Social Networking / Web 2.0 Revolution

74. What hath God wrought?Samuel Morse: 22 characters Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.Alexander Graham Bell: 41 characters That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.Neil Armstrong: 58 characters

75. Adoption Curve

76. "Mr. Watson-- come here. I want to see you."

77.

78.

79.

80.

81.

82.

83. Why Use Web 2.0? Web Presence Monitor and Guard your Brand Connect with Peers and Clients Knowledge Sharing

84.

85.

86.

87.

88. Adoption Curve

89.

90.

91. Why Use Web 2.0? Web Presence Monitor and Guard your Brand Connect with Peers and Clients Knowledge Sharing

92.

93.

94.

95.

96. Monitor

97.

98.

99.

100.

101.

102.

103.

104.

105.

106. Ability to Damage

107. Facebook with your Boss

108. Viruses

109. Confidential

110.

111. Confidential

112.

113.

114. Securities laws

115. Financial Performance

116. Identify yourself

117. Disclaimers

118. Be respectful

119. Anonymous Contributions

120. Use of logos or service marks

121.

122. Employees must register twitter

123. Subscribe to employee blogs

124.

125. LinkedIn.com/in/dougcornelius

126. Twitter.com/DougCornelius

127. DougCornelius.com

128. flickr.com/photos/dougcornelius

129. LibraryThing.com/catalog/dougcornelius

130. delicious.com/dougcornelius

131. Wired.com/GeekDad

Editor's Notes

Here is what I want to cover this morning.But I’m going to start by talking a little bit more about my background and my perspective. You’re already sitting here, so I’m not going to run through my resume. But my story may give you some understanding on the topic.
So today I am speaking to you as A lawyerA clientA legal administratorA bloggerHopefully, I can pull all those perspectives together to help you understand the social networking revolution
You’re still here, so I assume you want to take the red pill.You want to learn about the world changing revolution that is social media.Ready.
The truth is.It’s not that different.
Social networking
Its redundant.All networking is social. You’re trying to connect with people.The best way is to network is to meet a person face to face. But we are looking for ways to help keep that connection viable. We’ve networking in many different ways for a long time. The tools we are going to discuss are just a new way.
Social media(by the way, it’s a term I hate.)
Media has always been about connection people with information.Newspapers have been printing letters to the editor for centuries. Watercooler talk is often about a story in the news, last night’s television show or a column in the paper. Did Facebook invent the concept of writing on someone’s wall?
No.We’ve been writing on walls for millenia.These cave wall drawings were a way to tell stories and communicate with the people in your network. It’s just that your network was limited to the Neanderthals living in your cave.
Web 2.0 is just another step in the evolution of communication. Technology and tools that help us communicate have come and gone over the centuries. Some stay for a long time. The telephone has been around for over a century.The pony express lasted for a mere 18 months.(I have an affection for the Pony Express. My wife is from St. Joseph Missouri which was the eastern starting point of the Pony Express route.)It was quickly replaced by the stagecoach and the telegraph.Now we are in age of email. But with our long history of communication technology, there is no reason to think that email is either the end point or the zenith of communication tools.
There has been a rainbow explosion of communication tools that use the webpages as a way to communicate.
Never mind the title of this session.Social networking, social media and web 2.0 are an evolution not a revolution
Web 1.0 was the age of web surfing. The era of yahoo.You had to type in a web address.You could go to Yahoo where they had compiled links to some of the best sites on the web.It was hard to find stuff on the internet and the content was very static.<<<>>>Poll audience on who has responsibility for maintaining website
Web 1.5 was the dawn of Google. They had found a way to search the web. Now you could find easily find content on the internet.
Web 2.0 is the next step, making it easy to produce content, easy to link content and easy to find content.
One item I will keep coming back to is this adoption curve.I will try to give my take I where I think these tools are along this curve.Are they still only being used by the innovators, or have they entered into adoption by the majorities or are only the laggards not using these tools.Before any of you get nervous, I don’t think any of these tools are yet in the laggard stage.
Let’s focus in on some specific Web 2.0 tools and Let’s start with blogs.
Sort of.Here is a static page within my blog that’s not dated and does not allow comments.
Here is a story from the Boston Globe. Its dated and has comments.So which one is the blog?Blog platforms have evolved into being very effective web content management tools.
Technorati did a survey of the blogosphere in 2008They were tracking almost a million blog posts being published every day.They didn’t pull together these numbers in 2009 but they did have a few interesting resultsOver half of bloggers said they are better known in their industry as a result of their blog when asked about how blogging impacted their professional life.When asked about how the blog has helped their business, half of all corporate bloggers said that prospective clients have read their blog and purchased products or services. And 2/3 said that they have greater visibility in their industry because of their blog.
