Last week I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel at an event hosted by Cancer Research UK, discussing Social Media & The Law.
The panel included myself, Matthew Eltringham the Assistant Editor, Interactive Social Media & Development at the BBC, Robert Blamires an Associate Solicitor at Field Fisher Waterhouse and Yvette Deerness, the host of the event, and Senior Legal Advisor at Cancer Research UK. The event was attended by the Cancer Research staff who man the front line of the charity's social media work.
This charity takes social media seriously! Just take a look at some of the ways you can follow Cancer Research through social media. Key goals are to promote campaigns, support fundraising activity and to provide support to those suffering from cancer. I've said before that the most important aspect of social media is the community which it can create, and so it was no surprise that managing, moderating and supporting that community without falling foul of the law was top of the agenda at the event.
A healthy debate ensued covering social media activity on own sites and third party sites, how to strike the right balance between the benefits and insight which user generated content can offer against managing the risk of liability for defamation or infringement of intellectual property rights, the practicalities of using content obtained through the creative commons system, enforcing acceptable use policies in a fair and consistent manner, managing complaints, and the range of legal issues affecting promotion mechanics.
A fantastic charity with fantastic people behind it who really have their finger on the pulse of social media. If you'd like to donate to the charity or find our more about the wonderful work which Cancer Research carries out, please visit Cancer Research UK.
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Speaking Event
I'm pleased to announce that I'll be speaking at the in-house lawyer breakfast seminar at Pannone LLP, Manchester on Thursday 31 March 2011.
I'll be discussing how in-house lawyers can use social media to its best effect. Other items on the agenda (which I won't be speaking on!) include:
Contact law@pannone.com for more information about the seminar.
POST SCRIPT - Due to popular demand, the event will now also be running for a second time on 6 April. Hope to see you there.
I'll be discussing how in-house lawyers can use social media to its best effect. Other items on the agenda (which I won't be speaking on!) include:
- Competition law compliance
- Review of recent breach of contract cases
- Data Protection Act compliance and update
- Bribery Act Part 2
- Running a successful due diligence process
- Phasing out the default retirement age
Contact law@pannone.com for more information about the seminar.
POST SCRIPT - Due to popular demand, the event will now also be running for a second time on 6 April. Hope to see you there.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
What LinkedIn Maps tells us about Lawyers
LinkedIn has introduced a quirky new tool for users to visualise their connections and professional network, its called LinkedIn Maps. I've created my own LinkedIn map here:
So what does my LinkedIn Map tell me:
So what does my LinkedIn Map tell me:
- Well, firstly that the LinkedIn Maps gadget is pretty intelligent! Within seconds it created this map for me and categorised my networks efficiently and...erm...categorically.
- The 2 main hubs of my network (the orange hub and the dark blue hub) are connections I've met through industries I've worked in as an in-house lawyer, those being digital media and travel respectively. These hubs are full of people I've met in business, in industry, non-lawyer contacts. These people use LinkedIn big time.
- Despite being a lawyer myself, knowing lots of lawyers and working in private practice for a good proportion of my career, my lawyer connections from private practice using LinkedIn only account for a sprinkling of my LinkedIn contacts, the pink hub and the yellow hub (spot them if you can). Now, on LinkedIn, I hunt for colleagues and business acquaintances I've met in all walks of life in equal measure, so this tells me that, as a breed, the legal industry is significantly under-representing itself on LinkedIn.
- Lawyers I've met solely through the power of social media over the last year, based in both the UK (the green hub) and overseas (the purple hub), and who I've connected with on LinkedIn now out-number my "in the flesh" private practice lawyer connections from over many years who've connected on LinkedIn.
- As a rule, I used to only connect on LinkedIn with individuals I'd physically met or done business with, but social media threw that rule out of the window for me. I'll now connect with individuals I know only through social media channels even if I haven't met them in the real world, where I know there's a beneficial professional relationship, or even if I just like them. However, I still won't connect with individuals who I haven't met with, if I don't know them through a social media channel. Lawyers, if you're not using social media and your competitors are, they have the opportunity to up-turn your established client relationships.
So, in summary: Lots of people use LinkedIn. Not many lawyers do. Lawyers who do use social media are rapidly stealing a march on their counterparts who don't. In terms of making connections and cementing professional relationships, social media works.
Monday, 24 January 2011
Twitteratigate:The tide has turned
Following on from my post below, it seems that Twitter is causing a stir amongst lawyers in more ways than one.
It was only October of last year when Legal Week brought social media use amongst lawyers into the mainstream. For more on that, see The next big thing: is the social media tide turning? If you look at the comments against those original Legal Week articles you'll see there was discussion brewing early-doors about who should feature in reviews of the legal social media scene and for what reason.
Fast forward from October to the present day, and a relative social media scandal has exploded. A scandal so deep it's even worthy of the accolade of a gate. Twitteratigate. The whole story of which can be told no better than Brian Inkster in The Time Blawg.
Finally lawyers are getting it. This is what makes social media work: the ability to make it personal, share your perspective, explore what works and what doesn't, mould the message and the media which carries it.
I do indeed believe that the tide has turned.
It was only October of last year when Legal Week brought social media use amongst lawyers into the mainstream. For more on that, see The next big thing: is the social media tide turning? If you look at the comments against those original Legal Week articles you'll see there was discussion brewing early-doors about who should feature in reviews of the legal social media scene and for what reason.
Fast forward from October to the present day, and a relative social media scandal has exploded. A scandal so deep it's even worthy of the accolade of a gate. Twitteratigate. The whole story of which can be told no better than Brian Inkster in The Time Blawg.
Finally lawyers are getting it. This is what makes social media work: the ability to make it personal, share your perspective, explore what works and what doesn't, mould the message and the media which carries it.
I do indeed believe that the tide has turned.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
I am Still Here
I am still here.
