A Practical Guide To Using Social Media For Lawyers

L E A D E R NETWORKS

A practical guide to
social media for
the business and practice of law
Vanessa DiMauro
CEO, Leader Networks
617 484 0778
vdimauro@leadernetworks.com


Goals

• Examination of social media and how it applies to legal professionals
– Survey of the applicable tools and an overview of how they work
– Examination of Law 2.0 trends
– Exploration of social media rules of engagement, ethics and participation
guidelines

• Case study application of social media to key drivers in the business and
practice of law
– Use cases built upon LinkedIn and Martindale Hubbell Connected professional
networks

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

(c) Leader Networks 2009 http://www.leadernetworks.com
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Presenter’s BIO

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

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

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Professional networking &
social media
It’s all about connecting
online

4


The Benefits of Using Social Media
Social media means you connecting and
collaborating with other legal
professionals using online tools

Getting new business
Extending your reputation online
Finding new ideas and peers
Discovering answers to questions online
Reaching outside counsel
Connecting online

5


Social Connecting & Online Professional Networking Differences

Social connecting is about fun, friends and family sharing online

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

• Virtual networks are today’s digital business cards

• Examples of online professional networks include:
– LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) All types of professionals
– Martindale-Hubbell Connected
(www.martindale.com/connected) Legal professionals
– Sermo (www.sermo.com) Physicians

6


Lawyers Are Using Online Networking Now

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

Approximately 50% of counsel belong to a social network such as LinkedIn
or MySpace (as of April 2008)
• Corporate Counsel are over 3x more likely to use their network for
professional reasons
• Counsel prefer a private online network for just attorneys
• Martindale-Hubbell Connected is the online network attorneys favor most

And they believe it helps them work…
– Access to information I can’t get anyplace else – 46%
– Easier exchange of information – 45%
– More quickly find and evaluate the right legal partners – 29%

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The Social Media Landscape

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Example of Digital Channels for Lawyers

Blogs and Reputation
Community Social Networks
Online News Aggregators

9


Primary Professional Networking Activities for Lawyers

•Alerts
2. Collaborating •Enhance your profile
•Feeds •Blogs
•Scans •Join an appropriate community •Podcasts
•Create a basic profile •Photos & videos
•Connect with others •Social bookmarking
•Ratings and rankings
•Blog comments
•Discussions & groups
•Questions & answers
1. Listening 3. Promoting

Utilizing Online Legal Business Tools
• Preferred provider management
• Integrated search
• Client ratings
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Social Media = A Business Process Redesign for Online
Collaboration and Promotion

Strapping new tools onto an old process won’t yield the desired results
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Maintaining a Positive Online Reputation

Career Builder did a study (Sept. 2008) on how employers and hiring managers use
social media to vet candidates. Top factors that influenced their hiring decision
included:
• 48% - candidate’s background supported their qualifications
• 43% - candidate had great communication skills
• 40% - candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture
• 36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
• 31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others
• 30% - candidate showed a wide range of interests
• 29% - candidate received awards and accolades
• 24% - candidate’s profile was creative

Keep your digital persona professional and appropriate
Clean up any digital dirt on personal sites
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Listening: Reputation Management

• Discover your online identity
– Research yourself, your firm or
company and your area of
practice
– http://www.google.com/alerts
– Fix or edit any incorrect
information about you or your
firm.
• If you find yourself quoted,
mentioned or commented about
on a blog or article, use comments
area to respond – right away

Activity + Credibility = Visibility

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Listening: Monitoring the Online Channels

Find blogs that you want to read regularly and
follow those blogs
• Visit them regularly (manually) or
• Use a web browser to follow that RSS feed or
• Subscribe by email
• Follow bloggers & journalists through RSS
• Connect to peers and thought leaders via the
Twitter follow feature
• Search SlideShare and YouTube and join groups
of like-minded professionals

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

Online Professional Networks for lawyers are a unique opportunity to:

1. Build connections and advance relationships

2. Collaborate with peers to problem solve and create
trust

3. Promote yourself and your organization; showcase
your own or your firm’s legal expertise

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Factors for Choosing a Professional Network

