Boarding a flight between Montreal and Miami yesterday I overheard a mother tell her son, who looked no more than 3-years-old, “Turn off your iPad.” She suggested, gently, that he take a nap until we were up in the air, at which time he could sign into the American Airlines’ (please don’t become United Airlines, service will suffer) wireless service and “play.”  I was immediately envious—I’m a digital junkie, lusting after the new iPad and couldn’t believe this 3-year-old kid (toddler?) had one! I don’t even own an iPad2—though simply an exercise in discipline because I can’t quite YET justify carrying around another device when the ones I have meet every need quite efficiently. (But if I won one in a raffle or a VMO fan would ship one to my door, I’d certainly accept the gift with gratitude!)

Still, as I looked around the economy class cabin, everywhere kids were tethered to some electronic device. We must face the fact: our kids are digital natives. They do not know life before the Internet and in many cases before mobile devices, which are now the literal center of their universe—even those as young as 3 years old! This WILL have an impact on how we deliver legal services in the next 10 years, maybe less as today’s teenagers, also digital natives, become entrepreneurs, inherit the family business or wealth, buy homes, pay taxes and more, and seek a different legal services model, yes?

The ABA Journal cover story this month, April 1, 2012 edition, profiled the “…Footprints of America’s Switched-on Lawyers.” Lots of interesting commentary, insight, and even techie confession in this article from folks like Richard Granat, Niki Black, Carol Elefant, and others.  I recommend reading it, after you finish reading this post, of course.   Then read Rik Myslewski’s, The Lifer column in this month’s Mac | Life magazine, “Take Time to UnPlug” for another piece of advice for those who still remember what it was like to listen to the sounds of silence or indulge in a face to face conversation!

DIGITAL DISRUPTION CONTINUES

The news here on this VMO post is that most of our kids today are completely programmed to easily adapt to evolving technology. When today’s adults are faced with the next disruptive version of the Internet, the Semantic Web, (coming soon to a connection near you, with lots of “scary” stuff that is sure to peak and freak any clear thinking adult’s privacy and security thresholds), our kids will take to it like fish to water.

They will likely not question a single sign on ID (that hackers could capture and do who knows what), and will likely readily embrace the concept of a “personal data locker” in the cloud. What’s that? Well, the personal data locker on the semantic web will be, for example:

1. “a portal to a world of custom-made products based on their personal ontology,”*
2. It will include a body scan, models of feet and hands, and even a biometric profile of how you move.
3. This data locker, containing your specifics, will enable suppliers to make or customize their product for you!
4. No more trudging through reviewer comments about size or fit of the jeans you’re longing to own on a retailer’s website!

According to this fascinating book, which I have been slogging through since 2010 because it is frankly mind-boggling, *Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, David Siegel, November 2009, your ontology, the niche areas of your interest, will be stored in your “data locker” and will satisfy various kinds of semantically specified requirements, so it gets smarter and smarter in personal recommendations the more you feed it. Think Pandora or the new Google search engine. You will be able to add your “friends’” ontologies, with their permission of course, to your locker so recommendations can be semantically integrated with yours.

Your data locker will store your medical, tax, legal records and more, along with your social, physical, and educational records, and probably even an archive of who you voted for in every election. Your purchases, likes, dislikes, calendar, photos, groceries, friends, vacations, restaurant selections, repair bills—virtually EVERYTHING will be stored digitally on the Internet so it can retrieve and connect random bits of data to inform your next moves. And, if you believe what they are saying, it will make you life better, more efficient, and more customized—everyone will have a defacto personal assistant via the cloud. Despite the fact that we may be more vulnerable to nefarious activity, (or in some cases government interference), heck, we don’t have a choice, do we? The kids, our legacies, will embrace it and thus, while we are still around, we will be required to adapt–again! Don’t be caught sleeping may be apropos.

Digital Natives and LEGAL SERVICES

Legal services providers will have to face a new round of threats to discovery, confidentiality, pricing, delivery, and more… ARE WE READY? Digital natives, who know nothing other than transacting via the Internet, will demand that your services be available 24/7 and accessible via the net. Yes? No? Will the profession be forced to adapt? Can we envision this? Will the data locker be implemented while you’re still practicing and how will that look? Do you have plans in place? Are you watching this unfold or are you being proactive?

I think the “virtual” law firms, the lawyers that are adapting to technology, definitely have a head start. I’m not just talking social media for marketing, I’m suggesting this is a delivery and storage issue. After all, most courts have all their records digitized now and filing, researching, and more are all accomplished remotely. No more treks down to the courthouse to face a surly clerk and sort through paper files that result in paper cuts and disability claims.  Nope, records are available via the Internet and are being used  by paralegals and legal assistants as convenient and time saving developments. IT professionals are looking into the cloud for storage—are document storage facilities becoming extinct? And, proprietary software development companies, are they scared? Many are being forced to shift their business models in this new digital nation. The sky is falling…..

Social Media

Back on earth…following my most recent public speaking engagement at Legal IT 6.0 in Montreal – shout out to the event – it was amazing, one of the many astute attorneys attending the event came to me and commented on how refreshing it was to hear me propose that social media is not mandatory, but rather can be used as a complementary tool to our off-line business development and marketing activities. Seems, according to his observations, that many social media speakers are setting a tone of do-it-or-else-suffer-severe-consequences. This is never my approach. It has to make sense to the individual and be used in an appropriate context—at least for now.

BUT, I agree to a degree that ignoring the global marketplace found on the World Wide Web could delay progress for those who are in the transitional demographic—too young to retire in the next 10 years but too old to feel that the social web is the only means to new business.  For the digital natives…well, what else is there? Paper? Pencils? Crayons? Blocks? Globes? Balls? Roller skates? Hugs? Birds? Beaches? Bikes? Playgrounds? Nursery rhymes sung by a calming mother or father’s voice while falling off to sleep? Hmmm… Will that custom-fit pair of jeans be worth the exchanges? They may never know the difference…

If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do. (Attributed to Lucille Ball)

Today, everybody is busy, right? Or maybe not and we’re just disorganized so we look busy? Maybe its just a throw away excuse? Well, I’m really busy, but here I am, carving out the time to write a blog post! How did I find the time? I made the time because the task is valuable and important to me on many different levels; and hopefully for my readers!

