When Legal and Social Media Programs Collide

On Monday I was on an exciting panel called "social media best practices" at a conference "Social Media Risk and Reward" with John Lipsey of Martindale Connected, Eugene Weitz, former counsel for Alcatel Lucent, Doug Cornelius, Beacon Capital Partners, and Daniel Goldman, Legal Counsel at Mayo Clinic.

Over 100 legal counsel from mainly big companies, many publicly traded, assembled to delve into a day of discussion and analysis about what to do about social media. The focus of the event was to help Corporate Counsel understand social media's legal risks and limitations to help them protect their companies better. As one speaker said, the goal was to help legal move away from saying "no, because..." and into saying "yes, if...." when it comes to social media policy. In so many ways, this was a ground-breaking event!

While I am not a lawyer, here are some of the key points from the meeting:

• Monitoring the social media channel is the first step to success. All it takes is one disgruntled employee or customer to harm a company's reputation so following what is being said online is critical. Set up alerts and use social media monitoring tools to keep track of engagement. "The best defense is a good offense." Another reference point here was a recent Jupiter Research study that established that people trust peer generated content over the content put forth by a company. Makes sense!
  
  
• When bad things happen online, take a measured response when responding to blog posts, leaving comments or interacting with the person. In other words, only fools rush in! So, presume all your social media efforts are permanent and act accordingly. (There is no giant Internet eraser.)
  
  
• Even though social media takes an informal tone and is more interactive, this does not mean off the cuff posts are a good idea as they could impact stock price and other aspects of the company financial. Blog posts and all other public displays should be treated with the same rigor as any other form of information disclosure.
  

There was also a lot of talk about employees, policy and social media. From the discussions - the biggest hot seat for organizations is when employees comment or contribute online with company or product specific information without disclosing that they're an employee. Thus transparency needs to be an essential part of social media employee policy. "Be clear about who you are, where you work and why you are contributing" was the advice given on a panel about Corporate Media Policy. Another key point from this session was that blocking access to social media (which is a growing trend lately!) is an uphill battle and not a best practice. This often drives employees to access social media sites on their mobile sets instead of their computers.

In the Intellectual Property (IP) panel, one of the main discussions was about whether the company or the individual owns Twitter followers/ accounts or an active blog readership community. In this age where many people are personally branded and that brand helps influence and drive company benefits in the form of thought-leadership online, this question appears to be a complicated one. Same goes for LinkedIn recommendations - should HR allow staff to leave testimonials online for peers, etc?

I had the pleasure of summarizing best practice findings for the session and one of the key takeaways I offer is the reality that legal is often brought in too late in the process of social media engagement activities within most organizations in order to be truly successful. Granted, I am the first one to groan when legal guidance puts the kaboch on a plan or elements of a social media program, but as social media policy and regulations are still being formulated, there is real exposure to be had for the company without their involvement. For successful strategic social media programs to occur two things must be present:

1) Legal needs to be well-versed in social media rewards, opportunities, rules and tools to really be able to help the company succeed. Social media is here to stay and companies need to figure out the best ways to leverage it from a business perspective while staying within the confines of legal best practice. Companies can be well served by utilizing counsel who understand the medium.

2) Legal needs to be involved in the social media business planning life cycle - early on as a trusted adviser. Currently, in most cases they are only brought in when marketing campaigns or online community efforts are already baked but that is often too late. Then they need to slow the process and do due diligence with policy and planning oversight to ensure compliance. Yet, if they can be brought in early they can help streamline speed to market. CMOs should reach out and offer legal a seat earlier in order to go faster in the long run.

What Teens and Executives Have in Common

What do executives and teenagers have in common? While this may seem like a trick question, the answer is the ability and desire to use online communities to make decisions. Research has proven that executives make strategic business decisions based upon peer information, much like their teenage counterparts. However, there are relatively few opportunities for executives to connect with each other online, other than via email. They often need to wait for a conference or in-person event to learn who is doing what with whom in business. Conversely, throughout the web, teenagers have a myriad of forums where they are talking about themselves and their experiences. They are sharing information and collaborating with each other in powerful ways.

Armed with their peers’ perspectives, they are using new tools to make decisions about what they buy, where they go, and what they do. In essence, they are changing the global economy through their online collaborative behaviors.

The potential for this opportunity exists for executives as well, as this constituent is also very driven by leveraging peer referral and experiences to shape future decisions. So, while teens are discussing which music to download or party to attend, executives need a means to discuss industry changes and trends, management issues, which product or service to buy for their company or how to best leverage their organization.

Accordingly, online communities are becoming the new strategic business mandate – especially in the business to business space. Effective customer relationships are the core to any successful B2B company and the strength of any organization is largely dependent upon the company’s ability to deliver the right products and services to its customers in a timely way. Knowing what the customer wants and understanding their current and future needs is paramount to increasing revenue and exceeding customer expectations. Communities provide a prime opportunity for B2B companies to get to know their customers more intimately and keep the finger on the pulse of their needs and behaviors.

