Social Media for Lawyers

Public Reputation Management
www.jaffepr.com
Copyright © 2010 Jaffe PR
Social Media for Lawyers
October 26, 2010
Litigation/Labor & Employment Group Meeting
Omni La Mansión del Rio ~ San Antonio, TX
Presented by:
Shani Magosky
EVP, Chief Operating Officer
Jaffe PR

www.jaffepr.com

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What We Will Cover Today
 Explore the value and growth of web 2.0, aka “social media,” as it applies to
law firms and attorneys
 Your firm’s public reputation
 What is social media?
 How does it support your firm’s business development efforts and/or
help build your personal brand?
 Where to start – LinkedIn, Blogging, Twitter?

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Managing Your Firm’s Public Reputation
•Every law firm has a public reputation – regardless of whether or not you contribute.
•It involves more relationships with more constituents than ever before:
● Current clients
● Prospective clients
● Referral sources
● Employees and staff
● Potential hires – law students and laterals
● Journalists
● Bloggers
● Rankings publishers
● And many more…
•Public reputation management encompasses all of the promotional work a law firm
needs to do, in various combinations, to sustain a reputation and build business.
•Social media is one of the tools in your public reputation management strategy.

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Social Media as Part of Public Reputation Strategy
•Engagement in social media provides opportunities for your firm to:
● Convey the value of your services
● Reach and connect with potential clients
● Attract and retain talent
● Monitor discussions about issues that impact you and your clients
● Stretch those precious marketing dollars further
•This is not just a marketing department undertaking; it requires a strategic
plan with specific tactics and objectives that pertain to the entire firm.
•“Push Marketing” is over; this is the age of “Pull Marketing.”
• Push: TV/newspaper/magazine ads, sending generic e-blasts, only
communicating with your contacts when there is an event.
• Pull: Listening, talking to, and engaging clients, potential clients,
influencers, and other relevant audiences through blogs, expert articles,
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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How Fast is Social Media Growing? This Fast!

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What is Web 2.0, Anyway?
•In the beginning, there was Web 1.0
● One-way dialogue with no participation and limited updates
● Traditional websites, e-newsletters, many current law firm websites
•Now, there is Web 2.0
● Interactive, involves dialogue
● User-generated content (UGC)
● Social networks
● Blogs, microblogs
● Often referred to as social media

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The range of Social Media Includes…
•Social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace)
•Social bookmarking sites (delicious, digg, reddit)
•Blogs (AmLaw Daily, WSJ Law Blog, Above the Law)
•Microblogs (Twitter, Tumblr)
•Location based social networks (foursquare, Loopt)
•Video and photo sharing sites (YouTube, flickr)
•Wiki sites (Wikipedia)
•Podcasts/Webinars/Videos

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Why This Matters to Lawyers
•Great place to “listen” to what your clients and prospects need/want
•Shows you are relevant, knowledgeable and current
•Showcases your experience and innovations
•Keeps contacts updated on current projects
•Allows clients, prospects, referral sources and others to uncover
commonalities that might not surface any other way (ie: mutual friends,
shared interests, joint group membership)
•Connects you with colleagues, classmates and friends all over the world –
networking and relationships are still key but add online efforts to the mix
•Supports the firm’s business development and recruiting efforts
•Reaches more people than you ever would through traditional networking
•Offers opportunity for professional development and CLE
•Traditional media is on the decline, so don’t wait to embrace social media
•And most importantly…
Your clients and prospects are online!!

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Social Networking Sites Aren’t Just Social

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Common Myths About Social Media
•This is a fad that will pass
•It is only for “the younger generation”
•Our competitors aren’t doing it
•Clients don’t really use social networking to research counsel
•We don’t need it
•We should take a “wait and see” approach

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Social Media is NOT a fad…
•Facebook has over 540 million users as of 3Q 2010, and the average user has 135
friends.
•LinkedIn has over 80 million users as of October 2010 (approximately 1.5 million
of whom are lawyers).
•Twitter has well over 100 million users and records an average of 55 million tweets
per day. New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
•133 million blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002.
•An October 10, 2010 study by CNN of how we share and consume news found that
social media is the most frequent way that we share stories online. In their study of
2,300 people over two months, they found that social media was used to share
news in 43% of all instances - higher than email, the 2nd most frequent method of
sharing, with 30%. SMS was third at 15% and instant messenger 4th
at 12%.

