Category: Communication Media & Internet

LinkedIn (or Left Out) for Lawyers

Until recently, very few lawyers and corporate counsel had even heard of the social media site LinkedIn.  In fact, it surprises many to learn that LinkedIn was launched ten years ago.  How quickly things have changed!

Ninety-five percent of ABA members indicate that they have posted their profiles on LinkedIn. Seventy percent of corporate counsel indicate that they use LinkedIn regularly as a tool to find and vet outside counsel.  These statistics come from a 2012 ABA survey.

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LinkedIn is now one of the world’s most popular websites.  If you would like to be found by potential clients, your LinkedIn profile has become even more important than your website biography.  If you are looking for networking opportunities, your LinkedIn presence and activity have become just as important as your face-to-face networking.

LinkedIn launched in May 2003.  “From the very start, LinkedIn differentiated itself as a site for business, business development and recruitment rather than a social site,” said Phil Nugent.

“In just ten years, LinkedIn has gained 225 million users around the world, including 80 million users in the United States,” said Nugent.  “More than 173,000 people join LinkedIn each day.  It is a great place for many attorneys, because the demographics of LinkedIn skew older, wealthier and more-educated than any of the other top social media sites.”

Nugent discussed effective use of LinkedIn by lawyers and law firms at the monthly educational meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, held July 9 at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in LoDo Denver.  Nugent is a non-practicing attorney and principal at NCG Strategic Marketing.

“Successful use of LinkedIn as a business development tool has three steps,” said Nugent.  “First, you must post a complete and compelling profile.  All too many lawyers and law firms leave it at that, however, and then wonder why LinkedIn is not working as well as they had hoped.

“To achieve success on LinkedIn, you must build a strong network of connections in terms of both quality and quantity,” said Nugent.  “With this accomplished, you can leverage LinkedIn as a business development tool to find others, to get found and to conduct market research.”

Getting Started on LinkedIn

The creation and posting of a good profile is step one of a solid LinkedIn presence.  However, it should not be the same as a lawyer’s website bio.  Instead, it should be designed to satisfy the unique needs of LinkedIn’s search algorithm.

“LinkedIn’s algorithm uses a metric to quantify profile strength, which has a huge effect on search results,” said Nugent.  “Different areas of your LinkedIn profile carry different weights.  You should aim for a profile-strength of “all-star,” or as close to 100 percent as possible.”

Nugent discussed and gave specific recommendations regarding the algorithm’s weights.

Name and title (25 percent) — Do not make the mistake of simply listing a generic job title in this very important space.  It should include carefully selected keywords – the keywords that those searching for someone like you are likely to use.  The title category can be as long as 120 characters, or about 18 words.

Photo (5 percent) – A profile that includes a photo is seven times more likely to be viewed than one without a photo. Be sure that the photo is both professional and recent.

Summary (10 percent) – Use your summary to tell a compelling story about how you help clients solve their legal problems.  This section should include plenty of keywords.  It can include up to 2,000 characters, or about 350 words.  Spell check is always recommended.

Education (15 percent)

Previous two jobs (30 percent)

Three recommendations (15 percent) 

Another smart tactic for promotion of your LinkedIn presence is to customize your profile’s URL.  LinkedIn automatically generates a random URL, but this easily can be changed to a much shorter version featuring your name.  Additionally, you should be sure to add links to your website and blog.

On the “Edit Profile” page you can add content modules that include projects, publications, honors and awards, patents, certifications and languages.

“Throughout your LinkedIn profile, remember that content is king,” said Nugent.  “The copy should be compelling and should include plain-English keywords that are the same words that will be used by your target market or your ideal clients.  These keywords should indicate who you are and what you do.  Avoid ‘legalese’ — unless your clients use it, too.”

Once you have prepared and posted a strong LinkedIn profile, you want to make sure that people can actually gain access to it.  Go to the “privacy controls” section of your profile and choose the settings that allow “everyone” to view your profile photo and visibility.

Creating a LinkedIn Network

To support a strong LinkedIn profile, you need a strong network.  When it comes to building a network, you can pitch as well as catch.  This means that you shouldn’t rely only upon the invitations that you receive; you should proactively send invitations to those with whom you would like to be connected.

