As my loyal readers know, I’ve been immersed in Social Media world lately with my Kentucky Law Update presentation. As I gather and peruse information online about the topic I bookmark things I want to spend more time digesting.
This short post on Legal Blog Watch took some time to get back to and despite its brevity makes a significant statement. I advocate a strong strategic approach to using social media in legal practice: solo or multi-national mega firm, strategy allows you to focus your efforts and not drown in the easy information flow in the 2.0 web world.
A policy about recommendations on Linked-In is a far-sighted policy. These easy to use tools almost need to come standard with a fortune-teller and crystal ball so that policies cover the possibilities.
Of course, policies also have to be broad and simple enough to apply easily. If the strategic policy is too complicated or too long no one will remember everything. So some suggested simple strategies that might be of benefit to law practitioners that want to maximize their use of social media are provided here.
- Choose select tools.
- Assign responsibility for posting and monitoring.
- Policies should consider clients, courts, jurors and internal usage.
- A sign-off on the policy should be provided to all employees but should distinguish the personal from the professional clearly
Social media policies are an extension of the Internet Usage agreements that many corporate and law-firm employees are required to follow. I think that social media policies will become a business process that will allow firms to protect their assets. The management of law-firms continues to grow in complexity as e-discovery and social technology tools are employed throughout. Guiding that usage strategically deserves special consideration.
Constance Ard September 16, 2009