Web 2.0 seems to have big impact on politicsWe have a web 2.0 president.The White House has a blog.
Not to be outdone, the president of Russia has his own blog.Who said the cold war over.
Where do blogs fit on the adoption curve.So far over this way that they have evolved into content management systems.The days of a Web log, merely tracking the interesting websites you found has passed
Where do law firms fit into that adoption curveOut of the amlaw 200 Back in August of 2007, only 39 of the 200 had blogs.Today, 95 have blogs. Almost half. Thos 95 law firms publish almost 300 blogs
One big thing is that most blog platforms are optimized for getting indexed and delivering content in a way that is very friendly to search engines.So my blog, which is just me, publishing a few stories a week.In february came up as the #15 search result for Massachusetts,Number one for Massachusetts data privacy law and the top ten for whole lot of searches realted to that.>>tease audience about Mass Data Privacy.
I want to return to the first reason: the web presence.Blogging platforms are not just about traditional blogging But its not just a bout blogging.I want to go back to those of you who responsibility for maintaining their law firms websites.My kid’s PTO asked for some help with their websites. Their biggest complaint was that it was a pain in the neck to update I installed the WordPress blogging software. Copied over the primary content in a few minutes.Its easy to do. The PTO board it creating more content, having better fundraising and keeping the community better informed.Used the free wordpress software, thousands of off the shelves looks for free, thousands of designers eagerly willing to help you customize.
Let’s move on to FacebookLet's be clear that we are not talking about fads.These web-based communication tools are here to stay.
ME. I use Facebook largely for personal use. I used to use in a more open way, add connection as friends, even though they not someone I would invite into my house.>>> Poll on use of Facebook
You can also organize groups in Facebook. That is an interesting way for members of an organization to communicate among themselves using the Facebook platform.For larger firms, I think this group’s function is a really interesting way to establish and sustain connections with incoming recruits and firm alumni.
Where is Facebook in the adoption curve<< audience poll – how many use Facebook for personal use<<audience poll – how many use Facebook for business use at their law firm
How do I use Facebook for business? Last year Facebook introduced the concept of Pages. These are targeted squarely at giving businesses a presence in Facebook. They have a policy prohibiting non-people accounts. Your friends with people and fans of pages.I push my blog posts into Facebook. I publish events I’m attending. To be honest, I’m not sure it reaches many. I’ve got 57 fans. Many companies are using Facebook as a way to reach customers. I spoke with a compliance person for a mutual fund company. They had over 8,000 fans. They found it to be a great way to connect with their clients and make information available to them.Harvard Business Review published study last month. Setting up facebook page for a local company. They found that the “fans” were the most loyal customers, felt the strongest bond to the company and were most likely to recommend the company to others. Correlation not necessary causation.
How are law firms using this feature?I pulled up Fenwick & West. They are pushing news and information out to their 290 fans
Another tool in Facebook is the search. I ran a search for “Virginia Drunk Driving” and came up with a page for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and law firm, labeling itself as Virginia Drunk Driving Lawyer.
Here is the Keefer Law Firm, looking like they have a specialization in Drunk driving representation.Is this effective? Is it any more effective than a potential client flipping through the yellow pages.Here, you have a bigger canvas to display your expertise and for potential clients to do some diligence on you.Unlike the yellow page. A facebook page is free.
Keefer is not alone.Here is another law firm in Alabama, with over 600 fans. They seem to push out some great substantive information to those fans.
Another, The Haymond Law Firm, showing some personality. With over 1600 fans. If any of those were people you knew, that would seem to be a very good referral. A person to contact about their experience with this lawyer
Where is Facebook for law firms in the adoption curveLots of big firms using it for recruiting.Smaller number using it marketing<< audience poll – how many use Facebook for personal use<<audience poll – how many use Facebook for business use at their law firm
A huge growth rate. There we see that exponential growth described in Reed’s law.Two months ago they passed the 10 billionth update on Twitter.That’s “B” for billion, not million.