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55% of Facebook Users are 35+

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76% of LinkedIn Users are 35+

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53% of Twitter Users are 35+

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Your competitors ARE doing it!
•Every AmLaw 200 firm has a company profile on LinkedIn*
•Approximately 5,000 law firms have business profiles on LinkedIn*
•4,000 groups on LinkedIn include the word “law”*
•31 of the AmLaw 100 have Facebook “Fan Pages”*
•76 of the AmLaw 100 are using Twitter*
•38 of the AmLaw 100 are blogging*
•96 of the AmLaw 200 are blogging*
● Among these 96, there are 297 blogs
* Source: 2010 Corporate Counsel Survey of New Media Engagement

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Your competitors ARE doing it!
•Percentage of lawyers who have joined a social network*
● In 2008: 15%
● In 2009: 43%
● In 2010: 56%
•To private practice attorneys, are you a member of a social network? Yes =
(Source: Leader/LexisNexis, Aug 09)
● In 2008: 59%
● In 2009: 78%
•10% of respondents had a client retain their legal services as a result of use
of online communities/social networks.*
*Source: 2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey

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Your Clients ARE Using Social Media
•To corporate counsel, are you a member of a social network? Yes = (Source: Leader/LexisNexis,
Aug 09)
● In 2008: 48%
● In 2009: 71%
•Where do you look first when starting a research project?*
● 46% of respondents said “free Internet services”
● 34% of respondents said “fee-based online services”
● 15% said “print materials”
•What do you use most often for legal research?*
● Most often: “free research services”
● Next most often: “fee-based online services”
•What website do you use most often for legal research?*
● Google
Source: 2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey

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Your Clients ARE Using Social Media
•43% of corporate counsel cite blogs among their leading sources of news & info.*
•62% of in-house counsel prefer to access business/industry news online vs print.*
•Nearly half of all in-house counsel aged 30-39 say they have used Facebook in the past
week for professional reasons.*
•Facebook was the 3rd
most frequented new media platform among in-house counsel from
companies with $1-10 billion in revenues, with 28% having used it in the last 24 hours.*
•53% of in-house counsel expect their consumption of industry news and information via
new media platforms will increase over the next 6-12 months (this number is 69% for
ages 30-39).*
•50% of in-house counsel agree or somewhat agree that in the future, high profile blogs
authored by law firm lawyers will influence the process by which clients hire law firms.*
*Source: 2010 Corporate Counsel New Media Engagement Survey

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Risks of Social Media
•Few legal or ethical precedents for social networking
•Policing is difficult and time consuming
•Human resources risks
•You’re not alone: In a recent Finance & Commerce article, 81% of large corporations
describe social media as a “corporate security risk.” However, 73% said they’d still
increase its use over the next 12 months.
•ABA Journal legal reporter Rachel Zahorsky writes, “Varied and outdated ethics rules in
regards to online communication, as well as numerous examples of cases put in real
jeopardy because of prosecutors and judges posting on Facebook or jurors twittering
mid-trial, only fuel a general tendency in the legal profession to distrust new
technologies.”

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Negating Risks
•Draft a firm wide social media policy and ENFORCE IT
•Develop and implement a social media strategy
•Look to ABA and The Florida Bar for guidance
•For blogs, use a disclaimer or terms of use policy (in footer or as a separate tab)
•Use common sense!

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Things a Lawyer Shouldn’t Do Online
•Give legal advice
•Discuss client matters
•“Sell” your services
•Post anything you’d be embarrassed for clients to see or know about you
•Make job recommendations for associates or staff
•Post anything you wouldn’t put on your firm’s website
A good site to consult is http://www.legalethics.com/ - It focuses on the
ethical issues associated with the use of technology by legal professionals

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Social media might make or break your case
•Social media evidence has changed the landscape of discovery, in particular in employment law.
Such evidence comes with dates, time stamps, and unseen embedded information such as
metatags and geotags.
•Be sure to search for all publicly available information on plaintiff/employee who has filed a
case against your client/employer - ie: status updates, wall postings, tweets, photos/videos -
that relate to the complaint.
•In EEOC v. Simply Storage Management (a sexual harassment case with a claim for severe
emotional distress), a federal court permitted an employer to obtain discovery of an employee’s
social networking activity that, through privacy settings, the employee had made “private” and
not available to the general public.
•Social media evidence has also been used to prove drug use, gun possession, infidelity in
divorces cases, etc.
•Look out for the NLRB to get involved in labor disputes involving use of social media in the
workplace. The board already has its own Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter Feed!