I sympathized with someone this week who, after I chided her to get engaged in social media, commented that she is too busy for social media. She has a full time job that requires a rigorous travel schedule, she has a young family, and to top it off she has a second “full time” volunteer job as the president of a large professional association. How anyone can handle two full time jobs and a family is certainly remarkable, but is it a justifiable reason to skip social media?  Do we give her a pass?

Social Media Examined

Despite what some (self identified laggards) may have concluded: that social media is for people who have time on their hands to kill, I beg to differ. Social media is a highly influential medium that is being accessed by (very busy) business persons around the world in huge numbers.

The social web (i.e. social networks, blogs, YouTube, review sites, and more) holds the attention of CEO’s of some of the most forward-thinking organizations, the top journalists, the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of the U.S. government, foreign governments, scientists, clergy, authors, artists, and entertainers—the thinkers and doers of our world.

This simply begs the question in my mind: Can a full-time businesswoman and volunteer leader of a geographically dispersed membership possibly afford to ignore the conversations that would help her better understand the people, issues, places, and ideas being put forth in social media by her clients, her organization’s membership (including vendors and sponsors who underwrite many of the programs), and her colleagues? What about those of her competition or the journalists who might help her promote her causes?

The answer: He/she who makes the loudest excuses, simply doesn’t see the value in doing it. When it comes to social media, be careful with those excuses because, if it hasn’t already, ignoring it will eventually set you back. I suggest you start now by putting one foot in front of the other…slowly, and move forward—to the best of your ability. (Which was exactly the businesswoman’s final agreement in response to my urgings. Kudos!)

Here are 10 tips to get up and running:

1. You’ve got to find your rhythm. Social media listening and engagement needs to become a natural part of your day or evening. It’s the same as checking email.
2. Make sure your mobile devices are “app-ed” up. Your most important social media channels should be travel ready. You can get a lot done while on the go. (Just not while you’re driving!)
3. Choose the right channels. If you’re putting in the time and not getting benefit (defined in many different ways), move on. Talk to business people you admire and who use social media, they’ll be happy to steer you in the right direction.
4. Take the time to gather the right people into your networks. It won’t take long. Start with only people you know and expand from there. Build your network before you need it. I promise it will be worth it.
5. Filter the noise. Don’t get caught up in reading every post that passes through your stream. Use precious time allotment more effectively.
1. Create lists and saved searches in Twitter.
2. Create a dashboard in iGoogle for your favorite blogs, journalists, and Google Alerts. Make it your landing page when you open your browser. Quickly scan the conversation.
3. Remove overly chatty friends from your Facebook stream by unsubscribing to their status updates. (You can still keep them as FB friends, you just won’t be bothered by their games, photos and links to canned thoughts for the day. Simply go to one of their posts in your timeline and click the little drop down arrow to the right of the status update, click unsubscribe to change your preference.)
4. Manage your FB settings to only notify you when you’ve been tagged in a post or other media like a video or photo. This is the easiest thing to do, still many don’t. It gives you a notification in your email box so you can quickly link to the mention and respond if appropriate.
5. Join only ONE group on LinkedIn and be present and accounted for.
6. Only respond when you think you can add something worthwhile, or when promoting others’ content can deepen your relationship with them. (by sharing their content). Sometimes it takes only a second to send a link or point someone in a helpful direction. Other times it takes writing a bit more. No one will judge you by the length of your response, only by the content in it. Be smart. Add a personal insight or comment to links you share. The extra minutes you spend writing it will go a long way toward your contribution to others and your credibility.
7. Load up your Internet browser’s tool bar with helpful short cuts to clipping programs like Evernote or to Twitter, link shorteners (though most networks now have onsite auto shorteners) and YouTube.
8. Practice mailbox hygiene. Email newsletters sprout like weeds. I swear I don’t remember subscribing for half of them, the other half seemed wise at the time, but do I read them? Probably not. Unsubscribe to most, keep only the ones that you really read or that have links to content within your subject matter so that you can easily access and share to Twitter, Facebook, etc. without ever having to search the web.
9. Create a paper.li –a little newspaper that you create by selecting custom subject matter. Your weekly paper.li will post to Twitter, include author Twitter handles and build followers.
10. Easy does it! You don’t have to be social 24/7. You don’t have to be social every day. But, be social…to the best of your ability. We all have off-line obligations, many are critical to our business, however, neglecting online opportunities just may hurt you more in the end.

I’m not suggesting there aren’t reasons to skip social media, there are. However, “I’m too busy” is an excuse, not a well-thought out choice. If you need help making choices, the VMO provides  practical training on social media, but only for very busy people!

And now for something REALLY fun….

This post may not be directly important to your work as a marketer or lawyer, but I’m pretty sure you’ve heard or read many of these words in one context or another, and may even be wondering what they mean.

The Cloud? Social Discovery? SOA? De-dupe? SoLoMo? Robust? Emoticon?

Well, fact is, so do the people who actually use them in their work! Curious? No, that’s not on the list, but if you are, here are the Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the of the Second Decade of the 21st Century, thus far (2010, 2011 & 2012) as released by The Global Language Monitor.*(see end of post for explanation of how the list was compiled.)

Note: Along with the tongue-in-cheek commentary provided by GLM, where I could find them, I’ve added common definitions in italics.