It's just that there are only 24 hours in a day, and while that's enough hours (just) most of the year to work, run a family and engage in social media experiments, in the run-up to Christmas with the prospect of 4 families around 1 table and a demanding 5 (nearly 6) year old to satisfy on the present-front as well as the usual year-end activities and projects on the work-front, well, I am only human (and a specialist plant of course) and things slip.
Fear not, the in-house lawyer remains committed to (a) being an in-house lawyer (b) social media and (c) fusing the two together in pursuance of this blog.
A Merry Little Christmas post will be with you before the Big Day itself, and normal blogging service will be resumed once the festivities and stress are over.
It's just that there are only 24 hours in a day, and while that's enough hours (just) most of the year to work, run a family and engage in social media experiments, in the run-up to Christmas with the prospect of 4 families around 1 table and a demanding 5 (nearly 6) year old to satisfy on the present-front as well as the usual year-end activities and projects on the work-front, well, I am only human (and a specialist plant of course) and things slip.
Fear not, the in-house lawyer remains committed to (a) being an in-house lawyer (b) social media and (c) fusing the two together in pursuance of this blog.
A Merry Little Christmas post will be with you before the Big Day itself, and normal blogging service will be resumed once the festivities and stress are over.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Karma Communities
No, I haven't gone all hippy-chick.
I've been reading Twitter Power by Joel Comm lately. In fact, thats incorrect. I'm a 2.0 reader, so I've been listening to the audiobook.
Image is Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm, Gildan Media Corp, presented by Audible.co.uk
Joel Comm gets to the nubb of social media in the first chapter of his book where he describes traditional media publishers as the few who broadcast their news to the many, as against the new social media phenomenon where the many have the power to communicate the news, views and experiences to each other, resulting in the creation of communities with a common interest.
To me, the community is the most important aspect of social media. And because there are little, if any, barriers to entry into the social media world, its much simpler to become part of your chosen community and influence that community than it is to become part of a community in the offline world, such as, say, falling in with the cool kids at high school, the mums at the school gate or the clique of personnel who might have your CEO's attention. Social media is a great leveller.
But for a community to operate it needs to communicate. Communicating means listening as well as speaking, it means building relationships. You'll read a lot about social media being all about communication and relationship building, but once you truly understand that it actually is, it is an epiphany moment.
And so I was surprised today to come across a tweeting lawyer who followed zero people. Why would you join a social media community and not be part of the conversation? Even if it your goal is to promote yourself as a lawyer or a firm, how can you achieve that goal effectively without monitoring the conversation around you and understanding the impact which your broadcasting/marketing is having?
As an in-house lawyer, through social media you have the ability to become part of a number of communities which feed into your world: the community of the industry which your employing company operates in, or those of your company's suppliers or clients, the legal community, your specialism within the legal community, other in-house lawyers, legal service providers. Communities are being built, and the members of these communities are being generous with their information and advice. In-house lawyers can benefit from this: pop a question into your Twitter status such as "Does anyone know whether there are unfair dismissal rights in Germany?", and you'll receive several tweets in reply from practising employment lawyers pointing you in the right direction. The more you give back to the community, the more you'll receive from it too. There's a lot of good karma in circulation on social media sites.
I've been reading Twitter Power by Joel Comm lately. In fact, thats incorrect. I'm a 2.0 reader, so I've been listening to the audiobook.
Image is Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm, Gildan Media Corp, presented by Audible.co.uk
Joel Comm gets to the nubb of social media in the first chapter of his book where he describes traditional media publishers as the few who broadcast their news to the many, as against the new social media phenomenon where the many have the power to communicate the news, views and experiences to each other, resulting in the creation of communities with a common interest.
To me, the community is the most important aspect of social media. And because there are little, if any, barriers to entry into the social media world, its much simpler to become part of your chosen community and influence that community than it is to become part of a community in the offline world, such as, say, falling in with the cool kids at high school, the mums at the school gate or the clique of personnel who might have your CEO's attention. Social media is a great leveller.
But for a community to operate it needs to communicate. Communicating means listening as well as speaking, it means building relationships. You'll read a lot about social media being all about communication and relationship building, but once you truly understand that it actually is, it is an epiphany moment.
And so I was surprised today to come across a tweeting lawyer who followed zero people. Why would you join a social media community and not be part of the conversation? Even if it your goal is to promote yourself as a lawyer or a firm, how can you achieve that goal effectively without monitoring the conversation around you and understanding the impact which your broadcasting/marketing is having?
As an in-house lawyer, through social media you have the ability to become part of a number of communities which feed into your world: the community of the industry which your employing company operates in, or those of your company's suppliers or clients, the legal community, your specialism within the legal community, other in-house lawyers, legal service providers. Communities are being built, and the members of these communities are being generous with their information and advice. In-house lawyers can benefit from this: pop a question into your Twitter status such as "Does anyone know whether there are unfair dismissal rights in Germany?", and you'll receive several tweets in reply from practising employment lawyers pointing you in the right direction. The more you give back to the community, the more you'll receive from it too. There's a lot of good karma in circulation on social media sites.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
The Next Big Thing: Is the social media tide turning?
Today's Legal Week has focussed on the use of social media tools by the legal profession. It ran two pieces today:
New ideas in Law: The geek shall inherit... a wonderfully well researched piece of journalism by Alex Aldridge summarising the history of the legal blogging scene at home and abroad and introducing the new, rising talent in the UK blawgosphere. I was thrilled and honoured for this very blog to be included in the article, quote:
Irreverent and candid. Heck, I hadn't realised! But I can roll with that. Alex's article is a suberb blawg round-up, culminating in his blawger roll of honour list. It makes my job of hosting this quarter's ukblawg round-up next week quite a challenge!
Tweet Disposition: the tech-savvy lawyers making social media work for them is written by Sofia Lind and introduces a selection of in-house and private practice tweeting lawyers. I was over the moon to be mentioned in this article along with other tweeting companions I know, and some which I didn't but I no doubt soon will. Sofia's article also takes a look at blogging and Linked-in and interestingly identifies what the Top 10 law firms are doing (or not doing) about social media, confirming what I suspected, i.e. that its the individuals, independents and smaller firms in the UK which are getting to grips with social media a lot more quickly and effectively than the larger firms.