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Hot Topics/Questions
•Should employers conduct online searches of job applicants?
● If, as part of recruiting, you seek out an applicant’s Facebook or LinkedIn
profile, you could easily ascertain info such as age, pregnancy, religious
affiliation, sexual orientation, or other info don’t want to have. If a
candidate finds out, can he/she accuse you of using impermissible and/or
discriminatory facts?
•What actions can/should an employer take to protect trade secrets
and other confidential information after employment ends?
•Should employers monitor their employees’ online activities during
employment?

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Hot Topics/Questions
•Should employers monitor their employees’ online activities during
employment?
● Inc.com reported a story about a single mother in St. Louis who, during
the day, worked for a non-profit. At night, she wrote an anonymous sex
blog called “The Beautiful Kind.” She’d managed to keep her online
identity a secret until she created her Twitter profile, when she used her
real name, thinking that only her handle would be visible. She was
subsequently fired when her boss uncovered her extracurricular “activities”
in a company-mandated search of online activities of its employees.
● The employee was terminated as a result of conduct that did not involve
her job. She was blogging during nonworking time on a computer not
owned by her employer or connected to her employer’s network. In some
states, where off-duty conduct is protected to varying degrees, the
termination may be unlawful. However, in Missouri, which does not have
any laws offering such protection to employees, it would appear that the
termination was entirely lawful.

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So, How Do I Get Started?
•Choose a network
•Monitor it closely
•Be a contributor, with prompt responses to any direct questions
•Generously share information (within firm and ethical guidelines); transparency and
open communication

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What is LinkedIn?

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Who’s LinkedIn?
•Over 80 million users as of October 2010
•A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second
•Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn
•Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the
people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals

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Your LinkedIn Profile
•Minimally -
● Upload a professional photo
● Use several key words in your job title, ie: “Shareholder/Attorney/Lawyer”
● Describe your practice in headline
● Add firm description and link to its website
● Note educational experience
● Include specific content in bio
● Obtain a vanity URL (ie: www.linkedin.com/in/shanimagosky)
● Join law school alumni group
● Join other relevant professional groups
● Update status with recent projects or items of interest

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Example of A Good Profile

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LinkedIn 201
•Update your status every 24-48 hours and try to include a link with a call to action
•Ask and respond to questions that are relevant to your target market(s)
•Look up prospects before meeting to better understand what’s important (outside of the
office) and determine common connections or activities
•Join the right groups and leverage the connections you make
•Connect and interact with your prospects and referral sources, not just other
lawyers
•Link to articles you’ve written and announce upcoming speaking engagements
•Use as a vehicle for the firm’s newsletters, events and alerts
•Check with connections in another city when traveling

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LinkedIn’s Q&A Feature

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Writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
•Don’t cut and paste from your firm’s website
● Describe your practice as if you were speaking to a prospect
● Use shorter blocks of copy
● Avoid lawyer-speak
● Incorporate key words that clients and prospects would likely use to
search for you
•Point out your strengths in LinkedIn’s “Specialties” section (but do not use
the word itself because it is a hot word for the Bar and violates lawyer
advertising rules; use “focus areas” instead)
•Link to the firm’s website

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Social Media and Search Engines

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One of my favorite expressions these days…
It’s a
world and we just live in it!

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Lawyers Only Social Networks
•Legal OnRamp – maintains 3:1 ratio of in-house to outside counsel; 11,600 members
as of October 2010; law firms can have “Private Ramps” to showcase their thought
leadership in a particular niche.
•Martindale Hubbell Connected – information hub of approx 11,000 legal
professionals, blogs, topical discussion groups and global forums; has database of more
than 100,000 experts, consultants and other legal service professionals.
•JD Supra – repository of free legal information shared by the legal professionals who
generate it. Members get 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; recently announced partnership with LinkedIn.
•Law Link – social network for legal community; about 8,000 members in 4 separate
but interconnected social networks: The Attorney Network, The Expert Witness Network,
The Law Student Network and The Law Professional Network; Q&A still sparse.
•Legally Minded – sponsored by the ABA; site currently contains profiles, news and job
postings but not much else; membership about 2,000.
•HubStreet – newly launched networking site for attorneys, accountants and
lenders/bankers; jury is still out.

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Legal OnRamp - Private Ramp

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Why GCs Use These Sites
Question: What is the Key Benefit of Legal OnRamp?
Response by general counsel:
“In general as a business, and especially now coming into this recession, we need to
save money. As a GC, I'm under tremendous pressure to manage costs while
improving quality and service. A Web 2.0 Collaboration platform like Legal OnRamp
helps me in two ways. First, it is a way to manage work and avoid re-inventing the
wheel; I can access thousands of answers to every day questions, share
forms or use free tools. Second, it is a way to find the very best lawyers,
because the best lawyers are almost always the most efficient and effective. So for
example [attorney name], a very capable litigator, has an excellent profile and
actively contributes to conversations about how to make litigation more rational.”