1. Big Data. Big Data is a big buzzword.  It has been called the key to new waves of productivity growth, essential to the US place in global economics, and more.  Now if only we could agree on exactly what this means and how we get there. Consider yottabytes: A quadrillion gigabytes. Hint: Just think a lotta bytes. In information technology, big data consists of datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools.
2. ‘The Cloud.” The Cloud, in various manifestations has been ranked No. 1 for 2008, No, 4 overall for the decade, and now as No. 2 for 2012. Still all very nebulous. Most commonly defined as the Internet, where delivery of computing as a service (software as a service of SAS) rather than a product, i.e., shared resources, software, and information, are provided to computers and other devices.  
3. The Next Big Thing.  A cliché rendered nearly meaningless by the innumerable daily claims made by VCs, entrepreneurs, college dropouts, etc.  Actually, you can count the history of next big things on your fingers, and possibly toes.
4. Social Discovery. Social discovery is the process by which a user finds and connects with another while a social network is a social structure of people with social connections between them. Webster’s 1910 definition: “Consisting in union of mutual converse.” Might be an excellent corporate strategy.
5. Web 2.0 (3.0, and so on).  Ranked as the 1,000,000th English-language word in 2009, it just keeps morphing along. Web 2.0 is a loosely defined intersection of web application features that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.
6. Solid State. As in Solid State Disks (SSDs).  Remember ‘solid-state’ televisions switched from vacuum tubes (Paleozoic)? How about LED watches from the ’80s (Mesozoic)?  Today, it’s all-about Solid State Disks. Think iPad, net-books, and other handheld computers, all light weight because they don’t contain the spining hard disk drive. They use SSD for data storage.
7. CERN. You might want to understand the acronym before the Earth is swallowed up in the ‘mini’ black hole it just might create. CERN is The European Organization for Nuclear Research. It is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory and home of the first Web server used by British scientist, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
8. Solar Max. In the 1850s telegraph wires melted.  Best not to shuck off the hype here. Solar maximum or solar max is the period of greatest solar activity in the solar cycle of the sun.
9. De-dupe. First we dupe, then we de-dupe. Flash forward to 2014: Re-duping!  Ah, the next big thing! To de-dupe is removing duplicates in records linkage, i.e. databases.
10. 3G/4G/5G. One of the benefits of having an open, open standard (AKA, no standard). Anybody can claim to lead as the (Generation) ‘standard’ expands into meaningless. The G stands for the generations of cellular mobile communications.
11. SoLoMo. This is not an oh-so-trendy neighborhood like Soho or Dumbo, at least not in the sense of brick-and-mortar.  This is the convergence of Social, Local, and Mobile.
12. SOA.  The number one Most Confusing Tech Acronym of the decade. Solutions Oriented Architecture (SOA), is the underlying structure supporting communications between services. SOA defines how two computing entities, such as programs, interact in such a way as to enable one entity to perform a unit of work on behalf of another entity. There a highly popular SOA for Dummies edition and Google Books list 47,300 editions that explicate upon the subject.

Want more?

Here is the first decade (2000-2009) of the 21st century’s Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords with GLM comments.

HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. Not to be confused with text-on-too-much-Starbucks.

Flash — As in Flash Memory.  “Flash’  is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”.

God Particle – The Higgs boson, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago.

Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)

Plasma (as in plasma TV) — Refers less often to blood products than to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image.

IPOD – What the Alpha Whale calls his personal pod. Actually, Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The origin of the word IPAD is a completely different story.

Megapixel – Either a really large picture element (pixel) or a whole mess of pixels.  Actually, one million pixels (that’s a lotta pixels) OK, what’s a pixel? Computer-ese for picture element.

Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’.

Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.

Virtualization – Around since dinosaurs walked the planet (the late ‘70s) virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O. I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system.

Solution — Ever popular yet still an amorphous description of high tech packages of hardware, software and service

Cookie — Without cookies with their ‘persistent state’ management mechanism the web as we know it, would cease to exist.

Robust — No one quite knows what it means, but it’s good for your product to demonstrate robustness .

Emoticon  — A smiley with an emotional component (from emotional icon).  Now, what’s a smiley? :’) (See Robust)

De-duping – Shorthand for de-duplication, that is, removing redundant data from a system.

Green washing – Repositioning your product so that its shortfalls are now positioned as environmental benefits:  Not enough power? Just re-position as energy saving.

Buzzword Compliant — To include the latest buzzwords in literature about a product or service in order to make it ‘resonate’ with the customer.

Petaflop — A thousand trillion (or quadrillion) floating point operations per second. Often mistaken as a comment on a failed program by an animal rights’ group.

Hadron – A particle made of quarks bound together by the strong force; they are either mesons (made of one quark and one anti-quark) or baryons (made of three quarks).

Large Hadron Collider – The ‘atom smasher’ located underground outside Geneva. Primarily built to re-create the conditions of creation, 1 trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

So, there you have it. If you made it through this list, you may now consider yourself EDUCATED! Happy Friday

* From the The Global Language Monitor website: the GLM uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

Are you SURE you want to post that?

This should be the last thing you should say to yourself before hitting “Post.” I know, I know, the topic has been covered ad nauseam. But, yes, it really matters.

My two cents.

For the past three years I’ve indulged in an “unplugged” stay in Mexico—not because they do not have the infrastructure, they do—because it is a lovely country and I enjoy the people, sights, experiences, and FOOD! (and—yes, Mexican wines can be quite nice-for a price!)

Taking a clean break from my online networks and blogging gives me a well needed perspective—you should try it.

FLOOD WARNING.

This year, upon my return, I plugged back into Facebook and found my stream flooded with post after post of links to pabulum—insipid, simplistic, and frankly bland content. (How could I have missed that pre-break?) Well, this realization led me to conclude that it’s just way too easy to hit send/link/post 3^rd party opinion pieces or rehashed, divisive political dribble without adding value or anything resembling a human conversation.

News FLASH!

This does not endear me to you. This does not make me want to do business with you. This makes me think you are a puppet. This does not even want me to be your “friend” on Facebook. (Hmmm…now there’s an idea. Maybe it’s time to cull the troops.)

I admit, perhaps it is a statement about the “friends” I have. (Apologies to those FB friends who are genuinely engaging! And there are many. Family gets a pass.) Still, for the most part, I personally know all my Facebook friends. They are either professional colleagues, people I went to school with, friends of my kids, or people I know or have met in real life today. As this is the case I know that many of these insipid postings are not what we would be talking about in face-to-face conversation. Why do they post that stuff? Because they really care or they feel free, unaccountable, bored? I’m not trying to psychoanalyze, just sayin… Well, okay, I admit to sharing a video of Whitney Houston singing “The Greatest Love,” but I’m not talking about that kind of stuff. I like to know that you know we’re all sad when an artist passes. I’m talking about stuff that is not only insipid, but is also is potentially divisive and polarizing. That’s just not…well, polite.

What happened to “politics and religion are not polite” social conversation in casual relationships—which is how I categorize most of my “friends” on Facebook. Did we loose our manners in the face of Facebook?

Political musings about protesting this, that, and the other thing do nothing to lure me into a more fulfilling, or in the case of business, productive, relationship.

Note to self.

If you are at all interested in using social media to build business relationships, do not get sucked into the trap of feeling free just because its easy to click Post. EVERYTHING you post tells something about you. EVERY post you make is potentially building your professional platform, your brand and your future!

Is it okay to talk about your family, yes! Is it okay to share photos of your pets, your vacation, your best friend’s wedding, yes! Is it okay to share a link and add a comment that has the potential to add value to your network, yes! Is it okay to have fun, yes! Is it okay to broadcast controversial positions? Only you can decide. Is it okay to post something best left unsaid? As the old Microsoft slogan goes…”what do you want to do today?”