A LinkedIn network works like a big circle, with you in the middle.  First-degree connections are direct connections.  These are the people you have accepted and who have accepted you.  Second-degree connections are friends of these friends.  Third-degree connections are friends of second-degree connections.  Your level of visibility into third-degree connections is limited, and a request to connect must be routed through the second-degree connection that controls the relationship.

“The quality of your network is important,” said Nugent.  “If you accept too many random invitations, your network, although large, may not be sufficiently useful.  If you accept (and send) too few invitations, you won’t be able to use the database as it was designed.

“Before accepting any invitation,” said Nugent, “ask yourself if this person is potentially a client or a source for the kind of work you really want to do. Strive for balance between the quantity and the quality of the invitations you accept.”

When vetting an invitation, check out the inviter’s profile.  Is the invitation from a real and (apparently) respectable individual?  Does the inviter have quality contacts that might prove valuable?  Does the inviter have a large number of contacts?  Did the inviter include a personal note with the invitation?  “Rely on these factors to determine if it makes good sense to connect,” said Nugent.

When sending out your own invitations, start with your existing contact list.  Include your firm’s partners, associates and staff; members of professional, business and industry groups that you belong to; and referral sources, clients and friends.

“Never allow your network to stagnate,” said Nugent.  “It should grow continuously.  When you meet a new contact, follow up within 48 hours with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn instead of (or in addition to) an email or a written note.  To facilitate this tactic among those you meet, consider including your LinkedIn address on your business card.”

Using LinkedIn for Research

“A well-crafted LinkedIn network is like a finely tuned sports car,” said Nugent.  “It’s really a waste if you just let it sit in the garage.  You should take it out for a spin as often as possible.  The more you ‘drive’ LinkedIn, the more you’ll discover its usefulness — and the more you’ll realize what a powerful tool it can be on a daily basis.”

Your LinkedIn network is essential when conducting pre-interaction due diligence.  “You can search your network in order to find out useful information about prospects, their companies, clients, competitors, consultants, referral partners, media sources and employees,” said Nugent.  “The quality of your results will be determined by the quality of your contacts and the size of your network.

“LinkedIn can help provide answers to many important questions,” said Nugent.  “These include who is the right person to talk to in a particular organization?  What can I discover about this person prior to our meeting?  Who else is on their team?  Who might be able to provide me with background or an introduction?”

LinkedIn’s “advanced search” capability allows you to refine a search by relationship, location, current company, industry, past company, school and language.  Search can be further narrowed by groups, years of experience, function, seniority level, interests, company size, Fortune ranking and date joined.

Lawyers who want expanded search capabilities and additional functionality can try a premium membership on a monthly basis rather than sticking with the basic free membership.  However, the free membership provides plenty of power for most LinkedIn users.

“In just ten years, LinkedIn has gone from being a novelty embraced by techies to a must-have marketing tool for all professionals who hope to compete in today’s marketplace,” said Nugent.  “By creating a strong profile and a robust network, and by being an active user, any lawyer can vastly enhance his or her online visibility and reputation.”

Determining Which Social Media Platforms Work Best for Your Law Firm [INFOGRAPHIC]

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When you consider the overwhelming number of people who are now using social media, the question you should be asking is not, are my prospects, clients, and referral sources using social media? The question you should be asking is, which network are they using most often?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you are your client.  Just because you don’t actively participate on Facebook or other social media platforms don’t mean your clients and prospects aren’t.   Very few law firms are aggressively going after these platforms; it’s an opportunity to get ahead of the curve. Plus, search engines now rank social media pages, so it’s very important for SEO.

Depending on the demographic of your clientele, you may have more success with one social media platform compared to another. The infographic below, based on the latest social media usage data from the Pew Research Center, can help you determine which platforms can work better for you, depending on the profile of your ideal target market:

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Working with 3rd Party Providers to Make Dodd Frank Conflict Mineral Compliance Easy

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At your firm or within your company dealing with conflict minerals, you might have recently heard the buzz about the latest Dodd Frank Conflict Mineral Compliance requirements. If these requirements affect the way law firms or companies do business, then working towards compliance initiatives remains a priority.