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

Safety and security:
– Participate in networks that you trust, and which provide sufficient
security and authentication to make professional users feel safe
– This is a key benefit to private, members-only and legal-focused
networks

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

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

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

Be cautious when:

• The site allows legal advice to be offered electronically
• The site’s Terms and Conditions do not respect your privacy, or will sell or
rent your contact information
• You cannot tell what company or entity created the site ... or why
• Members are allowed to advertise or solicit in the forums or interactive
areas on the site without permission from the site operator.
• There is no authentication process following a registration to ensure you
are who you say you are.
• Anonymity is allowed throughout the site

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Collaborating & Promoting:
The Importance of Your Online Profile
• Peer referral is the strongest source of jobs, recommendations, new
business relationships.
• Professionals are increasingly going online first to research firms, people
and topics
• Online profiles are today’s virtual business card
– And they can be forwarded, emailed, bookmarked and linked to
• Profiles form the basis for connections as online networking grows in
relevance.

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Case studies: Best Practice Social Networks for Lawyers

Martindale-Hubbell Connected LinkedIn

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Collaborating: Creating an Effective Social Media Profile

• She is reachable and accessible
• Effective photo and contact
information
• Expertise and area of practice is clear
and well defined
• Credible authority established
• Bio is first person
• “She has spoken on 6 continents
about the rule of law, women in the
law, and the future of the law.”
• Links to others = well connected
• Interests give personal feeling
• Activity and frequency of use
establishes commitment

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Another Effective Social Media Profile
• Approachable photo
• Bio written in the 1St person and
includes summary
– Focus on helping others understand who he is
not on impressing with how important he is.
• Invitation to connect in introduction
• Accessible summary of
accomplishments
– authentic voice and tone
• Recommendations
• Blog feed imbedded in profile
• Links to website and blog in profile
• Groups displayed to show affiliation
• Inclusion of human experience
– Volunteer focus, travel interests

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Example: How a Professional Network Profile Is Used
Sam maintains a profile on 2-3 key professional networks
• 1 is public, 2 are private legal communities
• Sam’s profiles have links to articles, discussion posts, recommendations, & peer
connections
The profile in action:
• Peter is seeking a legal expert to contract out a matter
• Peter searches Google and surfaces Sam’s Martindale.com profile based on a key
word search
• Peter discovers Sam’s Connected profile and logs in or joins Connected
• Peter sees Sam has extensive experience in the legal matter under consideration
• On LinkedIn, Peter notices that both he and Sam know Louis
– Peter calls or emails Louis to get the info on Sam as they are both connected
• On Martindale Hubbell Connected, Peter logs in to his account, reads Sam’s
contributions in the discussions and requests a connection to him on Connected.
• Peter is pleased he has found an expert and hires Sam to handle the matter
• Because Peter reminded Louis about Sam through the referral network online, Louis
updates Sam’s contact information on his preferred provider list.
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The Network Effect

Professional networking success
means making connections
And using them well

• Jim connects to 14 people upon joining a Network
• Those 14 people live in 12 different states and 1 different country
• And represent 7 different areas of expertise
• Jim now has the ability to connect with all 14 people’s connections
• Jim is now connected to about 400 people
• Just by connecting to 14 people

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How to Connect to a Peer Online

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

• If someone initiates a connection and you want to connect:
– Accept the invitation
– Send a brief thank you note to them
– Best practice: If they are a remote connection: email them or send an InMail to
them occasionally to keep the connection alive. Be sure to include updates to your
work such as recent articles or information.

• If you do not want to be connected to someone initiating a connection:
– If you do not know the person, it’s OK to ignore the invitation
– If you are uncomfortable with ignoring the invitation, send an email or InMail
message offering a reason for not connecting (i.e. don’t use that channel often,
trying to limit connections, etc.)