My Unsolicited Advice?

Social media has become mainstream. People will talk. Don’t give them something to talk about. It can ruin your day or your career.

Guard your reputation as if it were your life! Hey, it is your life! And, one final note, if I see you posting to Facebook a lot, like all day long, I’m going to think–hey, you need a life.

Last week on VirtualMarketingOfficer.com I wrote about How To Promote Your Law Blog and it turned out to be a pretty popular post, so I figured there are enough readers who are looking for ideas in this regard—thanks to all who re-tweeted the post; Twitter was driving a lot of the traffic according to my WordPress Stats. Over the weekend, I thought, hey, I wonder how many blogger/readers are using Alexa? (I have no business interest or other connection to Alexa, except being a registered user.) Then I thought, why not ask? Are you using Alexa to monitor the health of your blog, understand your audience, and build a more strategic approach?

If the purpose of your blog or website is to gain exposure and influence readers to pick up the phone and hire you, you should know about Alexa and add it to your blog or website tool kit. What is Alexa?

Alexa is “The Web Information Company.” It provides (free) information about all websites including data about; Top Sites, Internet Traffic Stats and Metrics, Related Links, Site Reviews, Site Ownership contact information, and a few other really valuable paid services. They’ve been pursuing their vision of intelligent Web navigation since 1996. Alexa is one of the largest Web crawls with an infrastructure that can process and serve massive amounts of data.

Okay, so what does this mean for you? Read on…

Web Intelligence

To promote your blog or law firm website (Going forward in this post I use these two types of sites interchangeably.) and to develop the right audience (the one most likely to engage your services), knowing how these sites are performing in search results across the web will be an important component of your strategy. With Alexa tools you can do that.  Further, you can see how you compare with your competitors’ websites. This type of competitive intelligence should allow you to make some informed choices that will make your site a better tool for revenue generation and not just a millstone around your neck.  

Install the Alexa Toolbar

There are two choices. You can install the toolbar up top in your browser menu or install it as a status bar at the bottom. Either works. I use the status bar.  Open your site (or any site) in a browser window and then right click the little icon in the status bar and you’ll get an expanded menu of options.

Select Traffic Stats. A window will open and give you all the traffic stats about the open site in your browser. Other choices include:  Search Analytics, Audience, Reviews, Related Links, Clickstream, or Wayback Machine to see earlier versions of the website or blog.

Traffic Statistics

Before I started using Alexa I relied solely on my WordPress Stats and Google Analytics (all good). I’d learn which posts were most popular, how many visitors a day, where they were coming from and what search queries they used, but with Alexa I can uncover a whole lot more to help me gain clearer focus.

The Traffic Rank shows me what percent of total visits to the site are referred by search engines. Approximately 12% of all visits to my blog site are referred by search engines.

Alexa tells me that: 32% of visits to my blog site are bounces (one page view only), but two thirds stay approximately seven minutes, spending 60 seconds on each page view.

In plain English, this data allows me to make some assumptions:  My search optimization is working but I’d like that 12% to become 20% as readers who reach my blog via search are likely brand new prospects. A third of my visitors hit the home page, read the current post and leave. But, at least two thirds read more than one post! Keeping an audience for seven minutes tells me that readers are getting a deeper picture of my knowledge base and expertise.

It also tells me that because visitors are spending a minute on each page view a lot of my content can be skimmed or read in a minute—this has always been one of my goals—making content easy to skim—I write to reach busy professionals. I want them to be able to quickly assess my value, how that might help their law firm, then pick up the phone and hire me to fill in any “specialty marketing” gaps.

Alexa tells me that 73% of visits come from the US where it has attained a traffic rank of 274,702 (not bad considering my niche focus but certainly can be improved) and my audience, based on Internet averages, is comprised more frequently of females who are in the age range 45-54, have no children and are graduate school educated. (Perfect! Leaders and decision makers!)

Search Analytics

The most recent top search queries sending visitors to my blog are “virtual marketing,” “proskauer rose” (I did a post about their iPad purchases), “jayne Navarre,” “alternative fee agreement,” “marketing officer,” “law firm business card,” “where do CMO’s get their ideas from,” “marketing partner forum,” and “social media secrets.”

Alexa also told me that this month the search query “corporate counsel social media” is driving traffic to the site at an increased rate of 1.30%, while “law firm business card” has declined by 1.22%.  With this information, a strategic choice would be to write a new blog post about “corporate counsel and social media,” “social media secrets” or “iPads in AmLaw firms.”

If you’re working a Search Engine Marketing campaign, Alexa will give you a run down on the most apparent opportunities for you based on Query Popularity scores and Query Competition Index (QCI). A topic for another day….

Reputation Score 

The Alexa Reputation Score is based on how many “incoming links” a site has. Links coming into a website are important because they indicate to search engines a measure of authority and popularity of site content.

Click on the Reputation Score for your site (or any site) you’ll get a list of the top sites that have added an inbound link to the content.

Then, make a few assumptions.  Based upon “who” is linking in to your site and “what” content on your site has been attracting inbound links you could create more content like that to attract more links.  Or, use the information to uncover the types of bloggers or sites interested in your content and then search for and reach out to similar bloggers (use the Alexa Top Site Category Search) or site owners by email with an excerpt of a relevant post and a link to it; just in case they are so inclined to one day use it for an outbound link. Though this takes more work than writing a check to a Link Building agency, the links will be authentic, valuable, meaningful, and ethical (and make you a richer blogger as you drive new revenue through the threshold of your blog).

Don’t neglect to link your blog or website from your profile on directory sites. While not of the same quality as being linked to from a top blog or news site, these do count as inbound links and grows your Reputation Score. ** see note below

As your reputation grows, it can open up doors that didn’t exist before. For example, I’ve been contacted by a publicist to review several very high profile business books, which I assume was in part based upon my ability to drive inbound links—it’s a web! (The more links you attract, the more authoritative you become.)  Although I primarily review books to alert my readers to great resources, as an added bonus the inbound links they create builds my web credibility!

If the purpose of your blog or website is to market your law practice, and your site doesn’t have any incoming links, there’s a problem. Either your content isn’t getting found or isn’t being read by other bloggers, news sites, or those who could link in to your content. In this case, you’ll need to work a little harder at creating some connections and build strategic content that will attract inbound links. Go to other similar sites such as yours that have high reputation scores and study their Alexa data to see what they are doing and what you might replicate.

