Constant Content : Legal Ghostwriting & Content : Janet Raasch : Copy for Lawyers & Attorneys, Law Firm Business Development

When it comes to the latest developments in social media usage, Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog is one of the best resources around.  Go to his blog and subcribe to his feed!  Just this weekend, he added two posts that are must-reads for anyone in the legal marketing profession.

And he's not afraid to evolve with the times and trends.  Last year, O'Keefe advised his lawyer/clients to stick with the "big three" of blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn.  On Saturday, based on the latest stats on the meteoric growth of Facebook, he noted that "more people are hanging out on Facebook than any other place on the net" and added Facebook to this list.  "With the world going to Facebook, how can I ignore it and survive as a successul business leader?"

Today, O'Keefe reported on a recently released social media study from the Nielsen Company, which states that the time spent by Americans on social media sites increased 210 percent in 2009 (the increase was 82 percent for global users).  The top U.S. social media sites are Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Classmates and LinkedIn.

O'Keefe concludes his post by questioning the fact that -- in spite of these statistics -- 45 percent of US law firms continue to block the use of social media and social networking sites.

I agree completely.  Law firms need to trust their lawyers to act appropriately in "public."  You don't ask them to stay home from "real world" business networking opportunities on the off chance that they'll say something inappropriate.  Social networking sites are no different.

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Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog posts that social media are being used by nearly all Inc. 500 companies. 

If you're a law firm not using social media,  how are you to engage and network with corporations who are effectively  using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the like to build relationships?  Aren't you going to be viewed as an outsider looking in?  To leaders of America's fastest-growing companies, isn't your law firm going to look behind the times?

Amen, Kevin.

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Reporters, editors and publishers from the mainstream media now rely on social media to learn about breaking news -- and to locate resources for the stories they write and publish.  In this Sept. 24 Webinar, Kevin O'Keefe of Lexblog discusses how lawyers and law firms can use social media to create and nurture relationships with mainstream media. 

In this Webinar, O'Keefe discusses how to use social media to listen -- to clients, prospective clients, referral sources and influencers (reporters, bloggers, associations and publishers).

Once you have listened carefully and know what interests these parties, you can use social media to create a relationship and give reporters, editors and publishers the information they need to know in order to do their jobs.  If you've done your homework, they will appreciate your input.

In addition, O'Keefe discusses the correct way to cite and build upon the work of others in your own blog and in social networks -- and let them know how your efforts have increased their circulation.  He also discusses the role played by Twitter in "getting out the news" about your practice or firm.

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To understand what a news reader is, it helps to know what a news reader was.

Back in the day, a news reader was a person who read a mountain of newspapers, magazines and journals on behalf of a client, clipped out relevant articles, and circulated the articles to those who needed to keep up with developments in a particular subject area.  Sometimes this was done by an in-house person.  (In fact, "news reader" was my first job out of college in support of more than 100 individuals at the League of Women Voters National Headquarters in Washington,D.C.)  Sometimes news reading was done (for a hefty fee) by a PR firm or a clipping service.

By the time the article was written, printed and distributed by the publisher, and then read, clipped and circulated by a human news reader, the news could be many months old.

Times and tools have changed -- for the better.

Today, a news reader (or aggregator) is an Internet or desktop application that continuously searches the Internet (including blogs and other social media) for breaking news about a particular person, law firm, industry or subject area.  It automatically collects all of this information in one place.  It is a free, immediate and customized collection of the news and conversation essential to the success of any firm or professional services provider.

You can use a news reader to subscribe to the RSS feeds of resources like newspapers, blogs or courts.  You can also use a news reader to subscribe to saved searches for certain keywords.

You can save a search, for example, for your law firm's name.  If this name appears in the online version of a newspaper, magazine or journal; in a blog or comments to a blog; in a Twitter post; on a social network; or in RSS-enhanced content posted to any Web site (your own or others), that information will show up immediately in your reader -- where you can use it to support your daily professional and business decisions.  Searches can also be created for individuals, clients, cases, competitors, industries and subject areas.

