4

For those who are not familiar with social media here is a quickprimer on the social media tools that are most useful to lawyersand some examples of how lawyers are already using them

BlogsA blog (short for weblog) is essentially a self-published onlinejournal Law blogs (sometimes called ldquoblawgsrdquo) focus on mattersof interest to the legal community such as case law legislativedevelopments legal technology law office management andpractice trends

Any lawyer with a computer and Internet access can write ablog using free and easy-to-use tools such as Blogger(wwwbloggercom) or WordPress (wordpressorg) No particulartechnical knowledge or skill is required

A blog can be incorporated into your firmrsquos website therebyenriching the site with a constantly changing source of freshcontent and attracting more visitors Text graphics and video allwork well on blogs

Lawyers have traditionally marketed their expertise by writingarticles for client newsletters continuing legal education programslegal periodicals community newspapers etc so writing a blogshould come naturally to lawyers But a blog can potentiallyreach far more readers than the traditional media And liketraditional client newsletters blogs can be used to strengthenexisting client relationships by providing a steady stream ofinformation to clients

Readers may initially discover a blog while researching a particularlegal topic by ldquogooglingrdquo relevant keywords Alternatively readerscan use search engine tools such as Google Blogs to find blogson their favourite topics

Over time if a blog reliably serves up timely and relevant contentit will attract regular readers including other lawyers and potentialclients And as prolific blogger Garry Wise observes ldquotypicalreaders include other bloggers and traditional journalists whooften write about topics addressed by law blogs with credit andlink-backs typically provided The result of this exchange is morereaders and a higher online profilerdquo

Blogs also offer readers the opportunity to respond and commentthus starting an online discussion (Of course this has its risksReadersrsquo comments must be monitored to ensure that offensiveor defamatorymaterial is not published on your blog) Formore onsocial media risks see Pitfalls To Avoid on page 16

Some notable Canadian law blogs include slaw (wwwslawca)ldquoa Canadian co-operative weblog about any and all things legalrdquoand Law 21 Dispatches From A Legal Profession On The Brink(wwwlaw21ca) by Jordan Furlong former editor-in-chief of theCanadian Bar Associationrsquos National Magazine

Good examples of blogs by practising lawyers include GarryWisersquos Wise Law Blog (httpwiselawblogspotcom) and theHull amp Hull Estate Law Blog (httpestatelawhullandhullcom)

whatSocial media

The latest statistics indicate that close to 700 million computers areconnected on the Internet around the world Millions of those usersare connecting with each other using social media or networkingtools Ideas information expertise and (sometimes) trivia are movingfrom smartphone to desktop or laptop and back faster than anyonecould ever have imagined And all indications are that social mediause is growing exponentially

continued on page 6

copy 2009 Lawyersrsquo Professional Indemnity Company This article originally appeared in LAWPRO MagazineldquoSocial Mediardquo December 2009 (Vol 8 no 4) It is available at wwwlawprocamagazinearchives

5

One look at Michele Allinottersquos website tells you this is a lawyerwhorsquos ldquoconnectedrdquo

Prominently displayed on her firmrsquos home page (wwwyourcornwalllawyercom) is a ldquoFollow Michelerdquo box that lets visitorsfollow her on Twitter Facebook LinkedIn or through an RSS(really simple syndication) feed The site also features a blog anda sign-up box for Allinottersquos weekly Wealth Secrets e-newsletter

Allinotte who practises business real estate and estates lawopened her solo practice in Cornwall Ont on October 1 afterworking with firms in Cornwall (her home town) and North Bayfor several years

She uses social media to market her services build connectionswith other lawyers and potential clients and gather and shareinformation

It takes a little time to figure out what youwant to accomplish withthe social media and how to do it says Allinotte But once youhave it set up it doesnrsquot take a huge time commitment Contentfrom her blog or e-newsletter can be posted simultaneously toTwitter and Facebook

She uses Facebook primarily for personal reasons but also findsit useful as a marketing tool

ldquoI already know most of the people on Facebook in some otherway but it helps to keep me in their minds so that when they doneed legal services they think of merdquo About a dozen of her clientsoriginally contacted her through Facebook ldquoBecause we werefriends on Facebook they emailed me when they were buying ahome or making a willrdquo And showing her personal side is notnecessarily a problem ldquoIf a referral source learns that Irsquomworryingabout what kind of mittens my kids are going to wear thatrsquos notgoing to hurtrdquo