Claim your site

Don’t forget to claim your site with Alexa. With a free registration, you can “Claim Your Site” and update site title, description and contact information which is all effective for making sure the search engines know what your blog or site is about.

Paid Services

For a small fee, via Alexa paid services, you can optimize your site, grow your traffic, and improve user experience without a long-term contract. The Alexa Site Audit performs a deep analysis of your site to reveal potential problems and provides recommendations to help you improve your site. You can get the one time audit or sign up for the monthly plan. Learn more…

Alexa Search

I’m going to leave this for another post because there is so much you can do with an Alexa Search,  but meanwhile, when you’re on the site, try it out, play around in there. You can learn a lot by looking at Top Sites in specific categories to see how you measure up and what you could do to improve.

Conclusion

If you or your law firm use Alexa, tell us about your experience in the comments; love it, like it, lukewarm? If you’re not using Alexa, check it out and remember to come back and tell us about your experience. Thanks!

**Note on Inbound Links from profiles on social networking sites like LinkedIn. Alexa only counts the first inbound link from any site. Therefore, if all the attorneys in your firm have the law firm website link in their LinkedIn profile, it only counts as one inbound link. No big deal, but just wanted to clarify that. Still, any lawyer in your firm with a blog site should definitely include that link in their profile to generate a separate inbound link to their blog site.

Now that your blog is “LIVE,” you need to do some basic things to help others find you. Or give your established blog a little shove and see if traffic doesn’t improve.

Submit to Giant Search Engines

Even though you’ve optimized the general metadata on your blog, as well as each post, you may still want to hand submit your blog to some key search engines.

1. Google. Google will eventually pick up your page but it doesn’t hurt to submit it via Google Webmaster Tools. You can also check there to see how it is performing. Make sure your metadata accurately describes what your blog is about. Submit to Google here.
2. Yahoo! Blog Directory
3. DMOZ.  This is a human-reviewed directory of the web. The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. Netscape owns it, but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors. When you submit to DMOZ, make sure to follow their instructions for categorizing your blog VERY CAREFULLY.
4. Bing.  Learn more here.
5. Aol.  In partnership with DMOZ.
6. ASK.com. Add your URL to Ask.com

Submit to legal content centric directories

Some legal blog directories have grown quite large and may not be of immediate help to your blog, but try submitting to the narrowest category possible and see if it doesn’t help.

1. Blawgsearch.com
2. Justia,com
3. Blogged.com
4. Blawg.com
5. USLaw.com
6. BlawgRepublic,com
7. ABAJournal.com Blawg Directory
8. AllTop.com/law

Submit to General Blog Directories and Aggregators

1. Alltop.com. Try submitting your (non-legal) industry focused blog to a more general category here.
2. BlogCatalog.  www.blogcatalog.com/
3. BlogPulse.  submit link here: http://www.blogpulse.com/submit.html
4. Best of the Web Blogs.  http://blogs.botw.org/
5. FeedAgg.  Aggregates your blog feed by category http://www.feedagg.com/
6. Technorati
7. Bloglines.  Now being run by Merchant’s Circle, this site reaches out to retail consumers rather than corporate types, but great for personal services practices.
8. Zemanta. Valuable blog tool that feeds bloggers link suggestions to use within their content—submit your blog as a content provider.  http://www.zemanta.com/
9. Newsgator.  More of an enterprise social networking tool, but you can build a Newsgator widget to distribute your content via mobile. (MS Sharepoint partner)
10. Techmeme.  The web’s technology news site of record, Techmeme spotlights the hottest tech stories from all around the web on a single page. Meeting very specific criteria will get your post featured on Techmeme. Not easy but check out this out. http://news.techmeme.com/
11. StumbleUpon. Paid Discovery on StumbleUpon can be effective if you have a specific target audience you are trying to reach. https://www.stumbleupon.com/pd/  OR, simply submit your site for free here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/help/how-to-submit-a-site/
12. FeedShark. Free online tool that easily promotes your blog or website – with the simple push of a button! http://feedshark.brainbliss.com/

 Social promotion

1. Twitter.  Use FeedBurner or FeedBlitz to auto post new content to your Twitter account. Then, for extra measure, write a Tweet that highlights content, asks a question or encourages discussion and send another link.
2. LinkedIn.  Include your blog website URL on your profile using the “custom” box and type in the name of the blog.  Using the (easy) widget on LI, set up the feed of your blog content to appear on your profile page and news stream. Add Twitter to your LinkedIN profile and your Tweets about your blog will show up in your status update.
3. Facebook.  Add your blog posts to your firm’s Facebook page and your individual page. You can link your FB account to automatically grab your new posts.
4. Reciprocal links.  In addition to links within your content to others’ blog content, which can create a pingback or a reciprocal mention, make sure to include a well thought-out, strategic Blog Roll to your blog.  Give your readers similar or complimentary content in your blog roll and ask those bloggers to include your blog in their roll. Build a valuable “blogger community” and incoming links as a result.
5. FeedBlitz.  http://www.feedblitz.com/  Alternative to Google’s Feedburner. Sends email notification to visitors who sign up to receive your latest posts.
6. Scoop.it.com.  Curate your favorite posts, news articles, web pages, as well as your own new posts or favorite evergreen posts, and send your scoop to social networks.
7. Paper.Li  (http://paper.li/) Similar to Scoop.it, publish and share your own-online newspaper on Twitter and other networks—include your most recent post.
8. Repurpose. Set up your blog on Martindale Connected, social networking site for the legal profession, or other industry focused social networking sites. Some will even let you set up a feed so you’re not doing double duty.
9. LinkedIn Groups. This can be fertile territory for specific posts, relevant to specific Groups. Excerpt some of your post to create a discussion and link to your full post. This may take a little more work, but I’ve heard from more than one attorney that this is a very effective tactic.

Miscellaneous

1. Guest blog
2. Add your blog address to your business card and email signature.
3. Include a post teaser and blog URL on the firm’s eNewsletter when content is relevant.
4. Include your blog URL in every media by-line when possible. (Rather than, or in addition to,  your law firm website!)
5. Send a personal email note with a link to a relevant post to a special client or others in your contact list.

Hope this is a helpful resource for you. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor do I personally endorse any of these sites or services and I am in no way connected to any. It is simply a random list of ideas that have worked for my clients and me in the past. If you have some favs to add, please drop us your suggestions in the comments! Would love to hear from you. Thanks!