The time is now for companies to embrace communities to help them serve their clients better, faster, and in more cost-efficient ways. Through the use of online communities, B2B companies now have an opportunity to forge a dialogue with their customers actively throughout the lifecycle -- not just at the point of sale -- to learn what they like and don’t like about a product or service.

There is nothing more dangerous to an organization’s lifeblood than a group of dissatisfied customers. Yet, often times, an organization may not even be aware of clients’ issues until they have incurred reputation damage or a trending loss in revenue. By cultivating meaningful relationships online, product development leaders can work with clients to share roadmaps and plans -- and to get early input from the people who would be their buyers at a later stage. Marketing can learn what messages are most effective with their constituents and have greater opportunities to educate and inform the customer, not just with shiny whitepapers and marketing newsletters, but by bringing them into the discussion and process of product and content co-creation. Online communities also offer opportunities to make heroes out of users, enabling them to share best practice stories and to connect with other clients. This is especially effective with enterprise level support when the key buyer is a C-level executive: information sharing could result in strategic growth opportunities for all involved.

So, although teenagers and executives do have their differences – and it is unlikely that many C-level executives will be submitting YouTube videos of their weekend activities any time soon – B2B online communities are well within reach. And they are an extremely viable medium that can be harnessed for substantial gain.

Networks for Counsel 2009 Study Results

For the past two years, my company, Leader Networks has embarked on the Networks for Counsel Study - a global study of the legal industry’s adoption of online professional networking, preferences, usage and future predictions. This study is huge! We administered it to 1474 counsel – 764 private practice lawyers and 710 corporate counsel in May and June of 2009. Internationally, 33 countries were represented.

The reason we do this study is to examine the global adoption and use of social media among counsel; to identify lawyer preferences for online networking features and uses; segment the key professional benefits experienced through professional networking; and to benchmark expectations of the future impact of social media on the legal practice.

The legal industry is a notable benchmark because they are not typically early adopters of technology. Ever cautious, measured and risk adverse, they often take a wait-and- see approach to innovation. However, the results suggest that the times are a-changing! This study supports that the legal profession is embracing social media as a way of doing business and may serve as a bellwether for organizational adoption of social media best practice at large.

Here are some research highlights:

The study reveals that more than 70 percent of attorneys are members of an online social network – up 25 percent over the past year – and that more than 50 percent think online networks have the potential to change the business and practice of law. This study also reveals a high degree of interest – 65 percent – in joining an online professional network designed specifically for their profession.

Frequency and Type of Use

Attorneys rely on a variety of social media to connect, collaborate and engage online as part of their professional and personal lives. The use of specific social media tools varies widely among attorneys, as does the frequency of their use:

• One third of corporate counsel and close to half of outside counsel who participate in public social networks for professional purposes do so on at least a daily basis;
• The majority of lawyers who participate in professional online communities report doing so once per week or less;
• Only six percent of lawyers participate in microblogging (Twitter, Plurk, etc) but roughly 70 percent of those who do report doing so at least once per week;
• One third of corporate counsel and close to half of outside counsel who read and add comments or ratings to articles, blogs and other online content do so on at least a daily basis;
• Lawyers who use online content sharing (SlideShare, Flickr, YouTube, etc) do so weekly or less.

This study series is commissioned by Martindale-Hubbell and serves as independent research to enable them to accurately understand the market and plan for new features for their popular private online community Martindale Connected. We lead the strategy effort for Martindale Connected and are pleased to report it is the now best practice for the legal industry and was even covered by Bloomberg today!

Download the study results here or learn more about the Networks For Counsel study series here

A Season Of New Beginnings

Fall is such a magical time of year: the start of school for children, falling leaves and crisp evenings in New England, project kickoffs and many new beginnings personal and professional. In the US, we struggled through a time of huge economic uncertainly this summer – it was a period of great hardship for many people and businesses. But, in so many ways all this uncertainty has brought people closer as a community – supporting, sharing information, collaborating in ways never before seen prior to social media. We have been able to use the digital tools before us to create change and opportunity faster and more efficiently than ever before. From the rise of digital information channels on Twitter, the impact of citizen journalism through blogging and commenting, to true competition and collaboration happening in online communities around the globe.

Because times are tough – we are focusing so much on social media as the rainmaking and marketing panacea, but it offers so much more. Due to the strategic use of social media, companies are often better positioned to service their clients and customers directly and have a better understanding of their needs. This helps eliminate waste and ill-informed projects – creating higher success rates and reducing costs. People are better networked personally and professionally to leverage the wisdom of peer experts to make better decisions faster. Charities and not-for-profit organizations are better positioned to leverage best practice across the globe and deliver needed services more efficiently and connect volunteers virtually. We are no longer passive recipients of the news and information that was chosen for us in traditional print media, but now have the best of both worlds and can now tune in and also participate in the identification of what is newsworthy.

So as we roll into the season of new beginnings, it is a fitting time to think creatively about how connecting and collaborating can serve us all better. Perhaps as we face new challenges it would be fruitful to thoughtfully examine new possibilities for relationship building and focus more on opportunities that are at our fingertips – if only we take the time to think “out of the box.”