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“I Tweet, Therefore I Brand”
•Short, tweet and useful
• “What are you doing” in less than 140
characters
•Powerful way to network and participate
in discussions as they are happening
•Most difficult to navigate
“I use [Twitter] extensively to get information out there and to show my
particular expertise in a way marketing dollars could never do.”
~Dr. Lisa Haile, partner and co-chair of DLA Piper’s global life sciences group

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Schedule your tweets in advance!
•http://twuffer.com/
•http://futuretweets.com/
•http://www.twitresponse.com/
•http://www.socialoomph.com/
•http://cotweet.com/
•http://hootsuite.com/
•http://www.twaitter.com/
•http://www.tweet-u-later.com/
•http://mediafunnel.com/

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Lawyers Who Blog Successfully
•Go niche
•Create a compelling message
•Become a credible discussion resource on topics related to their practice area
•Update regularly; daily is most effective
•Leverage other social media sites to promote

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Blogs don’t have to be dry…

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Above the Law
•“Back in June, Jones Day confirmed that it had laid off staff in Dallas and LA. A recent press
release from the FBI suggests that the firm had layoffs in D.C., too. The firm did not mention
this back in June, perhaps because it did not want to have to relate the disturbing story of what
was found in the desk drawer of one of their recently-axed employees…”
•“Above the Law has learned that Husch Blackwell let go of around 20 attorneys, associates and
non-equity partners, earlier last month. We heard rumblings that Husch was planning on
making cuts as far back as this July, but it appears that the layoffs only went through in
September. Thanks to our sources, some of whom contacted us on our new text message line
(646-820-TIPS), we’ve now received multiple reports of layoffs at the firm.”
•“In part 1 of the results of the Associate Morale Survey, brought to you by Lateral Link, we
revealed that 74% of respondents felt that associate morale was either the same or worse than
last year.”
• “Loyola students are having difficulty getting jobs. In response, did the administration consider
dropping tuition? Nope. Instead, they just gave everybody an extra third of a grade —
retroactively, no less. That’s not just inflation; that’s a rewriting of history. Really, are employers
out there going to fall for this? Loyola hopes so….”

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Success Stories
•Bob White, a partner in a Florida firm, uses Twitter to share the best tech articles he
finds each week. After a few months of finding and sharing great articles, Bob brought in
a couple of tech companies as new clients.
•Sullivan & Cromwell partner Frank Aquila, who was named a Legal Rebel by the ABA
Journal in part because of his use of Twitter, captivates his nearly 1,400 followers daily
with insightful and sometimes humorous tweets. His biz dev success with social media
has prompted others to get involved.
•Tom Fox developed a solo practice focusing on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
(FCPA) exclusively through blogging, twitter, and webinars. He has been hired to develop
and conduct a series of FCPA speeches around the country later this year and is
currently engaged in an FCPA consulting assignment for a major U.S. corporation.
•NYC based attorney Cari Rinker has set up profiles with Twitter, Facebook, Cornell Law,
JDSupra, and LinkedIn and connects with her market through her Agriculture Law and
Policy Blog. She has gained national recognition as an agricultural and environmental
attorney.

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Success Stories
•Robert Thomas, an appellate and eminent domain lawyer in Hawaii whose blog has won
him attention from ABA colleagues and journalists both nationally and internationally,
has netted two Fortune 100 clients via his blog.
•Glenn Manshin, an IP and technology lawyer, has landed six clients in the past year as a
direct result of his social media activity.
•23-attorney firm Parker Waichman Alonso set up several websites after the BP oil spill
with news on the disaster (ie: bigspills.com, oilspillsclaims.com) and has filed a dozen
lawsuits, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Final Thoughts
•Select one outlet and commit
•Become a valued resource for followers
•Business won’t walk in the door
•Engage in new conversations
•Delineate between sharing insights vs. giving legal advice
•Get personal; be authentic
•Have fun!

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Thank You!
•Questions?
•Please drop off your business card or contact me for:
● This presentation
● Jaffe PR’s Social Media Policy
● Jaffe PR’s White Papers on Social Media and Web 2.0
Shani Magosky
EVP and Chief Operating Officer
Public Reputation Services
Jaffe PR
(970) 393-0970
smagosky@jaffepr.com

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