Allinotte uses LinkedIn to connect with business people in theCornwall area Using the ldquoAdvanced Searchrdquo function inLinkedIn lets her restrict her search by geographical arearesulting in links to people around Cornwall she might knowand network with

Her blog helps her to establish credibility as someone who isknowledgeable in a particular area of law ldquoSometimes when Ipost my blog post on Facebook people will email me almostimmediately and say lsquoOmigosh I need to do thatrsquo ndash so I can saylsquoyou know me so call me at work and wersquoll discuss itrsquordquo

The social media ldquoare a pretty effective way for people to getinformation from a lawyer that they might not know that they

Social media at work

A one-stopbusiness tool

need ndash or that they know that they need but might not want to askforrdquo says Allinotte

There are she admits risks to using social media A usefulresource she says (one that prompted her to make changes to herown social media practices) is the Canadian Bar Associationrsquosnew Guidelines for Ethical Marketing Practices Using NewInformation Technologies (wwwcbaorgCBAactivitiespdfethicsguidelines-engpdf)

Fittingly she first learned about the CBA guidelines through atweet from a friend in New York state ndash a good illustration of howTwitter facilitates the flow of information

Allinotte follows many people on Twitter Some she saysconsistently provide useful information Some have madepersonal connections For example she connected with estateslawyer Donna Neff of Neff Law Office Professional Corporation(wwwnefflawofficecom) in Ottawa through Twitter and ldquowenow have a great friendshipmentor-mentee relationshiprdquo

ldquoI donrsquot really expect that Irsquoll get any clients through Twitter butitrsquos a valuable source of information on legal marketing and onbuilding the type of practice that you want to buildrdquo

Through Twitter she learned about the Personal Family Lawyerreg

program (wwwpersonalfamilylawyercom) a US program forlawyers who do estate planning and work with small business

Twitter is also what prompted her to go solo It helped her find andconnect with others who had set up their own law practices ldquoThatrsquoswhy I give valuable information ndashbecause I get valuable informationrdquo

Michele Allinotte photo by ROY STUDIO

6

Twitter (httptwittercom) is a free micro-blogging service thatenables its users to send and read brief messages known asldquotweetsrdquo ndash text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length Thetweets are displayed on the authorrsquos personal Twitter page anddelivered to other users known as ldquofollowersrdquo who have signedup to receive them

When you join Twitter you get a personal page and a dedicatedTwitter address (wwwtwittercomyourusername) Your personalpage shows your latest tweets and the tweets of the people youhave chosen to follow You can choose to follow anyone on Twitterincluding friends business associates and clients

The 140-character limit on message length was originally set forcompatibility with Short Message Service messaging whichallows the interchange of short text messages between mobilephones Tweets can be sent from a computer a cellphone or anyweb-enabled smartphone

Although Twitter had a reputation as a time waster (usersrsquodetailed responses to the ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo question postedat the top of the Twitter page range from themundane to the inane)it is now coming into its own

Many lawyers are now using Twitter to quickly and easily sharecontent posted on a blog or website an interesting news story ona media website a government announcement or an importantnew court decision

You can also ldquoretweetrdquo (ie forward) an interesting tweet originallyposted by someone else

Most useful tweets contain links To fit within the 140-characterconstraint tweeters use free URL-shortening tools such as TinyURL (httptinyurlcom) or bitly (httpbitly) Several free Twittermanagement applications such as TweetDeck have built-inldquoautomaticrdquo URL shorteners

General social networking sites

Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpacefocus on building online communities of people who shareinterests and activities Until recently these tools were almostentirely for personal networking They are now also being usedfor commercial networking

These sites which are free to join all have a similar structure Usersset up their own profile page where they provide the informationthey want to share with their network When members discovertheir friends they connect to each other by adding each other asfriends on their profile page As these groups of friends grow themembers can create extensive networks The members of thesenetworks communicate with each other and share photos linksvideos web links blog posts and other information

Facebook (wwwfacebookcom) is the worldrsquos largest socialnetworking website with more than 300 million active usersMySpace (wwwmyspacecom) is similar in structure but todaymuch less popular than Facebook

Facebook features include theWall a space on every userrsquos profilepage that allows friends to post messages for the user to see andStatus which allows users to inform their friends of their where-abouts and activities A News Feed appears on every userrsquos homepage with messages status updates profile changes and blogposts from the userrsquos friends

