Category: Social Media

How Your Practice Can Benefit From Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Twitter has released the results of a survey conducted by global research firm Market Probe International on how small businesses can benefit from having a presence on Twitter. The survey was split among U.S. and UK adults who currently follow small businesses on Twitter and found that these followers are much more likely to make a purchase from businesses they follow as well as recommend them to others.

Followers also have an emotional connection with the businesses they follow, and use Twitter as a way to provide their feedback and share information. This infographic from Twitter details the key takeaways from the survey:

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How to Be Found by Prospects That Are Looking for a Lawyer

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Most people take a four-step approach when choosing an attorney, and this has been validated by recent research.

Savvy attorneys know they need to be accessible at each step in the decision process; here’s how:

Step 1: Information Gathering. Most people turn to the Internet to gather information and you need to be there to answer their questions via a blog or your website. You should have content that specifically addresses the type of situation that would lead someone to hire you and/or why they need legal counsel for their particular problem.

Step 2: Search. An active presence on social networking sites as well as your blog and website can help lead prospects to your door. Many may ask their Facebook friends for recommendations or turn to other social media sites for information about specific firms, so you need to be there.

Step 3: Validation. Having good reviews and posting testimonials (if your state bar allows it) on your website and blog will help put you front and center during the validation process. Don’t forget to beef up your profiles on Avvo, Lawyers.com and other directories as well as LinkedIn.

Step 4: Selection. Offer free consultations at every opportunity and when someone calls your office, return the call immediately. One attorney asked if two days was too long to return a call from a prospect – the answer is, definitely! Research shows that a hot lead can turn cold in as little as five minutes, so if you can’t get to them quickly, make sure someone else in your office can or that you have an automated system to follow up immediately.

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Professional and Personal Aspects of Law Firm Social Media

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I’ve seen it far too many times: law firms are often concerned that any personal posts on their firm’s Social Media platforms may hinder their credibility as a professional legal practitioner.  That simply isn’t the case. In fact, if every post is of a professional nature, it may deter the average Facebook user from interacting with your content. You need a good balance of the two.

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If you keep your Social Media presence strictly business, you run the risk of scaring away followers – or at the very least losing their attention. We agree with Ken Hardison, Founder and President of the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association (PILMMA), who says that no more than 15 percent of your social content should be self-promotional. “People love to buy, but they don’t love to be sold to,” Hardison says.

More personal posts – such as employee birthdays and anniversaries, new hires, local news, a thoughtful quote, or even pictures that don’t directly relate to law – will show Social Media users a more approachable side of your firm. However, if you never post anything related to your law firm and practice areas, your Social Media platforms wouldn’t be much of a marketing effort.

So, what’s the perfect recipe for Social Media success?

The best way to promote your website, content and firm on Social Media is through your blog. Blogs often provide shareable information or news and thus lend themselves to Social Media sharing. Blogs bridge the gap between useful, shareable information and promoting your law firm. Combine a healthy flow of blog posts with a balanced blend of non-promotional posts and you just may see more users clicking your links and interacting with your Social Media posts.

Why Are Non-Business Posts Beneficial?

Posts that do not directly relate to law and your practice still serve a purpose. They’re not getting people onto your site. They’re not directly getting you cases. However, they are getting attention in the form of Likes, Shares, +1s and retweets – and therefore giving your brand attention. People are getting to know your firm through the content you share, some of which is business-oriented, some of which is more relatable to the average Facebook, Twitter or Google+ user. The goal should be to appear knowledgeable, professional and approachable. This blend of posts does just that.

Both types of posts serve a purpose. Professional posts receive a few likes and drive traffic to the firm’s website, while more personal posts spread the brand to far more Social Media users, increasing brand recognition and page visibility.

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Picture This: The National Labor Relations Board’s Division of Advice Wants to Sue Employer for Issuing Social Media Policy with Photo/Video Ban

Michael Best Logohe National Labor Relations Board’s Division of Advice (the Division) recently recommended that the Board issue a complaint against Giant Foods for implementing its social media policy without first bargaining with two unions, and for maintaining a social media policy that included unlawful provisions. Although the Division analyzed several social media policy provisions, its criticism of two provisions in particular—a ban on using photo and video of company premises, and restrictions on employees’ use of company logos and trademarks—makes it very difficult for employers to protect their brands while at the same time complying with federal labor laws.

Giant Foods’ social media policy forbade employees from using company logos, trademarks, or graphics without prior approval from the company. The policy also prohibited employees from using photographs or video of the “Company’s premises, processes, operations, or products” without prior approval as well.

