Social Networking for the Legal Profession

Number of Pages: 159

Managing Partner and KIM Legal's new report Social Networking for Lawyers provides best practice examples, and clear strategies for adopting and exploiting social networking for business, both internally for operations and communication, and externally as part of your marketing and business development efforts. The report takes into account the risk issues surrounding the use of social networking in a legal context and explains the challenges you must overcome to make implementation of a social networking strategy a success. There has been a great deal of interest in social network-based technologies among law firms in recent years, but relatively few of them have been able to adopt these new tools in a meaningful way. Now, with the advent of the global recession and increased competition, more firms are looking to social technologies for innovation, cost savings, and value enhancement. This report will explore the networking practices and social tools that are currently being adopted by individuals and firms, and provide you with practical guidance for getting started with an online social networking strategy, including: What do we mean by social networking in a legal context? Using online social networks for recruitment, value-added legal services, thought leadership and reputation management; Using networks across the firm to improve experience location, knowledge sharing, current awareness and internal communications; The role of social networks in improving both personal and network productivity, decision making, collective intelligence and relationship building; Challenges to establishing and participating in online social networks; How to evaluate and select social networking tools, and assimilate them in to your professional and personal life in ways that suit and make sense to you; Policy and governance issues around social networking adoption; A survey of personal, professional and lawyer-to-lawyer social network sites, including the best sites for lawyers and what they have to offer; How social tools support social networking within the firm, including blogs, wikis, presence sharing, social bookmarking and tagging; RSS, social newsreading and syndication; and, Future social networking trends and their impact on the legal profession. The guidance and expertise provided within the report is supported by case studies and interviews with legal professionals offering practical advice and insight into social networking and the use of social tools.