Facebook users can also create communities of people interestedin a particular topic or issue by setting up or joining public orprivate groups These groups lets their members interact withdiscussion boards and other tools

Facebook allows you to establish customized privacy levels andrestrict the content that is publicly accessible

An effective marketing tool Facebook can bring you referrals andclients by helping you to reconnect with old classmates colleaguesand friends A Facebook page tends to rank high in Googlesearches for an individualrsquos name

For an example of how Facebook has been used in the legal arenasee our Casebook article on page 19

YouTube (wwwyoutubecom) is a free video-sharing websiteAnyone can upload and share or view videos Lawyers canmarkettheir expertise to clients and potential clients by postinginformational videos about topical legal issues on YouTube Thevideos can also be integrated into websites and blogs andimported directly to Facebook

Professional networking sites

continued on page 8

LinkedIn is a social networking site for business professionalswith over 50millionmembers inmore than 200 countries Its basicservices are free

Underlying LinkedIn is the notion of six degrees of separation Eachof us knows people who know other people and we are usuallywithin just a few clicks of knowing someone who can introduce usto someone we want to know better

It all began with a penchant for writing Itrsquos led to a reputationas a prolific respected online communicator

ldquoI began blogging because I wanted to write ndash with absolutelyno business purpose at allrdquo says Garry Wise of Wise Law Office(wwwwiselawnet) a four-person firm in mid-town Toronto Wisepractises primarily family law employment law and civil litigation

Wise Law Blog (wwwwiselawblogspotcom) launched in April2005 features commentary on legal developments and politicsin Canada and the United States technology and current affairs

The blog nevertheless supports the approach that Wise tookwhen he built his firm website in 1999 which was ldquoitrsquos all aboutgetting information out there providing good backgrounders onthe key areas of our practice The rule of thumb I developed isthat if I would have provided a certain amount of informationduring an initial consultation without fee I just put all of thatinformation online

ldquoAs a result when people come to see me theyrsquore unbelievablywell-informed and we can get into the real substance of theirissues right awayrdquo

His blog is another means of ldquogetting the information out thererdquondash in a variety of formats He often includes video clips forexample and has just added a video series called OMG LawTalk which features ldquoinformal but often emphatic conversationson legal issues politics technology and social mediardquo between

Social media at work

Prolific blogger loves to writeWise and fellow law bloggers MichaelCarabash and Omar Ha-Redeye

Facebook represents yet another opportunityto put information out there

But lawyers should first think about whetherthey want to make Facebook a personal orprofessional site says Wise They maynot want to share with their clients andprofessional colleagues what they sharewith their family and friends

He suggests that lawyers consider havingtwo Facebook sites ndash a professional one anda personal one ndash something he is now in theprocess of doing

A problem for lawyers is that ldquoFacebookdoes not currently offer adequate archivingsystems to ensure that all communicationsare saved and retrievable by users As aconsequence maintaining comprehensiveand complete records of all client communi-cations via Facebook can be cumbersomeand difficultrdquo

Recently a client sent a Facebook messagecontaining a video in which the client explained the legal problemhe wanted to discuss ldquoMy first thought was lsquoHow the heck amI going to keep a copy of this for the client filersquo In this case it wasinnocuous and I confirmed it all by emailrdquo

Reputation management can be a problem on all social mediaIf yoursquore going to write on blogs or even on Twitter people aregoing to disagree with you and they may do so in ldquocolourfulrdquolanguage The result may be that the first entry on a Googlesearch of a lawyerrsquos name is ldquoso and so is an idiotrdquo

But this just shows the necessity of having a presence on thesocial media as a pre-emptive measure says Wise You wantpositive information about you to appear in Google searches ndashnot just the nasty comments

Wise finds an RSS reader such as Google Reader invaluableNot only does it enable him to stay current but it also enableshim to ldquoautomaterdquo the supply of content for his Twitter pageGoogle Reader lets you share items Twitter can import thoseshared items directly without any intervention This has enabledhim to develop a presence on Twitter with a minimal investmentof time

ldquoWhen people say to me lsquohow do you find the time to do allthisrsquo my answer is simple I read anyhow and all I have to do ispress the share selection on the Google Reader post and itrsquos onmy Twitter automatically within five minutes and therersquos noeffort involved Itrsquos getting information out there and itrsquos reallyworthwhile doing itrdquo

