.e. Slideshare or blog feed on profile)

• Keep track of what your connections are doing to benchmark yourself

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LinkedIn and Connected as an Online Promotion Channel

• “What are you working on” feature (LinkedIn)

– Use to promote or market ideas or activities

• Drive traffic to your blog and presentations

– Blog, Slideshare, comments feed

• Premium service offerings

– Pay subscription rate to raise search result visibility

– Ability to reach out and contact people you do not know via InMail

• Ad Network (LinkedIn)

– Targeted advertising for a fee to select demographic segments

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Use all aspects of the profile

opportunity to demonstrate

your thought-leadership so

when others look you up,

you stand apart



Using Martindale-Hubbell Connected to Build Connections

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Martindale Hubbell Connected – a strong channel for finding others and extending your referral network in single location

Legal professionals only membership base = all connections are safe and relevant

Recommendation engine helps members find other members contextually

Interactive areas like forums, blogs and updates enable knowledge of people, practice and firms to come together



Community Connects Network To Professional Context

• Forums, podcast, blog posts, quickpolls offer insight and 360 degree view of your network (and you)

• 24X7 online conference of expertise and specialty

• Payoff for participation is high. With legal-only networks, 100% target audience.

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Professional Networks for Peer Collaboration

“You have a time-sensitive question you need answered.”

• Post a message in a discussion group

– Choose the universe for responses (i.e. LinkedIn = everyone)

– Legal professionals only (i.e. Martindale Hubbell Connected)

– A private group of select or selected individuals (LinkedIn or Martindale Hubbell Connected)

• Launch a quickpoll or survey (i.e. Martindale Hubbell Connected)

• Use network mail to reach out to connections (LinkedIn or Martindale Hubbell Connected)

• Majority of professionals use peer networks to make strategic decisions

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Information is gathered, connections are built, decisions are made

quickly and effectively online.

(c)


Professional Networks for Collaboration in Action

“What is the word on the street about the impact of

this new tax code amendment that just passed?”

• You find a group dedicated to tax issues on Martindale Hubbell Connected and join the group.

• You look to LinkedIn Answers for a discussion about the new tax code and read the responses.

• You search the Membership Directories and profiles for a peer who has expertise in this new tax code and invite him to a discussion

• You search Twitter and see what people are saying about the topic.

• Once you have a point of view, you continue to participate in the forums and also do a brief podcast on the topic for the online tax group

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Participating in Online Discussions and Groups

In a discussion

• Best for engaging a wide audience on a topic, question or issue

• Open to all community members who can read and respond

• Expect quick but only moderately deep responses in most cases

• Very common to invite others to join you in a discussion

• Some discussions are transactional –“how do I, where can I” and others are more thoughtful and reflective.

In a group

• More private, with a smaller number of participants and specific topics

• Often closed and available only to members of the group

• Participation tends to evolve over time and group dynamics apply

• When you join a group, be sure to introduce yourself and participate

• Make contributions and not sit on the sidelines. If you have nothing to add, perhaps the group is not right for you

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Using Groups to Segment Your Audience

• Groups are a great way to segment the growing audience of professional network users

– Connect with other around a common professional interest

– Narrow peer groups into smaller, more focused clusters and allows for more substantial professional conversation

– Enables “deep dives” into subject matter with others who understand the nuances, language and issues of a specific topic

• Joining a group is a more intimate experience than joining a network

– Introduce yourself to the group and offer brief background

– Participate frequently and offer ideas, questions and insights

– Above all, be helpful and pro-active to maximize value for all

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“I Want to Deepen My Relationship With Clients and Contacts” Using Social Media

INVITE ~ CONNECT ~ SEARCH ~ CONTRIBUTE

– Send them a link to a story that would be relevant or interesting to them

– Watch their blog on Connected, for example, and use the comment feature

– Answer their questions in the discussion groups

– Feature them on your blog or reference them favorably in the community

Also/Or …

– Invite them to participate in an online discussion topic with you

– Connect them to others with whom they may want to be connected

– Reach out to them every month or so, using the network as the catalyst

– Search for all of the lawyers at a client who are members of the network, identify relationships and connect with them

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© Leader Networks 2009 http://www.leadernetworks.com


“How Do I Use Social Media to IncreaseProfessional Credibility & Raise Visibility?”

# 1 Opportunity: Be a Thought Leader and share your POV

• Through social media the opportunity is there for the taking!