These two articles have brought the UK's legal social media scene to the fore, their angle very much that social media is here to be embraced and not policed, and I predict we'll now see the tide changing with more of our profession surfing the social media waves.
Cartoon courtesy of Geek & Poke
New ideas in Law: The geek shall inherit... a wonderfully well researched piece of journalism by Alex Aldridge summarising the history of the legal blogging scene at home and abroad and introducing the new, rising talent in the UK blawgosphere. I was thrilled and honoured for this very blog to be included in the article, quote:
"Then there's In-House Lawyer, a more serious, non-fictional, yet still distinctly irreverent insider account of life as an in-house lawyer, authored by Melanie Hatton, a former Mayer Brown lawyer who is now head of legal and company secretary at Latitude Digital Marketing. In it, Hatton reflects candidly on issues facing in-house counsel, with recent posts including a piece drawing attention to the friction between in-house legal departments and sales teams in companies and an admission that she always leaves anything litigious to a Friday, the day of the week when "opposing counsel seem much more inclined to strike a deal with less antagonism".
Irreverent and candid. Heck, I hadn't realised! But I can roll with that. Alex's article is a suberb blawg round-up, culminating in his blawger roll of honour list. It makes my job of hosting this quarter's ukblawg round-up next week quite a challenge!
Tweet Disposition: the tech-savvy lawyers making social media work for them is written by Sofia Lind and introduces a selection of in-house and private practice tweeting lawyers. I was over the moon to be mentioned in this article along with other tweeting companions I know, and some which I didn't but I no doubt soon will. Sofia's article also takes a look at blogging and Linked-in and interestingly identifies what the Top 10 law firms are doing (or not doing) about social media, confirming what I suspected, i.e. that its the individuals, independents and smaller firms in the UK which are getting to grips with social media a lot more quickly and effectively than the larger firms.
These two articles have brought the UK's legal social media scene to the fore, their angle very much that social media is here to be embraced and not policed, and I predict we'll now see the tide changing with more of our profession surfing the social media waves.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Dotted and Spotted
I just discovered that my previous "join the dots" blog post has been spotted by Law.com's Legal Blog Watch! Their take on my earlier post is called: Pursuing Unrelated Interests Can Help Lawyers Connect the Dots in their Legal Careers too.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Branded Part 5: Take a Look at Facebook
A tweet caught my eye today, "What's the next big thing in social media for lawyers?". Samantha Collier's blog, Social Media for Law Firms, claims the answer is now Facebook because ultimately "everyone under the sun now finds you on Facebook".
I know some professionals will balk at the idea but I'm inclined to agree with Samantha, not least because of Facebook's powerful search-engine like presence, although my view is that she is way ahead of the curve here; a lot of lawyers I know aren't even on Facebook personally yet and a few more have just the one solitary connection on Linked In.
However, a quick search on Facebook will reveal that there are already a modest number of "solicitors" and "law firms" with a professional Facebook presence and, indeed, a fan base.
But this blog isn't about law firms, its about in-house lawyers. A quick Facebook search against "in house lawyer" revealed:
For the avoidance of doubt, this is not me.
Sensing competition, I have upped my social media strategy game. This is me (note the all important capitalised 'H' in 'House'):
So there it is, the start of what will no doubt be the blog-post, "5 Reasons In-house Lawyers should use Facebook". Until then.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
5 Reasons for In-House Counsel to use Linked In
In the style of the popular 5 Reasons for In-house Counsel to use Twitter, and having noticed that I'm spending more time using Linked In lately, it seemed only right and proper to set out my 5 reasons for in-house counsel to use Linked In:
1. In Branded I discussed the benefits to all lawyers of creating a personal brand online. Linked In is a credible, professional online network which is designed to provide you with the the tools to establish your online professional persona quickly and simply on a canvas which Twitter and, say, Facebook can't provide:
3. Linked In groups offer you a members-only style form for you to connect with other in-house professionals. To get you started, here are a selection of Linked In groups focussed on in-house lawyers:
4. Linked In groups provide you with the opportunity to, not only connect with other in-house counsel, but to also learn from, join in and create discussions on your group's specialist subject area. Members of groups share information resources, survey data and pose questions on topics of interest, and if you choose to subscribe to your group's email update (on a daily or weekly basis) all of that valuable information and discussion-based material can be delivered direct to your in-box.
5. Lawyers are one of the professions which are traditionally dragged into technology. My real-life contacts from law firms are under-represented on Linked In and, those law firm contacts who are there, have the least active profiles. As in-house counsel, I like to think we're more connected with the way the rest of business uses technology and we should prove to the professional community that lawyers can have a social (networking) life too!
And, if you're a lawyer who does embrace technology, Linked In is one of the venues where you'll come across other tech-savvy lawyers.
I'll see you on Linked In then: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/melaniejhatton
1. In Branded I discussed the benefits to all lawyers of creating a personal brand online. Linked In is a credible, professional online network which is designed to provide you with the the tools to establish your online professional persona quickly and simply on a canvas which Twitter and, say, Facebook can't provide:
- Your Linked In profile page acts as an online CV
- The profiles of those who you are connected with are stored in an easily-searchable Contacts list
- Links to your website, blog and Twitter account can be easily incorporated into your profile page to showcase your wider online presence
- Status updates, activity timelines, group links and recommendations showcase your business impact
3. Linked In groups offer you a members-only style form for you to connect with other in-house professionals. To get you started, here are a selection of Linked In groups focussed on in-house lawyers:
- In House Legal
- Legal Week: In-house lawyers group
- The Lawyer: In-house Hub
- Law Department Management
4. Linked In groups provide you with the opportunity to, not only connect with other in-house counsel, but to also learn from, join in and create discussions on your group's specialist subject area. Members of groups share information resources, survey data and pose questions on topics of interest, and if you choose to subscribe to your group's email update (on a daily or weekly basis) all of that valuable information and discussion-based material can be delivered direct to your in-box.