Created by: Online Schools

WHAT’S IN YOUR DIGITAL LIFE?

Me. Well, I recently moved and do not have an extra outlet at my bedside so I’ve been recharging my iPhone at night beside my desk–in another room. The difference is noticeable. Before I used to wake up in the middle of the night and look at the email.  Then before I got out of bed in the morning I’d check my email and chat. Now, I open my eyes, step out of bed, open my curtains and greet the morning sky (and usually sun) with a big stretch and thanks to the heavens for giving me another day. I put on the coffee and then….I go to the door to pick up the morning paper from the stoop. I breath the fresh air deeply. With my cafe con leche in hand, I move slowly to the desk, unplug the phone and check the email, but rarely respond unless there is an emergency. (Is there ever really a marketing emergency that can’t wait till I get to the office at 8AM?) Then I move outdoors to read the paper and laugh at page 2 of The Key West Citizen. The Citizen’s Voice is a barometer of the tribe–these days it consists of those of us strong enough to weather the summer in Key West. Late this winter it’ll document the 2 cents of the snow birds (as if we really care, right?). But besides being informative it can be amusing! You probably aren’t up to speed on the impact that cruise ships, ghost tours, street musicians, and the chronically homeless have on a small island community such as ours–it’s just outrageous! (tongue- in-cheek). If only the world had such troubles. And, I often LOL at the ever humorous page 2 Crime Report–stupid is as stupid does.

After indulging in this “real time” experience, I awaken and go to my office refreshed and connected for another day! Then I fire up the Mac, the apps and the mail and wonder….what did I ever do without technology?

How does your day begin? With a smart phone or a sun rise?  With a café con leche and a laugh? I hope so!

The jury is (almost) in. We do not, thankfully, anticipate a Casey-Anthony-super-sized-post-verdict outrage when the American Bar Association codifies its Commission on Ethics 20/20 proposed amendments to the Model Rules in 2012. According to the Commission’s recent proposal and report, lawyers are almost certain to avoid any new draconian restrictions on social media activity as were feared by some. We do, however, expect to see some clarifications that should make ethical conduct for lawyers using social media a bit more predictable.

BIG shout-out to the ABA Commission and it’s Co-Chairs, Jamie S. Gorelick and Michael Traynor for their hard work in sorting through the collective knowledge submitted in response to the September 2010, “Issues Paper Concerning Lawyers’ Use of Internet Based Client Development Tools.”  Their initial draft proposals in the “Lawyer’s Use of Technology and Client Development” discussion, released on June 29^th, appears to be spot on: “No new restrictions are necessary in this area.” Just clarifications.

“Technology has enabled lawyers to communicate about themselves and their services more easily and efficiently, and it has enabled the public to learn necessary information about lawyers, their credentials, and the particular legal services those lawyers provide as well as the cost of those services.”

“Lawyers, however, need to ensure that these communications satisfy existing ethical obligations. The Commission’s proposals are designed to give lawyers more guidance regarding these obligations in the context of various new client development tools.”

Clarifications.

The clarifications offered by the Commission will undoubtedly help lawyers and marketers to proceed without fear of the unknown—sort of. They’re not going to stymie your participation, but it’s still up to the individual to exercise judgment. Check out what a few bloggers have say here and here.  For readers who want a quick run down in layman’s terms, read on…Note: it took this seasoned marketing professional several readings—think double speak—to get to the practical implications, so, feel free to leave a comment if you have something to add or if you think I’ve got something wrong here. I hope this helps…

A prospective client, a potential client, and a solicitation

The distinction between communications with a “prospective client” was found needing clarification (Rule 1.18). A prospective client is one in which communications give rise to a client-lawyer relationship.

In short, the Commission identifies several precautions that lawyers should take to prevent the inadvertent creation of a “prospective” relationship and to ensure that the public does not misunderstand the consequences of communicating electronically with a lawyer.

Translation: This boils down to the what, where, when, and how disclaimers are used, for example, on a law firm’s website, email messages, blog site, or etc.  Also, a lawyer is advised to gauge their risk tolerance for being conflicted out of representing an adverse party of the “prospective” client should they chose to decline representation of the prospect–but this holds true for offline conversations as well, so nothing really earth shattering here, except that it brings the following into play….

Clarification of “prospective client” in advertising Rule 7.3

Advertising and other forms of marketing by definition are targeted to future clients—clients with whom the lawyer has had no prior contact and therefore are not technically “prospective clients.”

To avoid confusion, the Commission proposes to replace the use of “prospective” in Rule 7.3 with “potential;” a new term not yet clearly defined, but is understood to imply the universe of public persons—all possible future clients. Again, the distinction being that a “potential” client has not previously made contact with a lawyer but a “prospective” client has.

Translation: It’s okay to use social media and Internet advertisements to promote your services to future (“potential”) clients. Keeping in mind that compliance with all current aspects of advertising found in Rule 7.3 is necessary.

I have a website with a live chat line. Is that okay?

Rule 7.3 also addresses, and prohibits, most kinds of in-person, live telephone, and real time electronic solicitations, but permits other forms such as direct mail and email with a disclaimer such as “Advertising Material” clearly displayed.

Today, however, lawyers can post information on their social or professional networking pages (which function like websites) and can enter into conversations via those pages (like email) with “potential clients,” sometimes in “real-time” and sometimes not.  Ah… the complexity! To clear up the ambiguity, the Commission proposes that:

 “…a lawyer’s communications constitute a solicitation when the lawyer offers to provide, or can be reasonably understood to be offering to provide, legal services to a specific potential client.” (Emphasis added)

How this might play out: Let’s say you have a live chat option on your law firm website, the kind that pops up and asks the visitor if they have questions or would like assistance. If the visitor chooses to use the chat screen, that visitor is initiating contact with the lawyer or their agent. This may also be analogous to a “contact us” form.

It is important to note that the prohibition in Rule 7.3(a) applies only to lawyer-initiated contact. Rule 7.3 does not prohibit real-time electronic contact that is initiated by a potential client. In the instance described above, the website visitor has made the initial contact with the firm. The visitor has chosen to visit the law firm’s website, indicating that they have some interest in the website’s content. It is appropriate at this juncture for the law firm to offer the website visitor live assistance.