The Division concluded that these provisions were unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and that the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) should issue a complaint against Giant Foods for implementing them. As employers are becoming keenly aware, the NLRA safeguards employees’ right to engage in protected concerted activity. Such activity includes group discussions and some comments by individual employees that relate to their wages, hours, and other terms conditions of employment.

The Division concluded that banning employees from using company logos or trademarks was unlawful because: (1) employees should be allowed to use logos and trademarks in online communications, including electronic leaflets or pictures of picket signs with the employer’s logo; and (2) those labor-related interests did not raise the concerns that intellectual property laws were passed to protect, such as a business’ interest in guarding its trademarks from being used by competitors selling inferior products.

Additionally the Division concluded that restricting employees from using photo and video of company premises unlawfully prevented them from sharing information about participation in protected concerted activities, such as snapping a picture of a picket line.

Unfortunately, the Board’s expansive view will likely hamper companies’ ability to prevent damage to their brand and reputation.  Not allowing employers to ban the taking of videos and photos on their premises, or restricting the use of company logos/trademarks could lead to public relations nightmares such as the one Subway Foods recently endured after it was revealed that an employee posted a graphic picture on Instagram of his genitalia on a sub, with the tag line “I will be your sandwich artist today.”

Given the prevalence of cell phones with photo and video capabilities, and the ease of uploading photos and videos to the internet, a company that cannot control its employees’ use of those devices on their premises will be one bad employee decision away from public embarrassment.

What else can be gleaned from the Giant Foods Advice Memorandum? That the Board’s General Counsel will continue to prod employers to eliminate blanket bans on certain kinds of employee conduct from their social media policies and replace those bans with provisions that include specific examples of what employee conduct the policy prohibits. The Board and its General Counsel have previously found social media policies that restricted employee use of confidential information and complaints about an employer’s labor practices as unlawful; Giant Foods makes clear that the agency is also scrutinizing other kinds of policy provisions that potentially could infringe on an employee’s right to engage in protected concerted activities.

Accordingly, employers should review their policies with counsel so that they can tailor them to restrict employee conduct that will damage the company and its brand, but not be “reasonably” read to restrict employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activities.

Twitter Best Practices Guide for Attorneys

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With more than 200 million active users, Twitter is a major social media network attorneys should not ignore. Twitter can be a highly useful marketing tool for attorneys to promote their blogs and other thought leadership content.

Here is a best practices guide for attorneys using Twitter:

Tweet 4x/day or less

Use fewer than 100 characters per Tweet

Add links to Tweets to get higher Retweet rates – Tweets containing links get 86% higher Retweet rates

Make sure the links are clickable by including a space before the URL

Tweet on the weekends – engagement rates are 17% higher then

Engage with followers during “busy hours” of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Include hashtags in your Tweets, but no more than 2 per Tweet – Tweets with hashtags get twice the engagement

Add links to images to increase engagement – Tweets with image links enjoy twice the engagement rate than those without.

Use the word “Retweet” as a call-to-action to prompt your followers to share – Tweets that ask followers to Retweet receive 12x higher Retweet rates

Since Twitter is essentially a micro-blogging site, the same rules apply: create unique, original content that adds value, and your audience will respond.

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Using Google Alerts to Get Topical News Quickly and Improve Your Content

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Time is of the essence when taking someone from prospect to client.

Obtaining quick notice about local accidents and injuries and/or defective products can provide a competitive advantage.

When an accident has just occurred and a victim is deciding whether or not to hire an attorney, you want to be easy to find. If you are aware of accidents or defective products and pharmaceuticals early, you may have the opportunity to get the inside track on a case.

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Posting alerts and information on your website, blog and Social Media may help your firm be more easily found and give you increased opportunities to get cases.

One tool to identify possible newsworthy topics to post on your site and Social Media platforms is Google Alerts. Every time something new is indexed by Google on your chosen topic, you will receive an e-mail. You can also set Google Alerts to email you a daily or weekly digest that includes either only the best topical matches or everything associated with your selected topic.

There are multiple ways to utilize Google Alerts. You can sign up for your target city/town names, state, etc. for local news. For practice area-targeted news, you can sign up to be alerted for variations of car accidents (and injuries), truck accidents (and injuries, major highways, etc.), train accidents (as well as major train names), hospitals (and hospital injuries, negligence) and drug or product names you wish to target, for example. There are endless possibilities; your usage will depend on what works best for your law firm and schedule. You can even sign up for Alerts on competitors’ names to follow what they are doing. You should set Alerts for your firm and attorneys. Doing this will help you manage your firm’s reputation by alerting you to good and bad news and give you time to respond appropriately.

