li11: effective and ethical use of social media presented by gina...

LI11: Effective and Ethical Use of Social

Media

Presented by

Gina Rubel, Esq.

The handouts and presentations attached

are copyright and trademark protected and

provided for individual use only.

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Effective & Ethical

Use of Social Media

for Law Firms

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.

About the presenter

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.

CEO of Furia Rubel Communications since 2002

Represents law firms, firm agencies, banks, and other professional service providers

Practiced law before returning to proactive communication roots

Manages integrated communications strategy, crisis planning and training, and trial publicity

Active on social media (Twitter @GinaRubel)

Grew up in Philadelphia and now lives on a farm in Bucks County, PA

Social Sharing: @ALABuzz @GinaRubel #BizLaw17

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Does the firm understand the benefits?

Does the firm understand the risks?

Are there protocols to avoid risks?

Managing law firm social media

What are the best practices?


Benefits of social media to law firmsBrand Awareness Media Relations / News Dissemination

Business Development Message Management

Crisis Management Monitor Public Opinion, Client Intel.

Client Retention Real Time Communications

Differentiation Reputation Management

Discovery / Research (Listening Tool) SEO

Improves Efficiency Supports Mission and Objectives

Increases Trust and Confidence Thought Leadership

Marketing Cost Savings Transparency


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© Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.


Biggest trends in digital media

last year

Mobile overtakes desktop traffic by 33% (Parse.ly)

Social distribution jumps 21% (Parse.ly)

Adults looking to hire an attorney go online (LexisNexis)

Social media is the No.1driver of all website traffic (Shareaholic)

Lawyers spend 2.1 hours each week blogging (ABA/MyCase)

39% of lawyers have obtained clients from blogging (ABA/MyCase)

Internet advertising budgets skyrocket 84% above TV & Print (ZenithOptimedia)



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33% of lawyers and 52% of law firms maintain a Facebook presence.

10% of lawyers and 19% of law firms maintain a Twitter presence.

Source: American Bar Association; MyCase

96% of lawyers and 90% of law firms maintain a LinkedIn profile.

62% of law firms maintain social networks.

78% of lawyers maintain one or more social media profiles for professional purposes.

Lawyers spend 1.7 hours per week on social media for professional purposes.



The most common reasons

lawyers maintain social networks


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Lawyers in the following practice areas

PERSONALLY maintain social networks




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Risks of social media to law firms

Making false or misleading statements

Prohibited solicitations

Disclosing privileged or confidential information

Improperly friending judges, witnesses, experts, etc.

Prejudicing jurors

Inadvertently creating attorney-client relationship

Communicating improperly with clients


Misconduct © Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.

1.6 Confidentiality of Information

3.6 Trial Publicity

4.1 – 4.4 (Transactions with Persons Other Than Clients)

5.3 Responsibility Regarding Nonlawyer Assistant

7.1 – 7.6 (Information About Legal Services -Communications)

ABA Model Rules of

Professional Conduct


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Confidentiality of information

Rule 1.6

“Lawyer shall not reveal informationrelating to the representation of a client…” Exceptions: authorization, complies with Rule 3.3 and to prevent harm, death or criminal act


Truthfulness in statements to others

Rule 4.1

Lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law or fail to disclose same to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client.


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The lawyer asked for a continuance because of the death of her father. The lawyer had posted status updates on Facebook, detailing her week of drinking, going out and partying. In court, in front of the judge, she told a completely different story.


Communicated with person

represented by counsel - Rule 4.2

A lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of legal representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter unless there is consent


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Responsibility regarding nonlawyer

assistant - Rule 5.3

A “nonlawyer” employed, retained, or associated with a lawyer is bound by the same rules of ethics.

Rules cannot be delegated or avoided.


Information about legal services

Rules 7.1 to 7.5

7.1 Communication Concerting a Lawyer’s Services

7.2 Advertising

7.3 Solicitation of Clients

7.4 Communication of Fields of Practice and Specialization

7.5 Firm Names and Letterhead


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Implement a social media policy

code of conduct



• What does the firm want to accomplish using social media?