Practical pointer:

Of course, once assistance is offered and a conversation ensues, the potential client becomes a prospective client and all the conditions of the prospective client relationship apply, i.e. you may set yourself up to be conflicted out of working for the other party. That adverse party may, in fact, be a current client! You will need to develop a conflict check process before discussing a case with any contact that comes over the transom via your website, electronic communication, or any social media outlet—something many law firms have yet to address but would be advised to do so.

Translation: It is okay to communicate in real-time about your services with “potential” clients via social media and the Internet.  This clearly does not violate rules pertaining to solicitation: Responses to requests for information or advertisements that are not directed to specific people are not “solicitations.”

Another example found in the Commission’s report includes advertisements that are automatically generated in response to an Internet search. The Commission wishes to clarify that these are not solicitations because the “advertisements are generated in response to Internet research.” These responses are more analogous to a lawyer’s response to a request for information initiated by a potential client than an unsolicited and targeted letter to a potential client who is known to be in need of a particular legal service—which is a solicitation.

Translation:  It is okay to buy ads on search engines—it is not solicitation.

Will you recommend me?

Things get a little murky when the Commission tackles “recommendations.” Model Rule 7.2(b) essentially prohibits a lawyer from giving anything of value for recommending the lawyer’s services. While this Rule is clearly written to prohibit a lawyer to pay “runners” to engage in in-person solicitations, i.e. ambulance chasers, the commission recognizes that “a number of new forms of lead generation such as pay-per-click and pay-per-lead services have surfaced with the rise of the Internet.” Although these Internet “referrals” do not “typically use in-person solicitation or employ false or misleading communications” they do involve payment for what might be considered a recommendation. Therefore, the Commission says this Rule needs clarification because “in a limited context some fees should be permissible.”

Truly, Internet “referrals” via search engine ads, Facebook ads, or even Sponsored Twitter Search Results are not all that different than paying for the ads you run in the local press, or a magazine publication. In each of those traditional examples, paying your advertising, PR or Internet marketing agency folks to create and place those ads fall into the same bucket—and are allowed under 7.2.

Translation: It’s okay to pay for sponsored ads, Facebook campaigns and search engine key words. Unfortunately, this clarification does not resolve the most frequent question I am asked: “Can I accept recommendations on LinkedIn?” Seems that since this is not a paid referral, recommendation, or solicitation, it’s okay? Check with your State Bar for any prohibitions on client testimonials for the answer that is specific to you.

Is my Facebook promotional give-away a “recommendation” under 7.2(b)?

In regard to Rule 7.2(b), the Commission’s report included a case study of a law firm offering free branded t-shirts to Facebook Fans who would subsequently send in a photo of them wearing the shirt and that would be posted to the firm’s Facebook Company Page. In the strictest sense, the wearing of this t-shirt this may be perceived as a “recommendation.” Further, the gifting of the t-shirt compensation. Hmm. Interesting, right?

Well, the Commission smartly suggests that clarification be made to Rule 7.2(b) along the lines that the gifting of a t-shirt and a subsequent photo of a person wearing it is not inherently a recommendation of their legal services.

Translation:  Go forth and Facebook your t-shirts—well, maybe after the proposed Comments and Amendments are codified in late 2012.

Don’t make false or misleading communications on social media.

Finally, an easy one. The Commission decided that there would be no further need to develop new or different restrictions to the prohibition against false and misleading communications found in Advertising Rule 7.1.

“This Rule is readily applicable to online advertising and other forms of e-communications used to attract new clients.”

However, smart firms will include a reminder in their law firm policy to the effect that: In every thing you do or say on the Internet, by all means, do not spread false or misleading information about you or your services. For more ideas on constructing a social media policy for law firms, read this previous Virtual Marketing Officer post.

What’s ahead?

The Commission plans to release proposals with regard to other issues on its agenda no later than September 2011. The Commission will submit to the ABA House of Delegates final versions of all of the Commission’s proposals in May 2012, for the House of Delegates’ deliberation at the August 2012 ABA Annual Meeting. In the meantime, the Commission seeks and welcomes feedback on its proposals and reports to date.

Comments in response to the Initial Draft Proposals on Lawyers’ Use of Technology and Client Development are due August 31, 2011. Comments may be submitted to Senior Research Paralegal, Natalia Vera at natalia.vera@americanbar.org.

Go forth, ethically, and prosper!

Virtual Marketing Officer

The other day, I added a “new” Friend to my Facebook network, someone I see maybe once a year at a professional gathering. I thought: This is great. Can it get any easier to stay in touch and up to speed on what’s going on in her life so that the next time we meet we can immediately ease into a relevant conversation? No, it can’t. I love what Facebook brings to the flow of my professional (and personal) life.

Does anyone still use a Rolodex?

Then I thought, how much better than the previous, one-dimensional Rolodex era! As a marketing director in the era of the ROLODEX, I would sometimes suggest to lawyers that they go through their Rolodex contacts once a week and choose someone to call up just to say,

“Hello, how are you doing? I was thinking about you and thought to give you a call.”

This suggestion was more often than not met with three objections: (1) I don’t have time (2) I don’t feel comfortable doing that, and (3) what would I say after hello?

My counter objection went like this:

“But, you have to stay in touch with people who have engaged you or who can refer business your way. How else do you expect them to think of you when they DO need your services again or have been asked to recommend an attorney? Using your Rolodex to prompt a touch point is a simple method; please just try it.”

While a few adventurous souls would give my advice the old college try, most would soon revert back to opting for the chance meeting at a lunch spot or charity event. Oh well. Can’t say I didn’t try, right?

Client Relationship Management?

Then came CRM (Client Relationship Management). It promised to change the amount of work involved in keeping tabs on our contacts. It’s easy; you put contact information into the database, you time and date stamp every touch point, newsletter, or event invitation for that contact and mark it for a follow up reminder. An excellent system, only one problem, some systems are less than user friendly, adding an extra step to the attorney’s workflow. (I’m not gong to suggest a law firm doesn’t need a CRM – they do – but for other reasons, not personal networking.)

FACEBOOK for Lawyers?

Fast forward to social networking. When I first suggested that lawyers try moving their business network online to Facebook (not LinkedIn—the safe choice), I was met with three objections: (1) I don’t have time (2) I don’t feel comfortable doing that, and (3) what would I say? (Funny, same objections – what’s the pattern here?)  For most, the idea of a LinkedIn presence seemed respectable, but Facebook—isn’t that for college kids? Well, yeah, it can be for young adults with wide social circles, but that’s the beauty of it. The technology is place for developing and maintaining wide social networks and it is available for anyone to leverage!