5. Lawyers are one of the professions which are traditionally dragged into technology. My real-life contacts from law firms are under-represented on Linked In and, those law firm contacts who are there, have the least active profiles. As in-house counsel, I like to think we're more connected with the way the rest of business uses technology and we should prove to the professional community that lawyers can have a social (networking) life too!
And, if you're a lawyer who does embrace technology, Linked In is one of the venues where you'll come across other tech-savvy lawyers.
I'll see you on Linked In then: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/melaniejhatton
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Branded Part 3: Roll up for the Round up!
2010 marks the beginning of the The UK Blawg Round Up, the UK Lawyers’ Blog of Blawgs. Its mission: to highlight the UK legal blogging scene and the players in it.
UK blogging lawyers are playing catch-up to our counterparts in the US, where the mighty Blawg Review is published weekly. At present, the UK Blawg Round Up is published quarterly, and there have been 3 editions to date:
• Its Not Blawg Review
• New Beginnings
• Midsummer Madness
I’m thrilled to announce that the 4th edition of the UK Blawg Roundup will be hosted by me. Due out 31 October, the theme will be, unsurprisingly, a Halloween Hoot!
If you’re a lawyer on the UK blogging scene, please submit your blog post for me to review via the Blog Carnival by 17 October. I'm looking forward to reading all submissions and finding out more about you all.
The UK legal blogging (or blawging) is in its infancy and there really is no better time for home-grown legal bloggers to make their mark and establish a personal brand. So jump on board and get involved!.
UK blogging lawyers are playing catch-up to our counterparts in the US, where the mighty Blawg Review is published weekly. At present, the UK Blawg Round Up is published quarterly, and there have been 3 editions to date:
• Its Not Blawg Review
• New Beginnings
• Midsummer Madness
I’m thrilled to announce that the 4th edition of the UK Blawg Roundup will be hosted by me. Due out 31 October, the theme will be, unsurprisingly, a Halloween Hoot!
If you’re a lawyer on the UK blogging scene, please submit your blog post for me to review via the Blog Carnival by 17 October. I'm looking forward to reading all submissions and finding out more about you all.
The UK legal blogging (or blawging) is in its infancy and there really is no better time for home-grown legal bloggers to make their mark and establish a personal brand. So jump on board and get involved!.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Play the advantage
Working in the digital media industry I see first-hand every day the benefits to individuals and businesses from taking advantage of the newest technology, social media and web 2.0. An industry was born of it, trailblazers lead it, those who participate in it are cutting-edge, engaged with their customers and reap the rewards. They also have a bit of fun with it.
Hold on a minute….what was that you said? What’s web 2.0? Ah yes, social media it’s a risk isn’t it, you need rules to prevent your employees recklessly libelling their boss on Facebook. I don't give staff access to social media sites, its counter-productive. I can’t Twitter, it would be a breach of confidentiality. Anyway, my firm has a website.
Sorry. I forgot. You’re a lawyer. Risk-averse. You hear "social media". You think "policy". Go on, admit it.
So, I was delighted to read about this excellent symposium being organised by lawyers for lawyers. It’s a fresh and quirky look at how technology is affecting the practice of law. Sessions include: “Up in the Air and the Cloud”, ”Would Lincoln get Linked In? Or would he Tweet?” and, my personal favourite, “What’s your Avatar? How social media is changing the way we work and how to take advantage of it”.
If you're lucky enough to be attending this symposium, you just know you’re going to be able to listen to people excited about their subject and come away feeling inspired to get your personal lawyer brand online, out there and competing with the best of them.
Contrast those sessions with an in-house lawyer forum I’ve been invited to recently by a regional law firm. How could I not want to find out: “How to control social media in the workplace”, “How to prevent online defamation” and “How to control your risk online”.
Yawn.
It gets worse. An entirely separate conference I was invited to bears the ominous title “The Internet: What can go wrong and how to avoid it”. It includes sessions entitled “An Online Survival Guide”, “Avoiding Problems” and “How to Perform a Legal Operation”.
No, I don’t get the relevance of the last session either. But it’s a conference about the internet so….err…I guess it needs some scary sounding items that lawyers can warn their clients about. Maybe the organiser got a byte from a mouse when he was younger.
Anyway, I know which conference, I mean, symposium I’d rather be at. Go on law firms, I dare you, when it comes to social media and web 2.0, be a trailblazer and get your profession excited about the possibilities new technology and media offer us; don’t blow the referee’s whistle, play the advantage.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Are you talking my language?
The need to use the right communication method to keep in touch with your audience was never better exemplified than in yesterday’s parliamentary wash-up process for the Digital Economy Bill which enticed very few MPs to engage in debate on the subject in the Commons; juxtapositioned against the tirade of simultaneous Twitter debate at #debill from the outraged constituents of those MPs who will be looking for their votes at the general election in just over 4 weeks time.
Here’s another example of an organisation failing to hit the mark with the right communication method for the subject matter. A couple of weeks ago there was a landmark judgement on a case in my industry (digital marketing) and a big player was involved (Google). The law has always struggled to keep pace with technology, and so we love legal developments which do affect us and this was news we’d all been waiting for. Twitter alerted me to the result of the case. I used Twitter to convey the information I had received myself about the judgement, and to find out the information which everybody else had. I had a blog up and running for my company on the subject just after lunch time and, fair dues, several law firms, legal and industry bloggers achieved the same.
On the day, Twitter was invaluable for exchanging information and more importantly current thinking attaching to the issues which were raised in the case. Given the case related to the digital marketing industry, the real time communication was all the more appropriate.
Two days later, I received an e-mail from a law firm with the heading “Breaking News”. “How exciting” I thought “What a busy week this is turning out to be for new legal developments...