Regulatory Assessment and Scope Analysis

This involves examining the law firm’s client or company seeking compliance product portfolio and doing an analysis of whether the product are affected by the law and therefore must be in compliance, or “in scope” Vs “out of scope.” It can also include:

  • Examining corporate obligations
  • Determination of key regulatory compliance decision points
  • Creation of a conflict minerals technical document

Creation of a Compliance Plan

This involves creating an end to end compliance plan and associated processes

  • All activities detailed in chronological order
  • Creation of application of due diligence standards
  • Responsibilities assigned to personnel
  • Determination of compliance communication pathways

Software Set Up

Industry standard to date for the majority of companies in scope of this regulation involve using a software platform to manage the large amount of data and suppliers that will be surveyed.Vendor Selection

  • Vendor Selection
  • Decisions to integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning system  (ERP), which is used to design and manage resources within a company, as well as Product Lifecyle Management (PLM), used to design, manufacture and plan the development of products
  • Methodology of supplier communication

Supplier Engagement

This portion of the process involves communication and data collection from the supply chain. Includes:

  • Data collection methodology
  • Reporting and analytics of the data collected
  • Corrective action and addressing problem suppliers

Reporting

Once data has been collected firms enter the reporting phase to complete the process for the first year. This process is then replicated year over year. With the infrastructure in place firms enter the “maintenance” phase of compliance.

Standard practise in the compliance industry has also seen that Law firms or the company seeking Dodd Frank compliance are engaging 3-4 outside service providers.

They are usually:

1.       Law firms: To determine exact requirements and legal requirements.

2.       Software: To provide the platform for data collection, management and analytics.

3.    Accounting: To audit the data collected and ensure strong data backing the program.

4.    Consulting: To develop the processes, work with /train suppliers and help with data collection.

Assisting your clients with Dodd Frank Conflict Mineral Compliance does not have to be complicated. Working through the 5 step process above and working with other 3rd party providers makes compliance at any level easy.

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Discovery from Data Storage Providers: Building a Silver Lining into Your Cloud Storage Contract

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Many companies use cloud technology, especially cloud storage providers, to reduce IT management costs and rid themselves of the headache of overseeing the software and hardware needed to perform certain services internally, while gaining the ability to expand quickly. Indeed, it is estimated that by 2014 cloud storage will be a $148.8 billion industry and people will process over 50 percent of computing workloads in the cloud constituting one third of all internet traffic.

See Cindy Pham, “E-Discovery in the Cloud Era: What’s a Litigant to do?” 5 Hastings Sci. & Tech. L.J. 139 (2013); David D. Cross and Emily Kuwahara, “E-Discovery and Cloud Computing: Control of ESI in the Cloud.”

But, handing your data over to a third-party does not come without a price. Savvy litigants are beginning to head straight to these third-party cloud providers to subpoena corporate records during discovery. This can pose serious problems for the data owners including:

  • Vendors can produce your records without reviewing and withholding for privileged, work product protected, trade secret, or otherwise confidential information and designations.
  • Vendors with no vested interest in the litigation will likely respond to all the requests without an eye toward what is relevant or required under the rules resulting in mass overproduction.
  • Vendors may charge you, their customer, a high price for collecting and producing the data they are storing for you.
  • Vendors may not have maintained the metadata for each set of data, exposing you to a claim of spoliation.
  • A vendor’s deletion or backup schedule may have erased responsive data, exposing you to a claim of spoliation.
  • Differences in the productions you and your vendor make in response to the same requests can lead to claims of spoliation or concealment.

See Ashish S. Prasad, “Cloud Computing and Social Media: Electronic Discovery Considerations and Best Practices,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2012 Volume 20, No. 2.

The Silver Lining: The remedy, of course, for most of these potential problems is negotiating your contract with cloud computing providers with an eye toward discovery. First, make sure your contract contains express commitments regarding the storage and retention of your data. You and your provider should be on the same page regarding how long data is to be maintained and what types of associated file data should be preserved so that you avoid any untimely deletion.

Second, make sure your contract requires immediate notice (within 48 hours) to you of any subpoena or document request received by your provider targeting any of your data.

Third, the contract with a cloud services provider should set forth that you, through your attorneys, have the right to review all documents and data prior to production. Your agreement should also give you the right to require the provider to withhold any documents from production that you designate as either subject to a privilege or not-relevant or not responsive.