With a little common sense, and little effort, you can post one to many communications, saving steps, letting your network know what you’re up to—and it’s totally acceptable.

PRACTICE POINTER: No one will think less of you because you are using Facebook! IN FACT, it may soon be just the opposite –

“Why aren’t you my “Friend” on Facebook yet? Why don’t we connect on Facebook? I’d love to keep in touch more frequently and since you’re a thousand miles away, this is the next best thing!”

Genius! You can hone in on the people in your network, that are otherwise so easily neglected, by commenting on one of their posts. A simple “like” is all it takes sometimes.  And, you can easily step it up to the next level with a one-to-one conversation via chat or onsite email when someone appears in your news stream that presents an opportunity to get more personal. All without leaving the site and fuddling with extra steps. (Note #1: Facebook is not the place to give legal advice – or anything resembling it. This is not the place to discuss a client’s case or a judge’s ruling – even in a private Facebook email or chat. This is strictly social!) (Note #2: Some CRM’s are integrating your social networks now, and if so, you may do well to investigate and learn how to use them.)

Privacy Settings.

Facebook is not the scary place that it was once thought to be—though there are some safe guards you MUST not ignore. By all means, don’t act like a stooge on Facebook: Only share G rated photos and don’t allow others to tag you in their photos that you do not believe represent your interests well. (If someone in your network does tag you—make sure your My Account/ Notifications settings are set to alert you to when you are tagged in a photo (see illustration)—simply go to the offending photo and remove the tag. They will not be able to add it back in even if they try.)

Also, don’t share your birth DATE (your month and day is okay if you don’t mind getting swamped with well wishes on your birthday!), lock down your profile and privacy settings to Only Friends, and don’t post controversial links to polarizing articles that may compromise future business opportunities. Be wary of third-party applications and games –you really don’t need them. AND, don’t friend judges, or others who may come back to haunt you merely by association. (More Facebook tips here.)

Bottom Line:

Treat your engagement with others on Facebook a little like you would the people you interact with socially at the country club, neighborhood, church, synagogue, or your kids’ school. Be reserved, but be personable. Otherwise, go for it! The results can be significant. I recently heard yet another story of a lawyer who picked up a VERY, VERY significant matter as a result of their activity on Facebook.

Facebook is a multidimensional Rolodex that you can fill with all the people you’ve encountered at various points and intersections of your life—you seldom know exactly where your next piece of business might come from. Make sure that your Facebook Friends are aware of your knowledge base, your accomplishments, interests, and yes, even what you were cooking on the barbeque at your Memorial Day picnic! It’s okay. People like to do business with people they know and trust.  Today, more of those relationships are budding on Facebook. What are you waiting for?

If you need help navigating social networks, drop me a note.

David Fraser (@privacylawyer) is not just a lawyer online; he’s a Canadian privacy lawyer—online.  Participating on a panel with David last Friday, it was immediately obvious that he “gets social media” when he flat out told a Canadian Bar Association group of Intellectual Property lawyers that …being a lawyer online does nothing for you. Being anything too broad; and you’re going to get lost.

I couldn’t agree more: It’s getting noisy out there—to think that only three years ago plenty of lawyers had only two things to say about social media: Me? Why? Well, the crowd has arrived.

So, what should you be doing to be present and counted for in social media today?

David had some sage words of advice that echo my own experience in coaching lawyers and share them below, paraphrased from my notes.

• Listen, listen, and listen. If you listen, you have a better opportunity to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
• Don’t dilute the message. David is a Canadian privacy lawyer and he only tweets and blogs about privacy. He doesn’t dilute his message. People who follow him are people who want to know about privacy-simple, right? The dividend is significant; it gives him quality followers and qualified leads. [Note from VMO: you may have a fairly broad practice, but you should pick the most interesting and profitable part of it to emphasize for your online practice.]
• It’s about people. People want to network (converse) with people. Following law firms is not generally helpful. (Well, maybe you should follow your own firm to get the latest news first!). Follow people. Follow the right people; those who want to talk about your subject—which by the way should be very specific….
• Be a part of the community. Once you’re online, by default you’re part of that community. Living your practice online, you have a responsibility to be a contributing member of that community. While David has gotten to know other competitors pretty well using social media, he warns about getting into battles with your competitors—it never looks good.
• Be clear about your message. You need to be clear about what you’re putting out there—it becomes part of your online presence. Know what “it’s” about before you get into anything online. Checking into a client’s office on Foursquare is a bad idea; it can breach confidentiality.
• Watch out for chilling effects. There is a LOT of user-generated content posted to social media sites receiving legal attention these days. It is never wise to enter social media without a comprehensive understanding of the liabilities—both professional and personal.  Facebook alone reported to Newsweek in January 2011 that it receives 10 to 20 requests for user account information per day or approximately 5000 email subpoenas per year. (You can view some of them at ChillingEffects.org, a watchdog, non-profit organization that catalogs lawyers’ cease and desist letters.) Canadian litigants with claims of assets-at-risk or reputations-at-risk are more likely to receive attention from social media services because there is more liability placed on the publisher in Canada. However, in the U.S., the Communications Decency Act squarely places the liability on users for what they post, not the publisher of the social media site. It’s important for everyone (not just lawyers) to know their rights and responsibilities, terms of service and conditions, and live within the boundaries.
• There is no anonymity. Everywhere you go on the Internet you leave a trail. (Dare I risk saying the obvious?) Whatever you wouldn’t do in public, you shouldn’t do online. Hot issues like John Doe Anonymity (fake profiles), protest, parody and criticism, copyright and DMCA, linking, patent and trademark/trade secret are all being vetted in consideration of new legislation specific to new media channels both in the U.S and Canada. If you are hiding behind an avatar,  a stage name handle and a disposable email address, don’t think they can’t find you if they want to.

Of course, if you’re not living your practice online, you’re less likely to be impacted by any negatives but also less likely to benefit from the positives. If you are living your practice online, you may need to do some housekeeping and tidy up your message. You can start by asking, “What does my professional title on LinkedIn say about me?” Are you Jane Smith, Attorney, Smith, Jones & Brown? Or, are you Jane Smith, Miami-based, Bi-lingual Import/Export Attorney Serving U.S and Latin American Markets?

Listen first; then post. Don’t dilute the message.  It’s about people, not push messages: Be community minded. Know your rights, responsibilities and liabilities; there is no anonymity. What else would you add to this list?