Oh the disappointment! The e-mail contained a briefing of the judgement from 2 days prior. It contained no insight or new angles on the case, and was clearly not in touch with the comments about this judgement case which were circulating on Twitter, the blogosphere and the industry generally.
In my view this was not breaking news. Technically, it was not even yesterday’s news. It would have been hard-pressed to be that day’s fish and chips paper.
Law firms, take note! and engage more actively with your target audience, use the tools which we use to communicate your message and you’ll have our attention. We may even talk back to you. It could be the start of a beautiful relationship.
Here’s another example of an organisation failing to hit the mark with the right communication method for the subject matter. A couple of weeks ago there was a landmark judgement on a case in my industry (digital marketing) and a big player was involved (Google). The law has always struggled to keep pace with technology, and so we love legal developments which do affect us and this was news we’d all been waiting for. Twitter alerted me to the result of the case. I used Twitter to convey the information I had received myself about the judgement, and to find out the information which everybody else had. I had a blog up and running for my company on the subject just after lunch time and, fair dues, several law firms, legal and industry bloggers achieved the same.
On the day, Twitter was invaluable for exchanging information and more importantly current thinking attaching to the issues which were raised in the case. Given the case related to the digital marketing industry, the real time communication was all the more appropriate.
Two days later, I received an e-mail from a law firm with the heading “Breaking News”. “How exciting” I thought “What a busy week this is turning out to be for new legal developments...
Oh the disappointment! The e-mail contained a briefing of the judgement from 2 days prior. It contained no insight or new angles on the case, and was clearly not in touch with the comments about this judgement case which were circulating on Twitter, the blogosphere and the industry generally.
In my view this was not breaking news. Technically, it was not even yesterday’s news. It would have been hard-pressed to be that day’s fish and chips paper.
Law firms, take note! and engage more actively with your target audience, use the tools which we use to communicate your message and you’ll have our attention. We may even talk back to you. It could be the start of a beautiful relationship.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
CAPping it off: The digital remit extension
This week the Advertising Association announced that the advertising industry recommends the remit of the CAP Code be extended to cover all online marketing communications including social media.
It’s anticipated that this will be achieved by Autumn 2010, but the move needs to be ratified by CAP and will be subject to appropriate consultation with the industry first.
The existing Code covers paid for marketing communications online (such as PPC, display banner advertisements, preferential rankings on price comparison sites etc), and so the proposed extension to all online marketing will require a change in the mindset and awareness of online publishers of any marketing communication to ensure their communications do not fall foul of the Code.
This is great news (albeit a perfect example of how the law takes a little while to catch up with how consumers and businesses use technology). Some initial thoughts and questions from me:
• What will constitute an “online marketing communication”? It’s easy to identify a stand-alone PPC or display banner advertisement as a piece of advertising, but the line can become blurred when the format changes. For instance, an online “infommercial”, which presumably will be caught as similar are caught in the offline environment. But where will the line be drawn? Or will a line be drawn at all? Arguably a company’s entire website could be classified as a marketing communication as the primary purpose it serves is to promote a business and its brand.
• Articles and “press releases” are regularly submitted to search engines and online directories for the purposes of search engine optimisation and are prepared with the expectation that the content will only be “viewed” by the search engines for the purpose of increasing the organic search ranking of the website in question, rather than be viewed by individual consumers. That expectation won’t change, but these documents will potentially fall under the extended remit.
• The inclusion of social media is the most important proposed change to the Code as there is a clear engagement and influence between consumer and marketer with this type of online marketing communication. A company’s marketing activity on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and all manner of blogs and interactive communication portals will need to be managed more carefully to ensure content does not fall foul of the Code. This will be a challenge to the mindset of marketers using social media which is per se a more informal and laissez-faire type of communication.
• Social media marketing communications thrive on interaction and user generated content. Will user-generated content be captured by the Code? My initial reaction is no but that’s based on the assumption that user generated content is generated by consumers (whom the Code is aimed to protect) and not the company doing the marketing; but what about where user generated content is generated by representatives of the company posing as consumers or persons recommending that company’s products or services? How will this type of undercover online marketing be dealt with?
• In terms of twitter: Will a company’s entire Twitter stream be captured by the new remit, or just those tweets comprising a branded marketing communication? What about the Twitter stream of an individual associated with a company but who tweets for themselves, albeit their association with the company influences their tweets? If a marketing communication is tweeted, and is non-compliant with the Code, will any re-tweets of that original tweet be treated as non-compliant also?
I'm on consultation watch, and look forward to hearing other thoughts on how the extension of the CAP Code will potentially affect online marketing practices.
It’s anticipated that this will be achieved by Autumn 2010, but the move needs to be ratified by CAP and will be subject to appropriate consultation with the industry first.
The existing Code covers paid for marketing communications online (such as PPC, display banner advertisements, preferential rankings on price comparison sites etc), and so the proposed extension to all online marketing will require a change in the mindset and awareness of online publishers of any marketing communication to ensure their communications do not fall foul of the Code.
This is great news (albeit a perfect example of how the law takes a little while to catch up with how consumers and businesses use technology). Some initial thoughts and questions from me:
• What will constitute an “online marketing communication”? It’s easy to identify a stand-alone PPC or display banner advertisement as a piece of advertising, but the line can become blurred when the format changes. For instance, an online “infommercial”, which presumably will be caught as similar are caught in the offline environment. But where will the line be drawn? Or will a line be drawn at all? Arguably a company’s entire website could be classified as a marketing communication as the primary purpose it serves is to promote a business and its brand.
• Articles and “press releases” are regularly submitted to search engines and online directories for the purposes of search engine optimisation and are prepared with the expectation that the content will only be “viewed” by the search engines for the purpose of increasing the organic search ranking of the website in question, rather than be viewed by individual consumers. That expectation won’t change, but these documents will potentially fall under the extended remit.
• The inclusion of social media is the most important proposed change to the Code as there is a clear engagement and influence between consumer and marketer with this type of online marketing communication. A company’s marketing activity on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and all manner of blogs and interactive communication portals will need to be managed more carefully to ensure content does not fall foul of the Code. This will be a challenge to the mindset of marketers using social media which is per se a more informal and laissez-faire type of communication.