To develop a list for your Google Alerts entries, ask your attorneys (or have a trusted attorney decide) which topics and locations each person will follow for news or blog information, then sign up for Google Alerts on those topics at http://www.google.com/alerts. When you spread keywords among different people, the time investment is less significant, especially if you schedule a fifteen-minute block each day to read through your alerts.

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Virtual Communications with Real Consequences: Terminations for Social Media Posts Continue to Draw the Attention of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

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In the late autumn of 2012, an otherwise innocuous private Facebook discussion amongst employees of Skinsmart Dermatology (Skinsmart) suddenly devolved into an expletive-laced tirade. At one point during the conversation an employee boasted that she told her supervisor to “back the freak off,” called her employer “full of sh**,” and dared Skinsmart to “fire” her and “[m]ake [her] day.”

Notably, none of the other participants in the Facebook chat directly responded to the employee’s comments. One of those participants, however, reported the employee’s remarks to Skinsmart, who promptly fired her after concluding that it was “obvious” she did not want to continue working there.

Following her termination, the employee filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming that Skinsmart fired her in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA prohibits an employer from interfering with or restraining an employee’s right to engage in “protected concerted activities.”

As background, “protected” activities include discussing wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment with coworkers. “Concerted” activities include: (1) when an individual employee seeks to “initiate or to induce or to prepare for group action”; (2) where an individual employee brings “truly group complaints” to management’s attention; and (3) where employees discuss “shared concerns” among themselves prior to any specific plan to engage in group action.

After analyzing the evidence, the NLRB’s Division of Advice recommended dismissal of the employee’s ULP Charge. First, it found the terminated employee’s Facebook comments were “an individual’s gripe” rather than an expression of “shared concerns” over working conditions among employees. Second, it found there was no evidence that the terminated employee’s coworkers viewed her remarks as an assertion of shared concerns regarding employment conditions. Consequently, the Division of Advice concluded that the employee did not participate in concerted activity, and therefore Skinsmart did not illegally fire her in response to her Facebook comments.

Significantly, before recommending dismissal of the ULP Charge, the Division of Advice also considered whether the terminated employee’s comments constituted “inherently concerted” activity that deserved protection under the NLRA.[1] While the Division of Advice ultimately ruled that they were not, its consideration of “inherently concerted” activity suggests that it will continue to interpret “protected concerted activity” as broadly as it can.

Under the “inherently concerted” analysis, an employee’s expressions may be considered protected concerted activity if those expressions involve “subjects of such mutual workplace concern” like wages, schedules, and job security, even if there was no contemplation of group action. Because the employee’s posts did not relate to any of those mutual workplace concerns, the Division of Advice concluded, the employee did not engage in “inherently concerted” activity.

In light of Skinsmart, before taking any adverse action against an employee for inappropriate social media communications, an employer should scrutinize the employee’s comments to determine whether they constitute an individual gripe or protected concerted activity. Because the NLRB has targeted “Facebook firings” as infringing on employees’ right to engage in protected concerted activity, we recommend that employers undertake this analysis with the benefit of counsel to minimize their exposure to a ULP Charge or other legal action.

[1] The term, “inherently concerted,” arose out of an earlier NLRB decision in 2012. See Hoodview Vending Co., 359 N.L.R.B. No. 36 (2012).

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Social Media & Emerging Employer Issues: Are You Protected?

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On June 13, 2013, Business First of Louisville and McBrayer hosted the second annual Social Media Seminar. The seminar’s precedent, Social Media: Strategy and Implementation, was offered in 2012 and was hugely successful. This year’s proved to be no different. Presented by Amy D. Cubbage and Cynthia L. Effinger, the seminar focused on emerging social media issues for employers. If you missed it, you missed out! But don’t worry, a seminar recap is below and for a copy of the PowerPoint slides click here.

McBrayer: If a business has been designated an entity that must comply with HIPAA, what is the risk of employees using social media?

Cubbage: Employers are generally liable for the acts of their employees which are inconsistent with HIPAA data privacy and security rules. As employees’ use of social networking sites increase, so does the possibility of a privacy or security breach. An employee may be violating HIPAA laws simply by posting something about their workday that is seemingly innocent. For instance, a nurse’s Facebook status that says, “Long day, been dealing with a cranky old man just admitted into the ER” could be considered a HIPAA violation and expose an employer to sanctions and fines.

 

McBrayer: Should businesses avoid using social media so that they will not become the target of social media defamation?