Fourth, the cost of collecting and assembling data for review and production from a cloud can be high because of the way in which the data is stored. Therefore, you will want to designate who bears the expense of the collection and production of your data so you aren’t surprised by a large bill later.

Finally, I would also caution you to think carefully about whether the cloud is really the cheaper alternative it appears to be. If your business involves frequent litigation or due-diligence necessitating the documents at issue, the cost of accessing and producing these documents from the cloud may override the initial savings. Similarly, think strategically about low-value data you can store cheaply in the cloud versus potentially privileged, trade secret, and confidential information you may want to designate for local, albeit more expensive, storage which is solely in your control.

What Clients Want from Your Law Firm’s Website

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When a client comes to your office, they are expecting to meet a lawyer they can trust who respects them and will represent their case well. The same guiding principle applies to what prospective clients want from your law firm’s website: a trusted resource that will provide information and guide them to a lawyer they can trust. There are several ways you can be responsive to client needs on your law firm’s site.

Descriptions of Legal Proceedings

Your prospective clients will likely have many questions about the events that are going to take place surrounding their case. How many times can they expect to meet with you or a partner attorney? How many court hearings will they need to attend? Is there any background work required on their part? What sort of emotions might they experience as their case reaches a trial? You could provide a resource webpage, or even a thorough blog post, on your site that walks clients through the process and provides answers to their concerns.

Clear Explanations of Laws

Your legal training and expertise gives you have the ability to understand complex rulings and, using your strong relational skills, you also have the ability to explain the details of those rulings in layman’s terms. Your law firm’s blog is an excellent place to write about recently passed laws or judicial rulings. Particularly, if a law will directly affect your client base, you should consider devoting the time to explain the information to your site visitors.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

As you have practiced law you have more than likely encountered the same questions, or type of questions, from your clients. Questions such as: Do I have a case? What is a personal injury? How much will my attorney fee be? How much can I get in my settlement? Consider creating a section on your site to address these most frequently asked questions in a FAQ section. Your firm will be seen as a legal authority and will simultaneously build trust with potential clients.

Practical Tools and Resources

In a world of smartphones and apps, Web users crave information that is interactive and engaging. Think about a complicated question or process you could streamline and create an effective tool to guide your clients through the nuances. Personal injury lawyers may choose to include an interactive questionnaire for clients to determine the severity of their injuries. A family lawyer may feature a child support cost calculator on their site. Be creative and find a quality marketing team of designers and programmers to bring your vision to life.

Introduce Your Firm’s Attorneys

An often overlooked, but necessary element of any law firm site is the attorney bio pages. Your clients will instantly get a sense of your attorneys when they meet face to face in your office, but what about beforehand? That first impression almost always happens online. It is important to make a good impression. Consider including bits of personal information to show that your attorneys are well rounded individuals or, better still, include a professional video highlighting each of your partners. Remember to be engaging; your clients want to know they can trust you. In the 21st century, building trust oftentimes begins online.

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Your Face is for Sale! The 4 Most Interesting Things About the Proposed Update to Facebook’s Governing Documents

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If you use Facebook (and you likely do, if only to play some game that apparently involves crushing large amounts of candy), then you received an email last week informing you that Facebook is proposing changes to its Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.  The proposed changes are largely in response to the $20 million settlement, approved last month by a federal judge, of a class action brought against Facebook in response to its use of user names and photos in “Sponsored Stories”.

facebook on office wall

In January 2011, Facebook implemented the Sponsored Stories advertising mechanism, which turned user “likes” into product endorsements.  The claim argued that Facebook did not adequately inform its users that profile photos and user names would be used by advertisers to recommend products and services.  The claim also argued that Facebook inappropriately did not give users the ability to opt out of the Sponsored Stories advertising feature and allowed the use of the likeness and photos of minors who, the claimants argued, should have automatically been opted out of the program.  Arriving just days after the approval of the settlement, the proposed changes include an interesting mix of responses and clarifications.  These are the most noteworthy:

Your face is for sale.  Under the approved settlement, Facebook agreed to pay $20 million and give its users greater “control” over the use of information by advertisers.  Facebook did not, however, agree to let its users opt out of allowing advertisers to use information entirely.  Under the revised Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, each user gives Facebook permission to use his or her name, profile picture, content and information in connection with commercial, sponsored or related content.  Facebook further clarifies that this means that businesses or other entities will pay Facebook for the ability to display user names and profile pictures.