7

Garry Wise

8

Legal OnRamp (httplegalonrampcom) is a networking andknowledge-sharing site for in-house counsel and invited outsidelawyers and third party service providers The site was designedspecifically to help in-house counsel and lawyers from corporatelaw firms connect Only lawyers can join and only by invitation

Legal networking sites

Martindale-Hubbell Connected (wwwmartindalehubbellcomconnected) is a free global online network for legal professionals(many from larger firms) Linked to the martindalecom data baseof more than one million lawyers it enables lawyers to expandtheir professional referral network demonstrate expertise shareknowledge and collaborate globally through online groups blogsand forums The site provides access to thousands of articles

Legally minded (wwwlegallymindedcom) was launched in late2008 by the American Bar Association (ABA) as a social networkfor lawyers Membership is free and open to all lawyers not justABA members

The site features social networking tools news and articles anduser-generated content Lawyers can expand their professionalnetworks usingmember-matching and search features The Newssection contains links to law-related stories in the mainstreammedia and articles in the ABA Journal The Resources sectioncontains articles about practice management and technologyamong other topics

Knowledge-sharing tools on the site enable members to exchangeideas files and schedules within virtual groups and engage withother members via blogs wikis chats and discussion groups

NormanMacInnes is the corporate writereditor at LAWPRO He canbe reached at normanmacinneslawproca

CDPLArsquoS INFORMATION EXCHANGE PLATFORMThe County and District Law Presidentsrsquo Association (CDLPA)recently unveiled a new interactive website for practisinglawyers in Ontario the Information Exchange Platform (IEP)(wwwcdlpaorg) The IEP enables practising lawyers to interactwith other lawyers in Ontario through a moderated forum It isalso intended to give lawyers relevant and timely information tohelp them in their practices and permit lawyers to participate inCDLPA online surveys to help CDLPA gather information quicklyfor advocacy purposes

The site has more than 23000 members from over 40 countriesmore than half of whom are in-house counsel Basic services arefree but ldquoall members are expected to contributerdquo articles

Like other social networking sites it includes walls where userscan post messages to each other group functions that areclosed to non-group members and open forums for discussionand document-sharing It also has a job-posting service and amarketplace where in-house counsel can post projects andreceive tenders from firms

LinkedIn enables you to import your formal reacutesumeacute to create aprofile that summarizes your professional expertise and accom-plishments Itrsquos therefore an effective way to back up personalreferrals and other forms of traditional marketing One of the firstthings someone will do after a referral is ldquoGooglerdquo the personrsquosname LinkedIn profiles tend to rank very high in the search engineresults for individual names

Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleaguesclients and partners You can add more connections by invitingcontacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you Special tools helpyou to mine your Outlook Yahoo HotMail and Gmail accountsto add connections

You can post recommendations for your connections and you canask your connections to write recommendations for you

Employers can list jobs (for a fee) and search for potentialcandidates on LinkedIn Job seekers can search for jobs and canreview the profile of hiring managers and discover which of theirexisting contacts can introduce them

LinkedIn has an Answers feature that allows users to ask questionsfor the community to answer By answering questions about thelaw lawyers can potentially market their expertise (althoughthey should be careful to provide legal information and not legaladvice) The answers you provide become part of your profileand demonstrate your expertise to your connections potentialclients or employers

The searchable LinkedIn Groups feature enables users to establishnew business relationships by joining alumni industry professionalor other relevant groups Group members can participate inonline discussions

Plaxo (wwwplaxocom) is an online address book and socialnetworking service It claims to host address books for morethan 40 million people

Like other social networking sites it allows to you create a profileand share photos videos and content from other websites Thecontents of your blog or your tweets on Twitter can be sent to yourPlaxo connections

Plaxo provides automatic updating of contact information storedon its servers When a user edits this information the changesappear in the address books of all those who listed that user intheir own books

9

Donna Neff has a penchant for ldquotechrdquo tools An estates practitionerin Ottawa she has adopted the latest technology tomake her firmpaperless and speaks at conferences advising other lawyers howthey can do the same This determination to be at the forefrontof law practice innovation also extends to making great use ofonline social media particularly Twitter

Like many first time users Neff initially found Twitter a bitbewildering and its potential business uses a bit elusive It wasat the ABA TechShow in Chicago that she came across a lawyerworking for a German company who used Twitter to stay in touchwith head office staff overseas Neff applied the same idea to herfirm in which several staff work remotely and donrsquot have dailyface-to-face contact

