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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Although the number of lawyers on LinkedIn is steadily increasing, very few of them are taking full advantage of the site's potential as an inexpensive thought-leadership and business development tool.  This article is a synopsis of a presentation on LinkedIn and other social networks made by John Reed of Jaffe Associates and Laura Hazen of Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pasco.

LinkedIn:  Lawyers and law firms can use social networks to develop new business

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According to research conducted for LexisNexis, 86 percent of lawyers under the age of 35 are members of social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace.  Among lawyers age 46 and older, a surprising 66 percent are members of social media.  Obviously, the role of social networks in marketing a law practice cannot be ignored.

These stats were cited in an article that appeared in Sunday's The New York Times.  The article has received a lot of attention because it discusses the situation of a lawyer who was reprimanded and fined by the Florida Bar Association for an intemperate blog post.

All of those lawyers -- younger and older -- who are now using social media would to well to remember that publishing is publishing.  The ethics requirements governing the conduct of lawyers don't change just because you are online.  Use social media -- but do not publish anything there that you would not publish in a magazine or newspaper.

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Once you have created a bio/profile that works as a persuasive marketing piece on your Web site, be sure to add that content to the full range of social networking and media sites.  I am constantly amazed at the results these sites -- with their robust RSS -- generate in search engines.  I write and blog constantly, and post my articles to a wide variety of online content sites, but my social media profiles still show up higher in search engine results than any other catetory of content.

When I Googled my name earlier this week, the top two results were my JDSupra and LinkedIn profiles -- which consistently rank even higher than this well-tended blog.  Making a surprising showing at Number Ten was my Facebook profile -- which has long been a secondary effort.  Even so -- it shows up in the first page of Google results for "Janet Ellen Raasch."

According to an article in Sunday's The New York Times business section, Facebook expects to register its 200 millionth user this week:  "This saggering growth rate -- doubling in size in just eight months -- suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web's dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world."

Anecdotally, I would have to agree.  I have received more requests to "friend" old acquaintances on Facebook in the past month than in the past two years.  Something is happening here.  I am going to pay much closer attention to "working" that profile.  So should you.

Lawyers should Google their names to see what shows up on the first page of results and make every effort to "own" that first page of results.  Post high-qualify, professional profiles on LinkedIn, JDSupra, LegalOnRamp -- and even Facebook.  If you focus on personal injury, estate or family law, you should probably be on MySpace. 

Look in your search engine results for directories like AVVO that have created pages for all of the lawyers in quite a few states -- entries that often include nothing more than your name and address.  There is a lot of debate over the propriety of AVVO's tactics (especially its ranking feature), but an empty entry looks bad -- plain and simple.  It looks like you are inactive.  Complete AVVO and any other blank directory pages to include the profile that appears on your Web site and other sites.

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Of the 75 percent of U.S. adults who go online, 35 percent currently are using social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace.  This is up dramatically from eight percent of adults just four years ago.  The trend is obvious!  These results were reported by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and summarized in a Jan. 29, 2009, Associated Press article.

Even though most social networkers still skew young, this is also starting to change.  Just last week, I received a number of Facebook requests from old college friends who are -- like me -- awfully close to age 60.  The average age of someone on LinkedIn is 40.  Social networking is not just for kids anymore! 

Another interesting thing pointed out by this article is that many social networkers have more than one profile on the same site.  This is important for professional services providers to remember.  Maintain a public profile for your "professional" self and other private profiles for your personal life.  For marketing purposes -- since these results will show up in a Google search by a client or a potential employer -- it's usually a good idea to keep the two separate.

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Social networking sites like LinkedIn bring the kind of interaction that lawyers and other professionals enjoy in "live" business, industry, professional, civic, religious, charitable and personal interest groups onto the Internet -- and supercharge it.  In this September 2007 article, commissioned by the Canadian Bar Association, Janet Ellen Raasch interviews lawyers, law firms and legal consultants about the legal marketing uses of online social networks.

Linked in or left out:  Software and the Internet supercharge social networking

Sidebar:  For the truly adventurous:  Law practice in Second Life

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