  • Kids, be sure to ask your parents’ permission.  By using Facebook, each user under the age of 18 represents that at least one parent or guardian has agreed to Facebook’s terms, including the use of the minor’s name, profile picture, content and information by advertisers, on that minor’s behalf.
  • Your profile photo is fair game for facial recognition scanning.  Facebook scans and compares pictures in which you are tagged so that when your friends post more photos of you, it can suggest that they tag you.  The updated Data Use Policy makes it clear that your profile photo will be scanned for this purpose as well.
  • There’s a renewed emphasis on mobile phone data.  The updated policies make it clear that Facebook and, in certain cases, third-party integrated applications, will have access to a broad array of mobile data.  This includes the use of friend lists by third party mobile applications to advertise mobile applications used by an individual’s friends.  Whereas Facebook encountered substantial difficulty in implementing Sponsored Stories and similar advertising mechanisms, Facebook’s program of allowing mobile applications to market themselves as “Suggested Apps”has been a bright spot for the company’s bottom line.  Moreover, Facebook has signed on to an agreement with California Attorney General Kamala Harris that mobile applications constitute “online services” and, as such, are governed by the same disclosure and transparency regulations applicable to websites.  The clarifications related to mobile devices and applications suggest that Facebook intends to further develop the use of mobile data as a revenue stream without risking the same type of legal action.

Facebook’s proposed revisions remain open for public comment.   While the proposed revisions are unlikely to stoke the kind of furor that past changes have inspired, they remain an interesting display of the developing give-and-take between consumers and online service providers who provide a “free” service in exchange for the right to use and monetize personal data.

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WildTangent Files its Supreme Court Certiorari Petition in Patent Infringement Case – Part 1

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In September of 2009, Ultramercial, Inc. sued WildTangent, Inc., Hulu and YouTube in the Central District of California for alleged patent infringement of U.S. 7,346,545 (the ’545 patent).  The ’545 patent claims trading advertisement viewing for access to content over the Internet.  The Abstract of the ’545 patent reads:

The present invention is directed to a method and system for distributing or obtaining products covered by intellectual property over a telecommunications network whereby a consumer may, rather paying for the products, choose to receive such products after viewing and/or interacting with an interposed sponsor’s or advertiser’s message, wherein the interposed sponsor or advertiser may pay the owner or assignee of the underlying intellectual property associated with the product through an intermediary such as a facilitator.

Claim 1 of the ’545 patent is more detailed:

1. A method for distribution of products over the Internet via a facilitator, said method comprising the steps of:

a first step of receiving, from a content provider, media products that are covered by intellectual-property rights protection and are available for purchase, wherein each said media product being comprised of at least one of text data, music data, and video data;

a second step of selecting a sponsor message to be associated with the media product, said sponsor message being selected from a plurality of sponsor messages, said second step including accessing an activity log to verify that the total number of times which the sponsor message has been previously presented is less than the number of transaction cycles contracted by the sponsor of the sponsor message;

a third step of providing the media product for sale at an Internet website;

a fourth step of restricting general public access to said media product;

a fifth step of offering to a consumer access to the media product without charge to the consumer on the precondition that the consumer views the sponsor message;

a sixth step of receiving from the consumer a request to view the sponsor message, wherein the consumer submits said request in response to being offered access to the media product;

a seventh step of, in response to receiving the request from the consumer, facilitating the display of a sponsor message to the consumer;

an eighth step of, if the sponsor message is not an interactive message, allowing said consumer access to said media product after said step of facilitating the display of said sponsor message;

a ninth step of, if the sponsor message is an interactive message, presenting at least one query to the consumer and allowing said consumer access to said media product after receiving a response to said at least one query;

a tenth step of recording the transaction event to the activity log, said tenth step including updating the total number of times the sponsor message has been presented; and

an eleventh step of receiving payment from the sponsor of the sponsor message displayed.

