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Law firm social media policy : Inclusion is key in developing

A lot of discussion of late about social media policies for law firms.

I’ve been getting questions when speaking around the country, clients are raising the issue, a reporter from New York called last week to get my thoughts, and today LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell’s Alin Wagner-Lahmy announces Martindale Connected will kick off a week’s discussion on social media policy & guidelines for law firms.

No matter what your law firm does on a social media policy, the key to success is inclusion of all stakeholders. Associates, paralegals, managing partners, shareholders, partners, client development pro’s, PR people, knowledge officers, CTO’s, CMO’s, and who have you.

Deferring to marketing, communications, and your firm’s management executives who are charged with ‘protecting the firm’s brand’ to lead here can be a loser. These folks are often the least knowledgeable on the issue and are often guided by the mission ‘how do we clamp down?’

Turning it over to the young people or making them key players on a ‘social media committee’ is the height of folly. These guys are not seasoned client development rainmakers.

Just because associates who just graduated from law school can drink better and recover from a hangover faster than 53 year old guys like me does not mean they are best at client development at social/networking events attended by your clients, prospective clients and referral sources. Associates usually suck at these events. Despite having used Facebook and other social media/networking tools for years, the same is true in social media/social networking online.

Portland Attorney Craig Bachman shared what I thought was a great idea during Lane Powell’s Social Media Seminar I had the good fortune of presenting at. Inclusion is the key. Get everyone involved.

As is usually the case, success leaves clues. Craig saw what IBM did in adopting social computing guidelines covering Blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds and social media.

As explained in the intro to IBM Social Computing Guidelines, IBM used a wiki allowing everyone to participate.

In the spring of 2005, IBMers used a wiki to create a set of guidelines for all IBMers who wanted to blog. These guidelines aimed to provide helpful, practical advice—and also to protect both IBM bloggers and IBM itself, as the company sought to embrace the blogosphere. Since then, many new forms of social media have emerged. So we turned to IBMers again to re-examine our guidelines and determine what needed to be modified. The effort has broadened the scope of the existing guidelines to include all forms of social computing.

Getting everyone’s input is so important. Young people know the tools. Senior rainmakers know how to engage others and build relationships, both at the heart of real client development. Marketing knows the importance of a brand. And everyone has seen success and failures in social media they can share.

I’ve not seen tremendous success in law firm use of wiki’s. But in the case of formulating a social media policy a wiki like IBM used could be a real winner.

How else do you get everyone’s input in organizations employing hundreds and, in some cases, thousands? Committees and meetings are likely to be slow moving and could chill real input.

Allow everyone (I mean everyone) to contribute. Sure, kick it off with an outline framing the discussion. Every project needs a starting point. But allow all to participate.

I am not a fan of anonymity, but the peer and subordinate pressure in law firms may make it appropo here.

I see inclusion as absolutely critical here. How about you?