• Social media marketing communications thrive on interaction and user generated content. Will user-generated content be captured by the Code? My initial reaction is no but that’s based on the assumption that user generated content is generated by consumers (whom the Code is aimed to protect) and not the company doing the marketing; but what about where user generated content is generated by representatives of the company posing as consumers or persons recommending that company’s products or services? How will this type of undercover online marketing be dealt with?
• In terms of twitter: Will a company’s entire Twitter stream be captured by the new remit, or just those tweets comprising a branded marketing communication? What about the Twitter stream of an individual associated with a company but who tweets for themselves, albeit their association with the company influences their tweets? If a marketing communication is tweeted, and is non-compliant with the Code, will any re-tweets of that original tweet be treated as non-compliant also?
I'm on consultation watch, and look forward to hearing other thoughts on how the extension of the CAP Code will potentially affect online marketing practices.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
5 Twitter Best Practice Tips for In-house Counsel
In my previous post 5 Reasons for In-house Counsel to use Twitter I encourage in-house lawyers to embrace Twitter. Now here’s some best practice advice on making the most of Twitter specifically for in-house counsel:
1. By its nature, Twitter is a personable and informal means of communication, but be careful not to let your professional standards drop. This is particularly important if your Twitter profile identifies you as a lawyer and more so if it identifies the link to your employing company. For instance, whereas a lawyer for a private practice firm might be able to comfortably tweet “worked on defence to a fraud case today” and the lawyer/client privilege is not necessarily breached; but tweeting about your exposure to a fraud case as an in-house lawyer might not be the best PR you could be giving to your company.
2. On Twitter you represent yourself, your legal skills and profession and your employer. How do you balance these 3 potentially conflicting interests? Personally, I manage this risk by running two separate Twitter accounts: one protected account for my personal Twitter feed and a public account for my @in_house_lawyer tweets which I keep strictly professional. (Does this make me a Twitzophrenic?). Other users of Twitter merge their personal and professional tweets side by side. Twitter is a flexible tool, so experiment to find the best way for you of balancing your individualism and professionalism.
3. Twitter is a great information resource, yes. But, as a lawyer, rely on it with caution. No matter how authoritative your fellow Twitterers appear, Twitter is not a source of legal authority. Your information stream is limited to the people whom you follow, their quality of resource, accuracy and currency and also their “take” on a piece of information. Not to mention disseminating all of that into just 140 characters.
4. Connected with the previous point, very often you will see a tantalising tweet luring you to click on a link to a helpful article – you review the full article and then see the date at the bottom, its 6 months old! Twitter prides itself on being “real time” and as such there is an expectation of currency of information to be available on Twitter, and largely that is true, but that doesn’t always manifest itself in tweets and re-tweets of information sources. Top tip: when clicking on a link to a third party PDF or article the first thing you should do is check the date of that piece of information, not forgetting the jurisdiction it relates to (Twitter is a worldwide information stream).
Also beware the tweeters who post links to sites which appear to contain helpful information which is bang up-to-date, but which you then have to pay to download that information. These types of tweets are few and far between, but just one to watch out for.
5. To make the most of Twitter as a networking tool and information resource you need to mange who you follow with some regularity. Don’t feel compelled to follow back everyone who follows you, likewise don’t be offended if someone you follow doesn’t follow you back. Everyone uses twitter differently. The value of Twitter as an information resource for you lessens if your information stream becomes diluted with irrelevant or unhelpful information. Refresh who you follow every once so that you don’t miss out on new Twitter users who it might be mutually beneficial to follow. Having said all of that if a user directs a comment to you, it is Twitter etiqueete (Twitiquette?) to respond, even if you don’t follow that user.
More generally, I recommend reading Twitter’s own best practice tips for general use of Twitter, and The Creation of Twitter Best Practices on Ogilvy PR (an older article (see advice in point 4 above!) but the advice still rings true). I’d love to hear your best practice advice for in-house counsel using Twitter.
1. By its nature, Twitter is a personable and informal means of communication, but be careful not to let your professional standards drop. This is particularly important if your Twitter profile identifies you as a lawyer and more so if it identifies the link to your employing company. For instance, whereas a lawyer for a private practice firm might be able to comfortably tweet “worked on defence to a fraud case today” and the lawyer/client privilege is not necessarily breached; but tweeting about your exposure to a fraud case as an in-house lawyer might not be the best PR you could be giving to your company.
2. On Twitter you represent yourself, your legal skills and profession and your employer. How do you balance these 3 potentially conflicting interests? Personally, I manage this risk by running two separate Twitter accounts: one protected account for my personal Twitter feed and a public account for my @in_house_lawyer tweets which I keep strictly professional. (Does this make me a Twitzophrenic?). Other users of Twitter merge their personal and professional tweets side by side. Twitter is a flexible tool, so experiment to find the best way for you of balancing your individualism and professionalism.
3. Twitter is a great information resource, yes. But, as a lawyer, rely on it with caution. No matter how authoritative your fellow Twitterers appear, Twitter is not a source of legal authority. Your information stream is limited to the people whom you follow, their quality of resource, accuracy and currency and also their “take” on a piece of information. Not to mention disseminating all of that into just 140 characters.
4. Connected with the previous point, very often you will see a tantalising tweet luring you to click on a link to a helpful article – you review the full article and then see the date at the bottom, its 6 months old! Twitter prides itself on being “real time” and as such there is an expectation of currency of information to be available on Twitter, and largely that is true, but that doesn’t always manifest itself in tweets and re-tweets of information sources. Top tip: when clicking on a link to a third party PDF or article the first thing you should do is check the date of that piece of information, not forgetting the jurisdiction it relates to (Twitter is a worldwide information stream).
Also beware the tweeters who post links to sites which appear to contain helpful information which is bang up-to-date, but which you then have to pay to download that information. These types of tweets are few and far between, but just one to watch out for.