As you can see, there are 11 method steps recited in Claim 1, so it is a very detailed claim and it cannot be summarized in a sentence or two.

The history of the case is not easy to summarize either.  In short, the District Court found that the subject matter of the patent was not patent eligible and dismissed the district court action before interpreting the claims.  In 2011, the Federal Circuit reversed the District Court decision, but the Supreme Court vacated the Federal Circuit’s decision in 2012 based on its recent opinion in Mayo v. Prometheus.  And in June of 2013 the Federal Circuit again reversed the District Court decision, leading to WildTangent’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed last week.

WildTangent’s cert petition is attached.  I will be discussing the petition and the ongoing patent eligibility battle in more detail in future posts.

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Tips for Measuring Content Marketing Results [INFOGRAPHIC]

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We saw the Brandpoint infographic below posted on the MarketingProfs.com website and thought it was a good representation of how you can tell if your content marketing efforts – blogs, social media posts, videos, articles, etc. – are working for your practice.

After all, if you are spending time and/or money on content marketing, you really do want to know if it’s working, right? See below on how to measure the effectiveness of your content marketing in terms of awareness, consideration and conversion:

ABA Survey Says Lawyers Getting Clients Via Social Media

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A hat tip to my friend Larry Bodine, editor-in-chief of Lawyers.com, who reports on findings from the newly published2013 ABA Technology Survey in his LawMarketing Blog today as follows:

27% of US law firms now have blogs, up from 22% last year, 15% in 2011, and 14% in 2010. Only 9% of lawyers maintain a personal, professional blog outside the firm. Solo attorneys are the most likely to have a professional blog, as are those between the ages of 40-49.

59% of those surveyed indicated their firms maintain a presence in a social network such as LinkedIn or Facebook, up from 55% last year, 42% in 2011, and 17% in 2010. Of those firms with a presence, the breakout of channels can be seen in the chart below. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most used, but legal-vertical network use remains low.

Individually, 81% of attorneys report using social networks for professional purposes, up from 78% last year, 65% in 2011, and 56% in 2010. LinkedIn usage is nearly universal (98%), with Facebook usage actually falling from 38% in 2012 to 33% this year.

19% of law firms now use Twitter, up from 13% in 2012. Individual Twitter usage by attorneys reached 14%, up from 11% last year. Twitter usage is more common in solo and small firms.

How effective is maintaining a presence in social media? When those utilizing any type of social media/networking were asked if they ever had a client retain their legal services directly or via referral as a result of their use, 19% indicated “yes” (compared to 17% last year and 12% in 2011). Solo and small law firms reported better results than larger firms.

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What Does The Word “Natural” Mean, Anyway?

Mintz Logot’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon, you need a snack – maybe a granola bar, but which one? Does the package that boasts it is “100% Natural” win out over the one that is only “All Natural”?  Would you even consider one that is merely “Natural”? Well, don’t expect the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help you decide anytime soon – they have left it up to the courts to grapple with.

Lawsuits against food companies alleging consumer fraud based on deceptive labeling have increased in the last few years.  Many of these lawsuits have been brought in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, causing that court to be known as the “Food Court” (no, not the one at the mall).  One common bone of contention is the use of the word “natural” in food labeling.  “Natural” remains undefined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after a failed attempt to do so in 1991.  It reaffirmed its informal policy for use of the word “natural” on food labeling claims:

The agency will maintain its current policy . . . not to restrict the use of the term “natural” except for added color, synthetic substances, and flavors as provided in [21 CFR] §101.22.  Additionally, the agency will maintain its policy . . . regarding the use of “natural,” as meaning that nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.  Further, at this time the agency will continue to distinguish between natural and artificial flavors as outlined in §101.22. See more here.

A typical claim in a lawsuit will contend that the use of the word “natural,” whether as “100% Natural,” “All Natural,” or something similar, is misleading if the product contains or was processed with a compound perceived by plaintiffs to be artificial or synthetic.  The problem in these lawsuits is that the term is undefined, and even FDA says that it is difficult to define a food product that is natural because it has likely been processed and is no longer a “product of the earth.”  This leaves fertile ground for plaintiff’s class action attorneys to bring claims against food companies for any use of the word.

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