As well as using phones and email to connect the scatteredfirm members and staff have discovered that Twitter helps themmaintain a personal connection Through their firm-only Twitteraccount staff can share office information tell each other ofnew links and ideas and do problem-solving on firm issues Ina nutshell it helps keep the ldquofeelrdquo of an office even when peoplearenrsquot always in the same location

Neff has a second public Twitter account (twittercomdonnaneff)which she has used to build a North America-wide network of

Social media at work

Making Twitterfit the needsof the businessother estate planning professionals that she has found to be aninvaluable resource

As some of her estate work involves other jurisdictions she alsouses LinkedIn groups to find estate lawyers in other provinces orAmerican states

Neff uses Twitter to stay in touch with staff and colleagues ratherthan as a marketing tool or to communicate with clients(However she has had clients referred to her because of Twitter)Instead she reaches out to potential clients through her websiteand her blog on estate issues (nefflawofficecomblog) Herentries address estate planning issues and questions whichwould be of interest to other estate lawyers as well as providingpotential clients with answers to many questions before theyeven arrive at the firm As a further step to reach out to clientsshe is planning to have short video segments hosted on her sitethat would explain particular aspects of estate planning andwhat services her firm can offer

Lawyers who are just getting onto the website bandwagon maythink the interactive worlds of Twitter and blogs are one step toomany ndash or something best left to the younger members of a firmBut age has nothing to do with it says Neff ldquoItrsquos less about ageand more about attitudes to technology in generalrdquo

Here are a few sites Neff recommends to improve your Twitterexperience

TweetDeck (tweetdeckcom) Lets you bring some order to yourTwitter universe by organizing your contacts how you follow themand building searches for particular terms (eg ldquoestate planningrdquo)if used even by non-followers

TweetFeed (tweetfeedcom) creates instant Tweets of yourblog entries

SocialOomph (wwwsocialoomphcom) formerly ldquoTweetLaterrdquolets you schedule Tweets in advance for future posting

ldquoTweet 16 16Ways Lawyers CanUse Twitterrdquo (wwwtinyurlcomcmv5pr) A great article by Robert Ambrogi a Massachusettslawyer and media consultant

Tim Lemieux is practicePRO coordinator with LAWPRO He can bereached at timlemieuxlawproca

Donna Neff

10

ldquoSocial media are part of my marketing effortrdquo says employmentlawyer Stuart Rudner Instead of replacing traditional methodsof marketing ldquothey work in tandem with the more traditionalmethods like the other writing that I do for HR Reporter and TheLawyers Weekly speaking engagements word of mouth and thenetworking that we would traditionally do over cocktailsrdquo

But social media Twitter in particular are also an effective meansof communicating with clients says Rudner an employmentlawyer who practises with Miller Thomson LLP at the firmrsquosMarkham office ldquoIf Irsquom working on a file and I think of somethingthat an employer or employee has done that they shouldnrsquot havedone itrsquos pretty easy to post a one- or two-sentence warning onTwitter ndash remember to do this remember not to do that At 140characters or less it doesnrsquot take a lot of time but it certainlygets the message out thererdquo

The ldquoone-third rulerdquo frequently recommended for Twitter ndash one-third original thoughts one-third retweets and one-third links tolonger articles ndash makes good sense to Rudner who tweets atCanadianHRLaw and srudner

Some typical Rudner tweets

RT Eric_B_Meyer New blog post Can employers requireflu shots for their employees httpbitlyfn9lEHumanResources EmploymentLaw

Social media at work

Another way to get your name out thereHR Recordkeeping Keeping WhatYou Need for As Long As You Needhttpbitlyb32L2EmploymentLawHumanResources

Rudner also blogs through First Reference(wwwfirstreferencecom) and Canadian HRReporter (Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd)(wwwhrreportercom) (First Reference is aCanadian publisher of compliance-basedhuman resources payroll and internalcontrol resources)

He joined LinkedIn about five years agoldquoNothing happened for four years but it hasreally taken off in the last year and a lot ofpeople are now using it for professionalmarketingrdquo As of October 24 he had animpressive 426 connections

Although he joined Facebook primarily forpersonal reasons ndash to stay in touch withfamily and friends ndash it has produced themost tangible results for him when it comesto attracting new clients ldquoYou tend toreconnect with old friends and old

colleagues A few people I knew as far back as high school arenow human resources managers or directors who are looking foran employment lawyerrdquo