5. To make the most of Twitter as a networking tool and information resource you need to mange who you follow with some regularity. Don’t feel compelled to follow back everyone who follows you, likewise don’t be offended if someone you follow doesn’t follow you back. Everyone uses twitter differently. The value of Twitter as an information resource for you lessens if your information stream becomes diluted with irrelevant or unhelpful information. Refresh who you follow every once so that you don’t miss out on new Twitter users who it might be mutually beneficial to follow. Having said all of that if a user directs a comment to you, it is Twitter etiqueete (Twitiquette?) to respond, even if you don’t follow that user.
More generally, I recommend reading Twitter’s own best practice tips for general use of Twitter, and The Creation of Twitter Best Practices on Ogilvy PR (an older article (see advice in point 4 above!) but the advice still rings true). I’d love to hear your best practice advice for in-house counsel using Twitter.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Branded: Part 2 Donuts & Carnivals
In my earlier blog post Branded I set out on my quest to turn my in-house lawyer brand into a household name (or maybe that should be business hold name?) renowned the world over. The quest continues. I’m now pleased to be a contributor to the Law Donut Blog which offers free legal information and resources to people running smaller businesses. I’ve promised to work on my first series of contributions, musings and thoughts; although, said contributions, musings and thoughts might be more quickly inspired by the delivery of some Krispy Kremes to my desk....a-hem....moving on....
I was also interested to learn this week about Blog Carnival, a collection of blogging communities working together in shameless self-promotion. I’m all for that, and rather conveniently the UK Blawg Round Up community are currently in the process of organising their Easter edition hosted on this occasion by Peninsulawyer with the theme of "new beginnings". Another blog opportunity for me to muse upon and I encourage other UK law bloggers to contribute to the carnival also.
Speaking of readers of this blog, I thought it would be useful to know if there were actually any. So in a burst of ‘techiness and inspired by my digital marketing type colleagues at Latitude I incorporated Google Analytics into the HTML code of my blog (I needed a drink after this technical endeavour) to monitor hits and conversions, and much to my relief discovered that there are indeed readers of this blog. Phew.
Now, it seems that all I need to do to reach the highest echelons of legal blog brand fame is to get myself a dinky little animal avatar like those of the wonderful Technollama and IPKat.
Are you an in-house lawyer developing your brand? Let me know how you’re doing it (or how I could do it better!) by leaving your comments below.
I was also interested to learn this week about Blog Carnival, a collection of blogging communities working together in shameless self-promotion. I’m all for that, and rather conveniently the UK Blawg Round Up community are currently in the process of organising their Easter edition hosted on this occasion by Peninsulawyer with the theme of "new beginnings". Another blog opportunity for me to muse upon and I encourage other UK law bloggers to contribute to the carnival also.
Speaking of readers of this blog, I thought it would be useful to know if there were actually any. So in a burst of ‘techiness and inspired by my digital marketing type colleagues at Latitude I incorporated Google Analytics into the HTML code of my blog (I needed a drink after this technical endeavour) to monitor hits and conversions, and much to my relief discovered that there are indeed readers of this blog. Phew.
Now, it seems that all I need to do to reach the highest echelons of legal blog brand fame is to get myself a dinky little animal avatar like those of the wonderful Technollama and IPKat.
Are you an in-house lawyer developing your brand? Let me know how you’re doing it (or how I could do it better!) by leaving your comments below.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
5 Reasons for In-house Counsel to use Twitter
I’ve been tweeting as @in_house_lawyer for a couple of months and already I’ve built up a new network of legal acquaintances through that profile; however despite an increasing take-up of all manner of legal service providers using and contributing to Twitter, I’ve found very few in-house counsel out there. So, if you are in-house counsel using Twitter or you know of in-house counsel amongst the Twitterati please point them in my direction!
Here are my 5 reasons why in-house counsel should use Twitter:
1. Twitter is a great information resource. Choose which Twitterers to follow carefully based on content which is of interest to you, and you’ll have a constant stream of helpful data and links on the subject areas you want to keep up to speed with. Twitter users who are looking to appeal to lawyers are incredibly keen to be the first to inform you of a new legal development or to offer a different view on that development. As an information resource it’s flexible, easy to access and free. All very important to the resource and time strapped in-house lawyer.
You can also follow tweets on subjects from outside of the Twitterati you follow by creating tweet columns. Using a service such as Tweetdeck, you can create tweet columns to supply you with tweets on your favourite hash-tagged subject matters.
2. The Twitter environment offers the in-house lawyer an opportunity to forge new relationships with people who might otherwise be outside of their network. Link up with law firms, law graduates, legal researchers, companies offering legal training and development, and key-players in your company’s specialist industry or service line. Follow these people, re-tweet, reply to their tweets and contribute tweets which they’re likely to find useful and you’ll soon find yourself receiving direct messages, emails and Linked-In invitations to connect from the real people behind the Twitter accounts you follow.
3. “If you’re not online, you don’t exist” said Internet Strategist Nathan Snell back in March 2009, and in 2010 that warning rings more true than ever. Twitter offers a simple gateway to improving your online presence and your personal brand which is just as key to an in-house lawyer as to any other profession out there. See my earlier post Branded on the importance of establishing yourself as a specialist in your field via social media.
4. As more and more companies and individuals explore social media, so social media presents the legal community with the need to analyse and advise upon the legal implications of it. Many corporations choose to regulate the way in which their employees use social media and many have introduced social media policies. (For those of you considering introducing your own, Social Media Governance provides an online database of social media policies and guidelines from a number of organisations for research purposes). There’s nothing like familiarising yourself with the social media tools which your company and its staff are using to understand the benefits and risks which it brings to a business and which you’ll be asked to take a legal (and of course practicable and commercial) view on.
5. Under pressure to deliver a value-add to your company? Your Twitter presence is not only an opportunity to market your personal legal brand online, but once out there you’ll be a representative of your company. Use your Twitter platform to raise awareness of legal developments affecting the industry which your company and its customers operate in.
