Law Firms & Social Media - A GrowSmartBusiness.com Event - June 24, 2009
-
Upload
webcom -
Category
Technology
-
view
2.459 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Law Firms & Social Media - A GrowSmartBusiness.com Event - June 24, 2009
Shashi BellamkondaSocial Media Swami
Raj MalikThe Social Media Lawyer
Hashtag : #GrowSmartBiz
Hi ! I am Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib)
• Social Media Swami / Chief Community & Social Media Evangelist at Network Solutions
• Network Solutions listening post in the Social Media
• Network Solutions won
•2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management
• 2009 a Gold Quill Award of Excellence in Social Media from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
• Speaker - `How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss' and 'Social Media Tools for Small Business, at national and regional conferences like IABC, SXSW, Affiliate Summit, American Institute of Writers, and Podcamps.
I am Raj Malik (@rkm2929)
• Sr. Director, Legal & Business Affairs at Network Solutions Champion for the Social Media efforts at Network
Solutions along with the Swami Active Twitter User One of main legal points of contact for all social media
matters at Network Solutions
• Speaker at 2009 SXSW• Ex-Wal Mart Greeter and Ex-Subway Sandwich
Engineer
Domains• Find-a-domain services
− Certified Offer− Backorder− Premium Domains
• Domain Web Forwarding• Private Registration
Domains• Find-a-domain services
− Certified Offer− Backorder− Premium Domains
• Domain Web Forwarding• Private Registration
Communication• Business E-mail• Secure E-mail
Sell Online • E-commerce website
packages• E-commerce Tools
Merchant Account• Do It For Me E-
Commerce Website Design Service
Marketing • Search Engine
Optimization• Pay Per Click
Advertising• Optimized Press
Releases• Directory Services:
Monster Marketplace & ThinkLocal
• Enhanced Business Listings
• Link Building• Content Creation
Marketing • Search Engine
Optimization• Pay Per Click
Advertising• Optimized Press
Releases• Directory Services:
Monster Marketplace & ThinkLocal
• Enhanced Business Listings
• Link Building• Content Creation
Security• SSL Certificate• PC Security
Small Business Lifecycle
Websites• Website Hosting• Statistics and Website
tools• Professional Website
Design Services• Professional Logo Design
Services• Mobile Websites
Network Solutions
PR Measurement SummitJune 20094
• We service over 3 million SMB customers and manage 7.5 million domain names.
Social Media – Hard Sell to Your Boss and Legal?
Don’t let the skeptics win
No way to measure? Is there any ROI?
All these will pass They are not mainstream,
nobody pays attention to them
We cannot not control the message, lack of consistency, danger of going haywire
You can only promote the company or products
Multiple stake holder approval of the message
Tools are expensive Legal will never approve
Photo Credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnygoldstein/2546693421/
Challenges - Who is responsible
•http://flickr.com/photos/jjgardner3/3202924768/ Jimmy Gardner http://www.eastcoastblogging.com
• Everyone is responsible for social media – YOU!
• How do you share the ownership? - EVERYONE
•Who are your internal social media people? – MOBILIZE A TEAM AND COORDINATE EFFORTS
•Can they write? Express yourself well and know your writing also reflects the company
•Who should approve? – set up a process
•Can we trust them? – start slowly, build trust then unleash the fury
•Where should they engage? Wherever company is mentioned and customers are
Opportunity : Who owns the conversation?