• What are some of the firm’s business goals and can they be supported through social media?

• Who is your engaged target audience?

• What protocol do you have/need for social media engagement?

• What types and sources of content are available?

• Use relevant tools and apps to track social media.

• Evaluate content performance.

• Use data collected to measure success against goals.

• Refine plan: focus on what works best and repeat.

• Create an editorial calendar based on your content strategy.

• Use tools that streamline your process.

• Schedule social media posts.

• Engage with the target audience when appropriate or necessary.

• What type of posts will work best to meet your goals?

• Which social networks will work best to reach your audience?

• How and when is your audience engaging on social media?



Protocol for social media engagement

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• What does the firm want to accomplishusing social media?

• What are some of the firm’s business goals and can they be supported through

social media engagement?


• Who is your engaged target audience?

• What protocol do you have/need for social

media engagement?

• What types and sources of content are available?


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Types of content for law firms

Articles, Media Mentions & White Papers

Lateral Hires

Awards, Accolades & Rankings Legal Updates & Alerts

Blogs Mergers & Acquisitions

CLEs, Events, Seminars & Sponsorships New & Expanded Services

Client Congratulations Successes (when permissible)

Employment Apps & Job Openings Trial Publicity (when ethical)



Sources of content for law firms

Case Studies & Client News / Experience Memos of Law

CLEs & Seminars Practice Area FAQs & Myths

Client & Colleague Questions State & Federal Supreme Court Decisions

Firm News & Videos Trending Issues (Google Alerts)

Industry News: JD Supra, Lexology, LexisNexis, Mondaq

Trial Briefs

Media Coverage Typical Transactions

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• What type of posts will work best to

meet your goals?

• Which social networks will work best to

reach your audience?

• How and when is your audience

engaging on social media?


Create once, publish everywhere

Social Sharing: @ALABuzz @GinaRubel #BizLaw17© Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.

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Source: Greentarget & Zeughauser Group, 2017 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey

Employees versus firm brands


• Create an editorial calendar based on

your content strategy.

• Use tools that streamline your social media

process.

• Schedule content and corresponding social

media posts.

• Engage with the target audience when

appropriate or necessary.


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89%

75%

69%

65%

61%

58%

47%

43%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%

Exposure

Traffic

Marketplace Insight

Loyalty

Leads

SEO Rankings

Mkt. Profitability

Improved Sales

Source: AIS Media

Blogs and benefits


0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

1Overall Solo 2 to 9 10 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 499 500+

Source: American Bar Association

Size of firms maintaining blogs


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Family Law21%

Employment & Labor29%

Commercial Law25%

Litigation25%


Lawyers in the following service

areas blog the most


LEGAL INDUSTRY NEWS ANALYSIS



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Morrison Foerster social media resources

• Socially Aware is the firm’s niche blog and corresponding newsletter for the practice area

• Communicates how social media can affect clients; keeps clients’interest in mind


Blogging best practices


Answer frequently asked questions; quote others

Use keywords – “Law firm case management software”

Repurpose content: CLEs, brief and memo of law topics, etc.

Do not give legal advice, use generic language, don’t use legalese

Write and share EVERGREEN and TIMELY single-topic posts

Create once, publish everywhere; Tag anyone mentioned

Use sub-heading with keywords (H1 and H2 tags in HTML)


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Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media Update 2017

Facebook statistics




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Like other cases that have permitted service via Facebook, the holding in K.A. was highly fact specific. Nonetheless, as individuals increasingly communicate exclusively through social media and other electronic means, and as courts become increasingly, albeit slowly, more comfortable with that reality, service via Facebook and other social media platforms may become more common.



