Is social media worth the risk? A lawyer's perspective

My blog post from a few days ago When lawyers stupidly get in the way of marketing generated a bunch of tweets, comments, and emails. Clearly others have faced the issue of lawyers getting in the way of marketing.

I wanted to offer the unique perspective of Vivienne Storey, General Manager of BlandsLaw, a boutique law firm specializing in Australian employment law.

Vivienne has experience working in Public Relations with Shearwater in Zimbabwe. Now, in her role at a law firm, she advises global companies such as Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, Nestle, Phillip Morris and Deloitte about social media in the workplace.

Vivienne is active on Twitter @mysocialpolicy, on Facebook, and writes a popular blog called Social Media Lawyer.

Since it is so rare that someone has been a PR pro, is active in real-time media, and currently works on the legal side, I wanted to find out more. I interviewed Vivienne several months ago when I was running a real-time marketing Masterclass in Sydney.

Direct link to the video on YouTube.

The questions I asked Vivienne were:

• How do you work to convince CEOs and the legal staff that social media is worth the risk?
• What do companies need within their social media guidelines?
• Should the guidelines be made public?

Come on lawyers. Let's work to overcome the fear of social media. Please be agents of change (like Vivienne) and get people access to the real-time communications tools they are using anyway.

Comments

[Brian Kardon]

Been following the posts and discussion, David. As a CMO, it's hard not to get excited about a post with the words "lawyers", "stupidly" and "marketing" all in the headline! I love Vivienne's answers -- short, simple, persuasive. Very helpful video. Thanks
Brian

[Richard Pettet]

Some very good points, some of them obvious, some of them less so. From a law firm point of view i guess confidentiality is a key issue, as is offering advice via social media platforms where it's not appropriate or allowed. Also, brand management can be take too far, for example there are several large law firms whose tweets are so bland and frequent that their presence on Twitter is actually a nuisance.
BYW, could you not find a quiet room?

[David Meerman Scott]

Brian -- many thanks. Yep, I played around with that headline a lot.

Richard -- I agree on some of the inane blogs and tweets. It happens in every industry. I did the video at the break from my full day masterclass. I only had 20 minutes. It was the best I could do under the circumstances.

[Olaleye Samuel]

I enjoyed your write up. Can we actually say that any information made available on social website is binding? I have the opinion that such information should not hold water. Though my own opinion is made as a layman when it comes to law. But at times, lawyers could be very funny.

[Amtower]

David
I recently spoke on a social media panel at an event hosted by & at a law firm- Shulamn Rogers in Rockville, Maryland.
Also on the panel was a one of the lawyers, and arepresentative of the Federal govt- another "late bloomer" in social media. The lawyer did point out some legal aspects, including intellectual propeorty issues, trade secrets, etc, but overall was in favor of using social media as an outreach tool

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks Olaleye.

Mark, that's great. Glad to see you mixing it up in the DC area.

[Grant Crowell]

David, you will probably appreciate this post:

http://www.reelseo.com/legal-advice-with-online-video/

[SethGrimes]

Vivienne's first response is spot on: Employees will be doing Social regardless. Train them.

So the question isn't "Worth the risk?" It's How do you manage the risk (and also exploit the opportunity)?

Seth, http://twitter.com/sethgrimes

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks Grant.

Seth -- You're right. It is all about working within the risk factors, not simply saying "no" which is what many companies still do.

[Vivienne Storey]

Thanks David for your great write up and apologies for tardy response everyone. I've just got back from two weeks in Bali on holidays with self imposed social media ban (!) and look what happens!

Just to be clear for transparency, I'm actually not a laywer; I manage a law firm that is actively involved in social media and our lawyers provide advice and policies to companies wanting to engage in social media. Happy to answer any questions. Vivienne

[David Meerman Scott]

Welcome back from holidays Vivienne. I am currently on a break too but I check into my social stuff frequently.

[Katrina]

This is a great article, and a great topic to explore. Thanks for sharing.