There has been lots of focus on the 140 character limit of Twitter.Lots of interesting if not monumental things have been said in less than 140 characters.On the other hand, most lawyers are know for being able to fill up a page. We had to invent extra long notepads and call them legal because the regular letter size is not enough.
Where are we in the adoption curve for Twitter?<<<Audience poll for users>>>
One of issues with Twitter is trying to find people you know. One site, JD scoop started a list in September of 2008. Then it started at 145By the next year that had grown to 750 (and they stopped updating their list)
Who uses Twitter?Bar associations for one.Here in Boston, both the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association push tons of legal news and organization news through Twitter.
Law firms are using Twitter to push out legal information to clients and prospective clients.
I have a twitter account for my compliance building blog.I mostly push out my daily blog post and occasionally add some other information
I do actively use a personal account.That includes my compliance blog posts, compliance news, personal news, GeekDad stuff.It’s a cornucopia of information.
The last platform I want to talk about in depth in LinkedIn.This has been labeled the most professional of the social networking sites.
I did a search for “lawyer” within 10 miles of my 02019 zipcode and got 259 resultsThat seems low. LinkedIn should be more popular than that
So I change the search to attorney.That was more like it over 5000 attorneys with 10 miles of my 02109 zip code
I expanded the scope to everyone in the industry of “Law Practice” and got over 13 thousand results in that same 10 mile area.There is also an industry of “legal services” that I think is meant to include legal adminstrators and exclude lawyers. That has almost 5,000 people. So there are over 18,000 people in the legal industry in Boston with profiles in LinkedIn
Where does that fit into our adoption curve.<<Audience poll>>Example of leaving employee.
Why do you care?LinkedIn is really good about getting indexed by search engines. For most lawyers in law firms, if you search for their name, their LinkedIn profile will usually be right there with their law firm listing, sometimes even above.LinkedIn can’t compete with Doug Cornelius.comBut it comes in second place behind it.
There is a robust group feature in LinkedInThey have varying quality.Some groups have really good discussions. Others are just littered with spam.
In addition to those general sites, there are some legal industry specific sites as well.None have the numbers of LinkedInOnly two are significant: Connected and Legal OnRampI have not seen much activity and no value in LawLink, Legally Minded or Lawyers
I do have a screen shot of Martindale Hubble Connected.I think it comes up short, but it has lots of potential.You have lexisnexis standing behind it.Financially‘ and with their enormous collection of information.
Legal OnRamp makes a big play to connect legal knowledge. The target is to help in house counsel find lawyers and the information they need to run their law departments.Private practice Lawyers are required to contribute substantive legal articles to the site. It has intent of being the biggest legal site, like connected. Legal Onramp is trying to create a collaborative environment
I spent some time about the useful features of these tools. Let’s spend some time on the scary stuff.
Monitor what is being said about your lawyers and your law firm.Do you Google yourself?Your clients do.That may or may not work when searching for a “Virginia Drunbk Driving Lawyer.” But once I have name, I am certainly going to Google the lawyer’s name and the firm’s name.Rest assured that the majority of your prospective clients are googling you.So you need to google yourself.
I’ll pick on myself.In addition to the web search, there is a Google news search. Instead of just general web content, it’s focused on news sources. Even better, you can sign up to be notified when a new story about you comes up in the news.
Beyond news sources, there is also a blog search that is like the news search but for blogs instead of mainstream media.I’m not really sure how they decide which ends up in which.Like with the new, you can sign up to get an alert when your firm name of lawyers’ names pop up in blogs.
Google is also now indexing Twitter updates.
I don’t think it works as well as Twitter’s native search. Which you can sign up to get alerts.
Some scary stuff and talk about policies and procedures.
Many law firms and many companies just deal with web 2.0 by ignoring it.
The next step is blocking access across the firm’s network.
Blocking ineffective. All the bad stuff you’re worried about can be done on an iphone or other smartphone.Most of these 2.0 sites have been optimized to work on mobile devices through a stripped down website or application. I’m sure they work bettter on mobile devices than your own firm’s websites
But its not a joke. An Israeli soldier really did post something on Facebook about an upcoming military action

Social Networking / Web 2.0 Revolution

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (15)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Social Networking / Web 2.0 Revolution

Similar to Social Networking / Web 2.0 Revolution (20)

More from Doug Cornelius

More from Doug Cornelius (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Social Networking / Web 2.0 Revolution

Editor's Notes