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Facebook best practices


Include relevant contact information and type of law you practice

Use a vanity URL (choose carefully)

Verify page (in settings) – helps with SEO

Be transparent and authentic

Use personable profile photo / cover photo

Monitor, communicate and personally engage


Source: Pew Research Center, Social Media Update 2016

LinkedIn statistics



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LinkedIn update statistics – 24

hours after post


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LinkedIn best practices


Use LinkedIn Pulse - republish copyright-owned articles & blogs.

Use keywords in title – “Intellectual Property Law Partner”

Use location descriptions – “Nashville entertainment lawyer”

Connect with everyone that you know or want to know

Use professional profile photo and full keyword-rich bio

Monitor, share, like and engage using keywords and hashtags

Share articles, photos, videos, quotes – all with links and attrib.


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Rule 1.1, Comment (8) - Competence“…keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, …..”


Twitter best practices


Include relevant contact information and type of law you practice

Use a vanity URL (choose carefully)

Verify page (in settings) – helps with SEO

Be transparent and authentic

Use personable profile photo / cover photo

Monitor, communicate and personally engage

Use handles (@ALAbuzz & @GinaRubel) & hashtags (#BizLaw17)


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• Use relevant tools and apps to track social media engagement.

• Evaluate how content is performing.• Use data collected to measure success

against goals.• Refine plan: focus on what is working best

and repeat.


SOCIAL SHARING MEASUREMENT

Buffer Cision

ClearView Social Google Analytics

CoSchedule Meltwater

Hootsuite Mention

PostBeyond Nuvi

SEMRush

TrackMaven

Trendkite

Resources for sharing and measuring


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Social media rules of engagement

Post relevant and timely content with purpose

Share blogs, articles, news, videos and images regularly

Drive traffic back to original content on your blog or website

Engage in relevant and ethical discourse

Use a marketing strategy, target relevant audience

Incorporate rich-media and thoughtful use of visuals



Common social media mistakes


Not taking social media seriously for the practice of law, legal marketing and business development

Forgetting content marketing / social media is subject to professional ethics rules

Believing that anything posted on social media is private

Misusing social media as a discovery and investigation tool

Failing to counsel clients about THEIR use of social media

Condemning social media as a passing fad


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Barriers to social media engagement

BUDGET Social media platforms are free but time is money.

BUY-IN Get law firm management buy-in and have them communicate to the lawyers.

TOO TIME CONSUMING

A strategically planned and well-managed social media can be efficient and effective.

LACK OF UNDERSTANDING / TRAINING / POLICY

Teach lawyers how to engage with social media and put protocols in place for ethics, compliance and common-sense.



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Your opinion matters.Please take a moment now to evaluate this session.Thank you.


How to Post Articles and Blogs on LinkedIn Pulse STEP 1: Login to your personal LinkedIn Profile and click on “Write an Article.”

STEP 2: In the next window, add your content:

A. Use the formatting tools B. Add an image or video (recommended) – if Furia Rubel has created a piece of art

for this content on your website or blog, it can be used here C. The Headline is the title of your article/blog – include SEO words D. Paste your content

STEP 3: Click the “Publish” button in the upper right – a pop‐up window will appear. STEP 4: Add a teaser sentence to introduce your content to the LinkedIn community. Click “Publish” to make your content live on LinkedIn.

of 2 Writing effective blogs for law firms: Furia Rubel

Writing Effective Blogs for Law Firms

Blogging is an important part of your firm’s content marketing plan. As the marketing agency for your

firm, we want to help you to create effective blog content as efficiently as possible. We have compiled

some guidelines for you so that we can serve you strategically.

General Guidelines for Writing an Effective Legal Blog

Write about a single topic.

Avoid legal advice. Be general. Give opinions only when it is in the firm’s best interest.

Draft blog posts in a Microsoft Word document.

Do not concern yourself with formatting other than paragraph breaks. All formatting needs to

be removed before being placed on the website/blog platform. Stick with single spacing and no

indenting, bolding, underlining, etc.

Use only one space between sentences, not two. (If you cannot break yourself of this habit,

that’s fine, just be aware that the extra spaces will be removed before the post is published.