Here are my 5 reasons why in-house counsel should use Twitter:
1. Twitter is a great information resource. Choose which Twitterers to follow carefully based on content which is of interest to you, and you’ll have a constant stream of helpful data and links on the subject areas you want to keep up to speed with. Twitter users who are looking to appeal to lawyers are incredibly keen to be the first to inform you of a new legal development or to offer a different view on that development. As an information resource it’s flexible, easy to access and free. All very important to the resource and time strapped in-house lawyer.
You can also follow tweets on subjects from outside of the Twitterati you follow by creating tweet columns. Using a service such as Tweetdeck, you can create tweet columns to supply you with tweets on your favourite hash-tagged subject matters.
2. The Twitter environment offers the in-house lawyer an opportunity to forge new relationships with people who might otherwise be outside of their network. Link up with law firms, law graduates, legal researchers, companies offering legal training and development, and key-players in your company’s specialist industry or service line. Follow these people, re-tweet, reply to their tweets and contribute tweets which they’re likely to find useful and you’ll soon find yourself receiving direct messages, emails and Linked-In invitations to connect from the real people behind the Twitter accounts you follow.
3. “If you’re not online, you don’t exist” said Internet Strategist Nathan Snell back in March 2009, and in 2010 that warning rings more true than ever. Twitter offers a simple gateway to improving your online presence and your personal brand which is just as key to an in-house lawyer as to any other profession out there. See my earlier post Branded on the importance of establishing yourself as a specialist in your field via social media.
4. As more and more companies and individuals explore social media, so social media presents the legal community with the need to analyse and advise upon the legal implications of it. Many corporations choose to regulate the way in which their employees use social media and many have introduced social media policies. (For those of you considering introducing your own, Social Media Governance provides an online database of social media policies and guidelines from a number of organisations for research purposes). There’s nothing like familiarising yourself with the social media tools which your company and its staff are using to understand the benefits and risks which it brings to a business and which you’ll be asked to take a legal (and of course practicable and commercial) view on.
5. Under pressure to deliver a value-add to your company? Your Twitter presence is not only an opportunity to market your personal legal brand online, but once out there you’ll be a representative of your company. Use your Twitter platform to raise awareness of legal developments affecting the industry which your company and its customers operate in.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Branded
brand
• noun 1 a type of product manufactured by a company under a particular name. 2 a brand name. 3 an identifying mark burned on livestock with a heated iron. 4 a piece of burning or smouldering wood.
• verb 1 mark with a branding iron. 2 mark out as having a particular shameful quality. 3 give a brand name to.
I’ve recently been inspired by an article from Kevin O’Keefe on Real Lawyers have Blogs on the importance to lawyers of creating their own personal brand. Although aimed at law grads and associates his Define your Personal Brand As A Lawyer post rang true to me also; as sole in-house counsel to a business which previously had no lawyer working in it, a large part of my time is making sure my colleagues understand the broader commercial value which a lawyer can bring to the business and that we’re not just here to fire-fight any disputes, check contracts or create red-tape and obstacles!
As I work in the digital marketing industry, I found Mitch Joel, in his 6 Pixels of Separation blog shared some great insight in his Top 10 Dos And Don'ts Of Social Medial For Current And Prospective Employees. It conjures up the picture of a personal brand being a 3-dimensional presence and that social media is the perfect tool to achieve that. I enjoy using social media tools to connect with the people I work with and my friends, and so Mitch’s blog was further inspiration to me to step-up a gear in relation to my own personal branding. I already Twitter as @in_house_lawyer (more followers than my personal Twitter account worryingly), so that seemed a good platform from which to take my own personal brand to the next level. It’s also a demonstration to the business I work for of the all-important value-add of an in-house counsel.
So, here it is, the next stage in my personal branding campaign, my In-house Lawyer blog. I tried to blog once before but the fear of being insufficiently profound, high-brow or intellectual or perhaps not the first person to spot a legal development stopped me from saying anything at all! However, now that I have a personal brand to develop, the purpose of my blog has completely changed as its now my vehicle for establishing my In-house lawyer brand.
• noun 1 a type of product manufactured by a company under a particular name. 2 a brand name. 3 an identifying mark burned on livestock with a heated iron. 4 a piece of burning or smouldering wood.
• verb 1 mark with a branding iron. 2 mark out as having a particular shameful quality. 3 give a brand name to.
I’ve recently been inspired by an article from Kevin O’Keefe on Real Lawyers have Blogs on the importance to lawyers of creating their own personal brand. Although aimed at law grads and associates his Define your Personal Brand As A Lawyer post rang true to me also; as sole in-house counsel to a business which previously had no lawyer working in it, a large part of my time is making sure my colleagues understand the broader commercial value which a lawyer can bring to the business and that we’re not just here to fire-fight any disputes, check contracts or create red-tape and obstacles!
As I work in the digital marketing industry, I found Mitch Joel, in his 6 Pixels of Separation blog shared some great insight in his Top 10 Dos And Don'ts Of Social Medial For Current And Prospective Employees. It conjures up the picture of a personal brand being a 3-dimensional presence and that social media is the perfect tool to achieve that. I enjoy using social media tools to connect with the people I work with and my friends, and so Mitch’s blog was further inspiration to me to step-up a gear in relation to my own personal branding. I already Twitter as @in_house_lawyer (more followers than my personal Twitter account worryingly), so that seemed a good platform from which to take my own personal brand to the next level. It’s also a demonstration to the business I work for of the all-important value-add of an in-house counsel.
So, here it is, the next stage in my personal branding campaign, my In-house Lawyer blog. I tried to blog once before but the fear of being insufficiently profound, high-brow or intellectual or perhaps not the first person to spot a legal development stopped me from saying anything at all! However, now that I have a personal brand to develop, the purpose of my blog has completely changed as its now my vehicle for establishing my In-house lawyer brand.
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