He has also gained some new work through LinkedIn and Twitterbut says that like all marketing efforts marketing through socialmedia is a long-term process ldquoItrsquos just like writing in magazinesor speaking ndash you assume that three or four years down the roadsomeone who read your article or heard you speak may call youup Itrsquos hard to measure how effective these things are but Irsquovedefinitely seen some results from Facebookrdquo

What are the dangers for lawyers of using social media For alawyer obviously client confidentiality is crucial says RudnerldquoDonrsquot disclose anything that you shouldnrsquot discloserdquo

Instead of just ldquojumping in and joining various sitesrdquo lawyersshould take the time to think about how to use social media ldquoYouneed to make yourself known as someone with expertise in yourarea of practice A lot of people join LinkedIn and join groups onLinkedIn but donrsquot really get involved You can be on Twitter butnot post anything ndash and then therersquos really no benefit to yourdquo

When it comes to marketing ldquoeveryone has their own strengthsrdquosays Rudner ldquoSome people like cocktail parties some peoplelike to write some like to speak Whatever yoursquore comfortablewith ndash if you can add social networking as part of your marketingplan itrsquos just another way to get your name out thererdquo

Stuart Rudner

11

International trade lawyer John Boscariol says his main goalwhen using social media ldquois to stay top of mind with clients andpotential clientsrdquo Boscariol who practises withMcCarthy TeacutetraultLLP in Toronto has also found social media to be a very practicalway of providing information to clients

Boscariolrsquos social media experience started with the professionalnetworking site LinkedIn As well as posting his cv and makingconnections he uses LinkedIn to provide legal updates Forexample using Slideshare he has posted PowerPointpresentations on his LinkedIn page on such topics as DoingBusiness with Cuba and A Legal Perspective on Customs Audits

But he finds Twitter ndash which lets him send frequent updates in avery compact 140 characters or less ndash even better for passing onhelpful information to clients

A typical Boscariol tweet ldquoConfusion continues on Russiarsquosentry into WTO httpowlyuvd6 EU demanding explanation oftrade plansrdquo (The URL links to an article on the website ofEuropean Voice a weekly newspaper that covers EuropeanUnion news) Not surprisingly more and more of his clients arefollowing Boscariolrsquos tweets as they learn about the valuableupdates he is providing

Social media at work

A tool to establish expertise amp authorityFacebook is reserved for personal use toconnect with family and friends ldquoI thinkthe verdict is still out on Facebook as abusiness development tool for lawyers andprofessionals I donrsquot think clients view it asa professional or business toolrdquo Despite hisskepticism Boscariol now has his Twittermessages set up to also appear automaticallyon Facebook

To Boscariol the social media are primarilyuseful ldquoas a means of establishing expertiseand authority ndash one way of doing that amongmany I would be surprised if anyone said lsquoIgot a client because I was on Facebook orLinkedInrsquo But when you are connectedthrough these vehicles to your clients itreinforces the existing client relationshipand for others it establishes you as anauthority in the areardquo

Because Twitter is still being used ldquofor a lotof useless purposes ndash like whatrsquos going on inpeoplesrsquo dayrdquo many lawyers question itsvalue That view needs to change saysBoscariol Lawyers need to view Twitter as ameans of putting out relevant information in

their practice areas for their followers For example it may takea long time to write a legal update but ldquowriting something in 140characters and providing a link to the relevant source or documentcan be just as effective sometimes in getting the informationacross to the clientrdquo

Sometimes itrsquos a challenge to get the message across in 140characters but ldquoin these days of the news bite people appreciateshorter piecesrdquo Many applications such as TweetDeck havebuilt-in URL shorteners which helps

While lawyers can establish and reinforce their brand by usingsocial media they can also damage their brand if they donrsquotalways use them for professional purposes Lawyers shouldassume that anything they post is going to be read by all theirclients ldquoDonrsquot get too relaxed because the format is so easy towork with Once itrsquos on Twitter and shoots off into cyberspaceyou canrsquot take it backrdquo

Boscariol also advises against taking a strong or harshly criticalposition on an issue in social media as opposed to providinginformation ldquoGetting political on Twitter can come back to hauntyou You might take one position on an issue and then later beretained by a client to take the opposite position Do you want to beout there in cyberspace and on the record as opposing your ownclientrsquos positionrdquo

John Boscariol