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Inviting Others to Connect Online

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

• Asking permission to connect is encouraged
• Individually decide if it is appropriate to initiate a connection
• Always write a personal email – do not use an email template
• If a person doesn’t respond, generally do not send a reminder
• Thank people for connecting to you

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Keeping Connections Alive

Best Practices & Opportunities

• OK -- you’re connected. Now what?
• Unfortunately, people often ignore connections until they need
something!
Instead ....
• Outreach to your contacts every so often
– Choose a few a month and email them
• Focus on accomplishments, recent wins, new blog post etc.
• Send them articles, ideas, discussions they may be interested in
• Use feeds and other features on networks to keep your profile active
(i.e. Slideshare or blog feed on profile)
• Keep track of what your connections are doing to benchmark yourself
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LinkedIn and Connected
as an Online Promotion Channel
• “What are you working on” feature
(LinkedIn)
– Use to promote or market ideas or activities
• Drive traffic to your blog and presentations
– Blog, Slideshare, comments feed
• Premium service offerings
– Pay subscription rate to raise search result
visibility
– Ability to reach out and contact people you
do not know via InMail
• Ad Network (LinkedIn) Use all aspects of the profile
opportunity to demonstrate
– Targeted advertising for a fee to select
your thought-leadership so
demographic segments when others look you up,
you stand apart

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Using Martindale-Hubbell Connected to Build Connections
Martindale Hubbell Connected – a
strong channel for finding others and
extending your referral network in
single location

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

Recommendation engine helps
members find other members
contextually

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

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Community Connects Network To Professional Context

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

• 24X7 online conference
of expertise and
specialty

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

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Professional Networks for Peer Collaboration
“You have a time-sensitive question you need answered.”

• Post a message in a discussion group
– Choose the universe for responses (i.e. LinkedIn = everyone)
– Legal professionals only (i.e. Martindale Hubbell Connected)
– A private group of select or selected individuals (LinkedIn or
Martindale Hubbell Connected)
• Launch a quickpoll or survey (i.e. Martindale Hubbell Connected)
• Use network mail to reach out to connections (LinkedIn or Martindale
Hubbell Connected)
• Majority of professionals use peer networks to make strategic decisions

Information is gathered, connections are built, decisions are made
quickly and effectively online.

(c) 30


Professional Networks for Collaboration in Action

“What is the word on the street about the impact of
this new tax code amendment that just passed?”

• You find a group dedicated to tax issues on Martindale Hubbell Connected
and join the group.
• You look to LinkedIn Answers for a discussion about the new tax code and
read the responses.
• You search the Membership Directories and profiles for a peer who has
expertise in this new tax code and invite him to a discussion
• You search Twitter and see what people are saying about the topic.
• Once you have a point of view, you continue to participate in the forums
and also do a brief podcast on the topic for the online tax group

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Participating in Online Discussions and Groups

In a discussion In a group

• Best for engaging a wide audience on • More private, with a smaller number
a topic, question or issue of participants and specific topics
• Open to all community members • Often closed and available only to
who can read and respond members of the group
• Expect quick but only moderately • Participation tends to evolve over
deep responses in most cases time and group dynamics apply
• Very common to invite others to join • When you join a group, be sure to
you in a discussion introduce yourself and participate
• Some discussions are transactional – • Make contributions and not sit on the
“how do I, where can I” and others sidelines. If you have nothing to add,
are more thoughtful and reflective. perhaps the group is not right for you

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Using Groups to Segment Your Audience

• Groups are a great way to segment the growing audience of professional
network users
– Connect with other around a common professional interest
– Narrow peer groups into smaller, more focused clusters and allows for more
substantial professional conversation
– Enables “deep dives” into subject matter with others who understand the
nuances, language and issues of a specific topic

• Joining a group is a more intimate experience than joining a network
– Introduce yourself to the group and offer brief background
– Participate frequently and offer ideas, questions and insights
– Above all, be helpful and pro-active to maximize value for all

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

INVITE ~ CONNECT ~ SEARCH ~ CONTRIBUTE

– Send them a link to a story that would be relevant or interesting to them
– Watch their blog on Connected, for example, and use the comment feature
– Answer their questions in the discussion groups
– Feature them on your blog or reference them favorably in the community
Also/Or …
– Invite them to participate in an online discussion topic with you
– Connect them to others with whom they may want to be connected
– Reach out to them every month or so, using the network as the catalyst
– Search for all of the lawyers at a client who are members of the network,
identify relationships and connect with them