Effinger: In this day and age it is hard, if not impossible, for a business to be successful without some use of social media. There is always the risk that someone will make negative comments about an individual or a business online, especially when anonymity is an option. Employers need to know the difference between negativity and true defamation. Negative comments or reviews are allowed, perhaps even encouraged, on some websites. If a statement is truly defamatory, however, then a business should make efforts to have the commentary reported and removed. The first step should always be to ask the internet service provider for a retraction of the comment, but legal action may sometimes be required.

 

McBrayer: When does a negative statement cross the line and become defamation?

Effinger: It is not always easy to tell. First, a statement must be false. If it is true, no matter how damaging, it is not defamation. The same goes for personal opinions. Second, the statement must cause some kind of injury to an individual or business, such as by negatively impacting a business’s sales, to be defamation.

 

McBrayer: Can employers ever prevent employees from “speaking” on social media?

Effinger: Employers should always have social media policies in place that employees read, sign, and abide by. While it is never really possible to prevent employees from saying what they wish on social media sites, some of their speech may not be protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause.

 

McBrayer: What constitutes “speech” on the internet? Is “liking” a group on Facebook speech? How about posting a YouTube video?

Effinger: This is a problem that courts and governmental employment agencies, like the National Labor Relations Board, are just starting to encounter. There is no bright-line rule for what constitutes “speech,” but it is safe to say that anything an employee does online that is somehow communicated to others (even “liking” a group or posting a video) qualifies.

 

McBrayer: Since a private employer is not bound by the First Amendment, can they terminate employees for social media actions with no repercussions?

Effinger: No! In fact, it could be argued that private employees are afforded more protection for what they say online than public employees. While a private employer has no constitutional duty to allow free speech, the employer is subject to state and federal laws that may prevent them from disciplining an employee’s conduct. As a general rule, private employees have the right to communicate in a “concerted manner” with respect to “terms and conditions” of their employment. Such communication is protected regardless of whether it occurs around the water cooler or, let’s say, on Twitter.

 

McBrayer: It seems like the best policy would be for employers to prohibit employees from discussing the company in any negative manner. Is this acceptable?

Effinger: It is crucial for companies to have social media policies and procedures, but crafting them appropriately can be tricky. There have been several instances where the National Labor Relations Board has reviewed a company’s policy and found its overly broad restrictions or blanket prohibitions illegal. Even giant corporations like General Motors and Target have come under scrutiny for their social media policies and been urged to rewrite them so employees are given more leeway.

 

McBrayer: Is social media a company asset?

Cubbage: Yes! Take a moment to consider all of the “followers”, “fans”, or “connections” that your business may have through its social media accounts. These accounts provide a way to constantly interact with and engage clients and customers. Courts have recently dealt with cases where a company has filed suit after a rogue employee stole a business account in some manner, for instance by refusing to turn over an account password. Accounts are “assets,” even if not tangible property.

 

McBrayer: What is the best way for an employer to protect their social media accounts?

Cubbage: Social media accounts should first be addressed in a company’s operating agreement. Who gets the accounts in the event the company splits? There are additional steps every employer should take, such as including a provision in social media policies that all accounts are property of the business. Also, there should always be more than one person with account information, but never more than a few. Treat social media passwords like any other confidential business information – they should only be distributed on a “need to know” basis.

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Twitter: Little Statements with Big Consequences for Companies

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Twitter is under attack. In recent months, accounts belonging to media giants CBS, BBC, and NPR have all been temporarily taken over by hackers. The Associated Press is the most recent victim. On April 23, 2013, a false statement about explosions at the White House and the President being injured sent shock waves through the Twitter-sphere. The real surprise is the effect the single tweet had in the real world: the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped so sharply moments after the frightening tweet that $136 billion in market value was wiped out. While the hacking of these massive media outlets make headlines, everyday businesses are not safe from the threat, either. In February of this year, a hacker changed the @BurgerKing feed to resemble that of McDonald’s, putting the McDonald’s logo in place of Burger King’s. The hackers posted offensive claims about company employees and practices. If accounts belonging to well-established companies like these are vulnerable, so is yours. If a tweet can have a profound impact on the nation’s stock market, imagine what an ill-contrived tweet could do to your business.

Business owners may have the knee-jerk reaction to delete their Twitter account, but despite the recent blemishes to its security, Twitter remains one of the most important social media sites out there. Just recently, the Securities Exchange Commission made clear that companies could use social media like Twitter when announcing key information in compliance with Regulation Fair Disclosure. Twitter is not just a marketing or PR tool—Twitter is business. And you should never turn your back on existing business. So instead of hanging up your hashtags, consider some steps that can make your Twitter account safer.