There are a variety of news readers out there.  In the past, I have used Bloglines.  Currently, I am using Google Reader.  For a good tutorial on how to set up and use news readers, check out a recent Webinar presented by Kevin O'Keefe and the good folks at Lexblog.

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When it comes to blogs and other social media for lawyers and law firms, Kevin O'Keefe and his team at LexBlog are recognized as the industry experts.  Because LexBlog designed and hosts my Constant Content Blog, I am invited to participate in LexBlog's regular online Webinars.

Over the years, we've all been snookered into worthless Webinars -- where presenters drone on endlessly about concepts that are obvious to 95 percent of the audience.  Or simply read their slides.  Not so with the LexBlog series.  I consider myself pretty "cutting edge" when it comes to social media, but I always come away from these sessions with a number of good ideas that I can easily put into action myself.  Each one is an hour well spent.

The June 28 LexBlog Webinar was Creating effective blog posts and engaging in online discussions to enhance your online reputation. 

The month before, the subject was Twitter:  What is it?  Why should I use it?  How do I use it?

And there are many more.  A recording of each Webinar is posted online.  Try them.  You'll like them.

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Twitter is one of the latest social networking tools.  A user can use Twitter to create a free account, follow others, develop a list of followers and send 140 character messages -- called Tweets -- to the desktops or phones of others.  I opened up a Twitter account (@jeraasch) about six months ago, which so far I use primarily to send out links to new articles that I've published on this blog.  Apparently, there are many more ways to take advantage of this useful new tool!

Yesterday, I learned some new ways to use Twitter for business development in a Webinar presented by Lexblog.  To view the Webinar, click here.

I learned how to use a program called TweetDeck to impose order on what can be a daunting number of incoming Tweets.  You can use Tweetdeck to create up to ten sorting categories.  Some of these can be groups of people you especially want to follow, like individuals invited to an upcoming event (you can also Tweet with them during and after the event).  Others can be "saved searches" on useful terms -- like your name or the name of your law firm.

Twitter can be used actively to enhance your reputation as a thought leader.  Kevin O'Keefe at Lexblog recommends Tweeting links to useful content that you've found elsewhere.  (Sometimes, you will need to shorten the URL to fit into the 140-character limit.)  Also, Twitterers can "retweet" a message on their own account to all of their followers.  Retweeting is like an endorsement of someone else's Tweet.  It is a good way to enhance your relationship with the original Twitterer.

Twitter can also be used for search.  As I mentioned above, you can search for your name or firm name to monitor what people are saying about you on Twitter.  You can search by keywords to find out what people are saying about a current issue -- and respond with your own comments.  You can search by your area of practice and city to find the Tweets of potential clients who are asking for advice on legal services.  If you are attending an event, you can search by the event name, find other Twitterers who will be attending, and make plans to meet them in person at the event. 

In fact, many reporters are using Twitter this way to find good sources to quote in their articles.  O'Keefe mentioned that when a bomb went off in Gaza, he was able to Tweet in real time with a person on the ground at the bomb site.  He mentioned that he was able to use a link to listen to the flight recorder from the Buffalo commuter plane crash before the recording appeared in the maintsteam media -- via Twitter.

O'Keefe also recommended that your Twitter "opus" should be 90 percent "business" and 10 percent "personal."  Relationships are often based on shared personal interests -- a point that I've often made in my posts regarding online biographies and profiles.

Like so many other social media, Twitter is just a tool.  If you create an account but just let it sit "on a shelf" and never use it, Twitter will be a waste of your time.  If you use to position yourself as a thought leader and meet new people, it can be a good use of your time.

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The Constant Content Blog is engineered and hosted by the wonderful folks at LexBlog.  Over the years, I have interviewed Kevin O'Keefe a few times for articles I was writing on social media.  He always had something pertinent to add to my articles and was always generous with his time.  When it came time to start my own blog, Kevin and LexBlog were absolutely "top of mind" in MY mind.  This week, the tables were turned.  My blog and the strategy behind it were featured in an interview with Lisa Kennelly on Kevin's own site, Real Lawyers Have Blogs.  Actually, because it was so long, it was featured twice -- in Part 1 and Part 2.

Thanks for the Google juice!

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