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


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

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

• Through social media the opportunity is there for the taking!
• Professional networks offer MANY opportunities to showcase your
knowledge
• Participation is key to using social media successfully

IT is yours for the taking
Discuss IT, blog IT, answer IT, poll IT, comment on IT, podcast IT
Use the tools of social media to take charge of IT

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Promoting: Using Social Media to Prospect
Or ... How social media are just like being at a face-to-face event

Prepared
Connected
In step with others
Graceful

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Professional Networks for Sourcing Global Lawyers

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

• Search the connections of your peers for
Chinese lawyers
– Use InMail or contact Connections for
references or greater detail on the lawyers
surfaced.
– Use professional network search and Web
search to surface lawyers
– Research/vet those found on the
professional network
• Examine discussion posts, blog entries
and profile for relevance
© Leader Networks 2009
– Request a connection through peer
http://www.leadernetworks.com
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Use Social Media To Take The Pulse of
Legal Issues and Peer Experts
Example: “My company is dealing with a new ERISA law. What are other
companies doing about it?”

Many ways to take the pulse using social media:
• Use quickpoll feature on professional communities to launch an
anonymous inquiry of your peers.
• Start a discussion group
• Blog the question and your POV. Invite comments and peer review.
• Use search on the network to find other peers and invite them into a
group to discuss. Establish a private group for maximum information
exchange.
• Use search and Google alerts to track news and POV commentary

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8 Minute Social Media Game Plan
For an effective Social Media savvy lawyer...

• Spends 5 minutes a day scanning RSS feeds, blogs and emails
• 1 second to check reputation alert, topic or company key word alert
– 5 minutes to respond-- if need be -- to a blog post or social media entry
– Send email to author of great article – invites to connect if she responds
• Logs into professional network every few days for about 8-10 minutes
– Connects to 1-3 people every few visits
– Writes a personalized email to 1-2 connections
– Scans forums or blogs
• Comments briefly or posts a message
• Once or twice a month (at least) – writes or co-writes a blog entry
– Twitters new blog post
– Posts blog on network profile
– RSS sends blog entry automatically to all subscribers
– Responds to comments
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Ethics, Guidelines & Best Practices

Be transparent and clear in identity and intention

Adhere to ethical rules and guidelines governing counsel

YOYOW - You own your own words

Be responsive & trustworthy

Finish what you start

Value and create thought leadership

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A Social Media Project Plan

Innovation Design Development Assessment

Plan Goals and System Design Tools & Metrics and
Key Objectives Techniques Milestone

Align with Prototype tools
Marketing

Design document Revisit goals &
Who – do you want to attract continue
or connect with
What – is your point of view: What’s working
Identify key goals expert, learner, specialty, tone what’s not?
i.e. reputation When – timeframe for mini-
milestones that support goals Identify
management, channels
peer group collaboration, Where- what digital channels online
do you want to use
thought leadership Why- measurement goals.
evangelization 41


What You Need to Succeed: the Three P’s

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

• A Point of View
– Use the virtual podium wisely – photo, info & ideas and update
– Power to showcase knowledge
• let your attorneys show what they know
• Transparency is key
• If they would be allowed to attend an event without regulation, let them
online without controls

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

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Managing Expectations

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

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

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

• Social media outcomes CAN be measured
– Buzzmetrics, ROI, customer retention, revenue generation, cross-sell/up sell,
competitive information value, new client acquisition

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Social Media Is Here to Stay

OPPORTUNITY
• Still (great) room for market domination in the Legal profession
• The barrier to entry is low and returns are high

VELOCITY
• Greater reach, greater efficiency, low cost
• Attract and retain new business (if private practice) or
• Connect and grow practice and connections (if corporate counsel)
• Can target regional, national & specialty at the same time.

BEST PRACTICES
• Other industries and people have succeeded so lawyers can learn from those
(individuals and industries) who have already succeeded
• Treat social media efforts like any other thought leadership or marketing program:
set goals, employ best practices, measure and grow

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