• Professional networks offer MANY opportunities to showcase your knowledge

• Participation is key to using social media successfully

IT is yours for the taking

Discuss IT, blog IT, answer IT, poll IT, comment on IT, podcast IT

Use the tools of social media to take charge of IT

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Promoting: Using Social Media to Prospect

Prepared

Connected

In step with others

Graceful

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Or ... How social media are just like being at a face-to-face event



Professional Networks for Sourcing Global Lawyers

“I need to hire an IP lawyer in China for an infringement case, but don’t know Chinese law or have any contacts in China”

• Search the connections of your peers for Chinese lawyers

– Use InMail or contact Connections for references or greater detail on the lawyers surfaced.

– Use professional network search and Web search to surface lawyers

– Research/vet those found on the professional network

• Examine discussion posts, blog entries and profile for relevance

– Request a connection through peer 37



Use Social Media To Take The Pulse of Legal Issues and Peer Experts

Example: “My company is dealing with a new ERISA law. What are other companies doing about it?”

Many ways to take the pulse using social media:

• Use quickpoll feature on professional communities to launch an anonymous inquiry of your peers.

• Start a discussion group

• Blog the question and your POV. Invite comments and peer review.

• Use search on the network to find other peers and invite them into a group to discuss. Establish a private group for maximum information exchange.

• Use search and Google alerts to track news and POV commentary

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8 Minute Social Media Game Plan

For an effective Social Media savvy lawyer...

• Spends 5 minutes a day scanning RSS feeds, blogs and emails

• 1 second to check reputation alert, topic or company key word alert

– 5 minutes to respond-- if need be -- to a blog post or social media entry

– Send email to author of great article – invites to connect if she responds

• Logs into professional network every few days for about 8-10 minutes

– Connects to 1-3 people every few visits

– Writes a personalized email to 1-2 connections

– Scans forums or blogs

• Comments briefly or posts a message

• Once or twice a month (at least) – writes or co-writes a blog entry

– Twitters new blog post

– Posts blog on network profile

– RSS sends blog entry automatically to all subscribers

– Responds to comments

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Be transparent and clear in identity and intention

Adhere to ethical rules and guidelines governing counsel

YOYOW - You own your own words

Be responsive & trustworthy

Finish what you start

Value and create thought leadership

Ethics, Guidelines & Best Practices

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A Social Media Project Plan

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Tools &

TechniquesSystem DesignPlan Goals and

Key ObjectivesMetrics and

Milestone

Innovation Design Development Assessment

Align with

MarketingPrototype tools

Revisit goals &

continue

Identify key goalsi.e. reputation management, peer group collaboration, thought leadership evangelization

Design documentWho – do you want to attract

or connect with

What – is your point of view:

expert, learner, specialty, tone

When – timeframe for mini-

milestones that support goals

Where- what digital channels

do you want to use

Why- measurement goals.

Identify channels

online

What’s working what’s not?



What You Need to Succeed: the Three P’s

• A Purpose for engaging– Know what you want to get out of online professional networking– Define the social media program goals and plans (increase awareness of

partners capabilities, share thought leadership)

• A Point of View– Use the virtual podium wisely – photo, info & ideas and update– Power to showcase knowledge

• let your attorneys show what they know • Transparency is key• If they would be allowed to attend an event without regulation, let them

online without controls

• Patience– Returns come over time - expect results after 3-6 months.– In person rules of engagement = online rules of engagement

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Managing Expectations

• Return on Social media takes time– Roadmaps and process exposure is key

• Social media success takes planning– Clients need to know where they want to go

• Social media is less structured – Accept that you can not control the outcome of social media efforts entirely– Need to be responsive and proactive at the same time

• Social media outcomes CAN be measured– Buzzmetrics, ROI, customer retention, revenue generation, cross-sell/up sell,

competitive information value, new client acquisition

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Social Media Is Here to Stay

OPPORTUNITY

• Still (great) room for market domination in the Legal profession

• The barrier to entry is low and returns are high

VELOCITY

• Greater reach, greater efficiency, low cost

• Attract and retain new business (if private practice) or

• Connect and grow practice and connections (if corporate counsel)

• Can target regional, national & specialty at the same time.

BEST PRACTICES

• Other industries and people have succeeded so lawyers can learn from those (individuals and industries) who have already succeeded

• Treat social media efforts like any other thought leadership or marketing program: set goals, employ best practices, measure and grow

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Date post:	20-Aug-2015
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