Digital publishing platforms no longer require the extra space that the manual typewriter once

did to maintain readability.)

Use 11‐point type in a sans serif font style such as Ariel, Courier, Calibri, or Verdana, which have

been shown to improve reading comprehension of online and mobile content.

Each blog post should be in the range of 500 to 1,500 words.

Save the post with a document title that includes the topic and the author’s last name and the

version number (v1, v2, etc.) for version control.

When you want to link to something, highlight the text that you wish to link to, insert a

comment box from the review pane over the text, and put the link in the comment box. When

the blog post is published on the blog platform, the links are added once the copy has been

uploaded, so separating out the links makes the publishing task more efficient.

Types of Blog Posts

There are two types of blog which are most effective for lawyers: 1) breaking topic posts about court

decisions, legislative rulings, breaking news, etc., and 2) evergreen blog topics that are general in nature

and can be posted at any time and still be relevant to your target audience. Both types of posts are

important for effective relationship development and legal marketing.

Breaking topics blogs: If you are going to blog about topics that are current, you must write the

posts and published them in a timely manner. If you’re talking about a decision by the Supreme

Court and how it affects your target audience, you want to get it written and posted within 24 to

72 hours of the decision (preferably closer to the 24‐hour mark). Otherwise, it’s no longer news

and will garner less readership.

Evergreen topics blogs: Attorneys often overlook these, but evergreen topics are extremely

important to include in your blogging plan. These usually address issues that you deal with every

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Writing effective blogs for law firms: Furia Rubel

day, issues that can be discussed in general terms and that don’t change frequently. Think about

the questions that your clients ask you regularly (aside from “how much will it cost?”). Your

answers make for great evergreen blogs. Evergreen blog content can be shared repeatedly over

time, generating three and four times the amount of traffic that most breaking news posts will.

How to Come up with Blog Topics

Blogging does not have to be a daunting task. Since blogs need to address a single topic in a short and

concise manner, it should be easy to come up with topics to blog about that serve your target audience

with information about your areas of practice to establish you as an authority. Here are some ways to

come up with topics:

Keep a notepad next to your phone or keep notes in your mobile device. Every time a colleague,

client or prospect asks you a substantive question, write it down. The answers to those

questions are almost always worth blogging about.

If you’re a transactional attorney, consider every transaction for a blog topic. For example, every

contract has many clauses. Corporate attorneys can write short blogs about the benefits and/or

pitfalls of various contract clauses such as termination clauses, non‐compete clauses, liability

clauses, etc.

Review your memos of law and briefs for substantive (non‐fact‐specific) content that can be

edited and turned into blogs.

Write about experiences in generic terms. For example, “We recently represented a franchise

owner who had a dispute with the franchisee in Philadelphia. . . . ”

Set up a free Google Alert on specific topics in your area of expertise and review them daily. If

something is breaking in the news, you’ll be on top of it. If you do set up a Google Alert, consider

creating a Rule in Outlook that sends all of those alerts to a dedicated folder that you check

once a day. That way, alerts will not clutter your inbox.

Utilize content from CLEs and seminars you have presented for blog topics.

Have someone record presentations you are giving and then have them transcribed. Edit the

transcription into several blog posts.

THINK COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere.

Consider Search Engine Optimization When Blogging

Draft a title that describes your topic in the way people might search for the information

included in the blog. For example, “Understanding Real Estate Transfer Taxes in Philadelphia.”

Use keywords in a natural way that describe your topic, your area of practice, the county or

counties within which you practice law, the state, etc.

Use the words "lawyer" and "attorney" interchangeably, since people search for both terms. For

example, "business divorce lawyer" and "business divorce attorney."

Stay away from legalese.

Use specific keywords that your target audience may be searching for. For example,

“Commercial real estate and residential real estate can be subject to real estate transfer taxes in

Philadelphia.” Don’t just say commercial and residential real estate, use the full phrases.

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