Limit Access

Not every employee should have access to the company’s Twitter account. In fact, hardly anyone should, except a few designated employees like the marketing director or business owner. While those with access may never do anything harmful to the account, the more people who have the log-in information, the more likely it is to fall into the wrong hands.

Create a strong password

I know, you already have too many passwords to remember. But a creative password is your best defense against someone seeking to break into your account. Employers should, at minimum, have unique passwords for their most commonly used media sites; please do not use the same word for your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account. Once a hacker figures it out, they have control of your entire social media presence.

When creating a password, avoid using anything that would be too common. “Password,” “1234,” or the business’s name should never be the only thing standing between you and a hacker. The longer the password, the better. Use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

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Price Transparency and the Legal Marketplace

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My teenage children don’t know a world without the internet; a place where the sum of all human wisdom is a few clicks away.
Or where it’s really easy to research and buy the latest videogame.

 

Aside from the democratization of information and sharing enabled by the internet, the biggest impact of the web in most people’s lives is how it has transformed the consumer experience.  It has done so in two important ways:  by creating unprecedented levels of transparency and removing friction from the purchase process.   In nearly every industry, a wealth of information is available to consumers prior to making a purchase:  what the options are, differences between products, user feedback, and price transparency.  With full information about products, including price, the internet makes comparison shopping easy.

 

And with all of that information, purchasing is smoothed out as well.  Web services continue to refine the art of removing friction from the purchase process.  Amazon aggressively knocked down reasons to purchasing goods in brick-and-mortar stores.  Uber removed the transactional choke points from cab rides.  iTunes made it easy to buy music on an a la carte basis.  Much of the consumer internet continues to iterate and expand on the winning concept of blending ever-higher levels of information with ever-smoother transaction processing.

 

This online purchasing revolution has also reached beyond everyday consumer goods and services.  Buying insurance, trading stocks, even government licensing – all have been streamlined online.

 

But there’s one notable area that has remained largely impervious: legal services.  Despite some increases in transparency on lawyer backgrounds (Avvo) and do-it-yourself online legal forms (LegalZoom), the legal marketplace has seen nothing approaching the change in consumer empowerment and ease of transacting experienced in virtually all other industries.
It’s not as if legal services is a tiny economic niche.  The market for legal services in the U.S. is worth over $250 billion per year, and nearly 40% of that is made up of consumer legal spending.  Rather, a mixture of byzantine regulation, barriers to market entry, and restrictions on common forms of marketing have kept consumers from experiencing the same form of experimentation and innovation that has transformed the delivery of so many other goods and services:

  • Until the late 1970’s, lawyers in the U.S. could not advertise in any meaningful way, and many states still have laws on the books prohibiting lawyers from using common advertising techniques.
  • Non-lawyers cannot own even a minority interest law firms, preventing outside investment in the industry and removing the ability to offer equity compensation to talented non-lawyer leaders.
  • Except in limited circumstances, attorneys are prevented from participating in services that attempt to match clients with lawyers based on specific legal circumstances.
  • Rules based on the geographic location of an attorney prevent many forms of remote counseling, even when the matter in question is not dependent on a given state’s law.
  • Legal obligations in most states make it difficult for attorneys to offer limited-scope services that attempt to counsel or coach consumers through specific legal issues rather than engage in full-blown client advocacy.

Some of these restrictions are rooted in a learned profession’s reliance on tradition and resistance to rapid change, and much of it stems from a desire to protect clients and ensure the quality of legal work.  But a consequence of the locked-down nature of the industry is that many consumers who would otherwise use legal services do not avail themselves of them.

 

It’s not hard to see why.  There’s no way to shop for a lawyer-reviewed estate plan the way you would for a pair of shoes or a flight to Mexico.  And beyond price transparency, attorneys and law firm have shown little interest in marketing fixed-price, entry-level offerings that work fine for a large percentage of consumers.  Instead of leading with such offers and then upselling to those needing more involved help, the vast majority of lawyers treat every client as being in need of a custom solution.

 

It’s a shame for both consumers and lawyers. Many consumers who choose to do without a lawyer’s help are no doubt getting suboptimal outcomes in their legal matters.  And lawyers, by failing to deliver the transparency and ease of transacting that consumers have become used to, are missing out on a massive, underserved market.

–          Josh King is vice president and general counsel of Avvo.com, the web’s largest legal Q&A platform, directory and marketplace.