•http://www.webinknow.com/2008/12/the-us-air-force-armed-with-social-media.html
•What if they say bad things about the company ? – Look at it as a challenge to turn opinions around
• Which networks should we participate? – Most popular, but keep eye out for where customers are
• Are our customers on social networks? – Ask customers where they are
What do we call this position
Taking the Lawyers to Lunch
• The legal department is your friend• Electronics Frontier Foundation list
of some of the legal liabilities issues that can arise from a blog: Personal and Business Defamation Intellectual Property
(Copyright/Trademark) Trade Secret Publication of Private Facts Publication of Sensitive Financial Data
• Don’t have a legal department see our post on standard social media guidelines
Legal can help you from making mistakes
Social Media Guidelines
• Get everyone in the company on the same page as to social media best practices
• Compliance is mandatory• Failure to meet the guidelines can result in job loss and
expose the company to liability• Guidelines
Do’s and Don’ts− Do not disclose confidential information; Do no post negative or
defamatory content; Do not plagiarize material etc. Topic Taboo List Continually review and update guidelines
Network Solutions Strategy
4 Point Social Media Strategy
Brand / Reputation Management Connecting with Customers Community Outreach Get new business
Network Solutions Strategy : Changing Perceptions
• First Half 2008: • Approximately 60 percent of Network Solutions
social media conversations negative• Perception of Network Solutions as domain
registrar only• Changing perception become critical for long term
health
Planned Approach
• Listen and engage customers directly Online At conferences General participation
• Respond to feedback, calls for help and knowledge
• Build positive equity through valuable content
• Community member
Network Solutions Swami’s - 3 Word Mantra
Photo: courtesy: http://flickr.com/photos/metrojp/92038203/
LISTEN
PARTICIPATE
Photo Courtesy: http://flickr.com/photos/redcarpet/50339009/
CONTRIBUTE
Photo Courtesy: http://flickr.com/photos/presta/129832836/
We started by listening
Commenting where we were mentioned
Blogs
Media
Podcasts
Answers
Forums and Niche Social NetworksVideo
Communities and conversations
•Earn Credibility as an expert by helping others
• Commenting is a way of conversation
• Traffic from your comment to your blog
•The Huffington Post Allows Top Commenters To Become Bloggers
Content and Conversations
Twitter Conversations
• Reply to all the people who @ you
• Retweet or tweet interesting links
• People like conversation
•3 tweets a day keeps the doctor away
Built online relationships offline
Results : Online Positive Reputation Grows
• Network Solutions won the Society of New Media Communications and Research Award for Corporate Online Reputation Management
•2009 a Gold Quill Award of Excellence in Social Media from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
Results : Google Juice
Our Blog is Google Result No. 6
Our Blog is Bing Result No. 5
Karmic Marketing also gets results
• Referrals • Coupon requests• Traffic to NetworkSolutions.com
Sometimes the Competition helps too
What Does the future hold
• More community engagement Events Online monitoring
• Content: Seeking to help small businesses, web companies during recession Smart Business Success Index : GrowSmartBusiness.com
• Continued blogging with new voices• Expanded offerings
Women Grow Business Webinar Small Business Conference
• Small Business Conference Oct 1st in Washington DC (tbd)
Training other advocates
• Social Media• Twitter• Blogging• Bookmarking
Your Social Media Plan
• Setup Alerts • Join and setup profiles in 3 social networks• 15-20 minutes a day tracing the alerts and responding • Choose 3 blogs on your field to read and comment• Converse, don’t sell• Answer questions and become an expert in your niche on LinkedIn• 2 hours a week - Learn and write about the products you promote• Measure your efforts
How many times were you mentioned How many people read your posts Inbounds links Are your customers evangelizing
• Attend one local event a month
• Ask for help from the community if you need it
GrowSmartBusiness.com
Questions ?
• Shashi Bellamkonda [email protected]• Twitter: @shashib• Raj Malik [email protected]• Twitter: @rkm2929• Small Business Success Index : http://www.GrowSmartBusiness.com• Network Solutions Blog : http://blog.networksolutions.com• Web Community Network : http://www.LinkTogether.com• Small Business Network : http://www.MySolutionSpot.com• Women Entrepreneurs : http://www.WomenGrowBusiness.com
• Personal Blogs: Technology & Social Media: http://www.shashi.name Digital Thoughts: http://readythoughts.blogspot.com Restaurant Reviews: http://www.carryoncurry.com