Jeff Pulver is hosting a 140 conference meetup in New York City on January 19, 2010 that I will be attending. Here are the details:

I have a friend who is an accountant at a small firm. Lets call him Cliff.  Cliff greets everyone with a compliment and is an ace accountant.  Cliff surfs the internet at work.  Cliff was recently on Twitter,  looking for people to follow.  He becomes Twitter “friends” with Samantha, an accountant at Hobes and Hobes, a rival firm.  From the looks of Samantha’s avatar, she is attractive.

Samantha asks Cliff to meet him at a bar after work. After a few dirty martinis, Cliff tells Samantha that his accounting firm is about to land Giggle, a big, funny internet company. Samantha buys the next round and that was the last thing he remembers.  He wakes up the next morning and finds out that Hobes and Hobes has landed the Giggle account.

Does your company block access to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin because you are afraid of employees like Cliff? Is the work environment at your workplace hostile to employees who blog? If so, your company is part of the majority of organizations that have a restrictive social networking policy.

While a strict social networking policy is a simple way of limiting legal liability, do you really think that your company can compete in a 24 hour a day workplace with outdated policies? Probably not.  If your company is  struggling with how to integrate social media into the workplace, one way to focus is by creating a social media policy with an eye toward collaboration.

The Harvard Business Review observes that businesses are discovering that an über-connected work environment is not just about implementing a new set of tools — it is also about embracing a cultural shift to create an open environment where employees are encouraged to share, innovate and collaborate virtually.   Some benefits of a hyper-social company include:

• Access to social media improves productivity;
• Millennials will seek jobs that encourage the use of social media;
• Companies that provide access to social media create a more engaged workforce.

After creating your hyper-social networking policy, it is then vital to address its legal implications, which I addressed previously in Legal Reasons Why Your Company Should Have a Social Networking Policy.

CONCLUSION

Employees are online whether you like it or not.  By simply banning the use of social networking sites on company computers, your employees will simply use smartphones to stay connected. By thinking expansively about social media, more specifically about using it for increased productivity and collaboration, there is great opportunity for growth.  Have your ideas written in the form of a social media policy, which will put your employees on notice of any potential legal problems. By the way, Cliff is not real. But he could be and you can be responsible for Cliff’s actions without a written social networking policy.

Social Media is quickly transforming how people are communicating with each other.  It should come as no surprise that employees are now looking to connect with their bosses on Facebook.

The New York Law Journal (under a pay wall) reports today that the innocuous friend request is really a Trojan horse which contains the hidden danger of litigation.  Should bosses accept Facebook ”Friend” requests from an employee? I think they should, with certain caveats.

The article cites Michael Schmidt, Esq. of Cozan O’Conner, who argues

“a manager is bound to learn things about an employee that they don’t already know… when the manager learns of some personal attribute through the site, the worker now has the opportunity to argue that any later adverse employment decision was based on this personal information.”

Here are some other potential issues:

• The employer views the profile of an employee and notices that the employee has different religious or political view. This may influence the employer or manager when it comes to time to make a promotion.
• If an employee makes defamatory remarks against an employee or the company, the employer would then have the duty to investigate the incident.

Shanti Atkins, an attorney and President of ELT. Inc thinks that employers should simply ban employees from accepting “friend requests.”

I think that Ms. Atkins approach is naive and could be business suicide.  Chris Brogan, speaking in New York last week at the Trust Summit, argued that companies need to listen, collaborate and learn to survive.  Companies cannot collaborate with their employees without engaging with them in social media.  Moreover, if an employee or employee is doing something improper, such as writing something racist, wouldn’t it be wise to investigate it immediately rather than ignore it?

I agree that there is a risk for potential litigation as people are moving to communicating in written form that is public.  There is a paper trail that can be used against anyone for a number of reasons, including litigation.

What companies need to do is have a social media policy drafted that spells out the specifics of what everyone can do when they engage on social networking sites.  This new area of transparency creates legal issues. How your company deals with transparency may be the deciding factor of whether it can compete in this new world.

What do you think?

Social Media is an ongoing experiment.  Both people and companies are using this new tool to connect with people that they have never met in person.  The main goal of all of this activity is to generate new business.  The million dollar question is how to convert your Twitter followers and Facebook friends into paying customers.

The answer, according to members of the panel convened on October 23, 2009, at the Trust Summit, is to build trust. In front of a packed room of tweeps at the Harvard Club in NYC, social media rockstars Chris Brogan, Julien Smith, David Maister and Charles H. Green, discussed the issue of trust and how it relates to social networking.

According to Chris Brogan, the relationship economy will move the future. The goal of using social media is to create sustainable relationships over time.

In his book Trust Agents, Chris explains that on the web, groups of highly motivated people within every circle have already joined together, helping each other reach a higher ground. I asked Chris, through Twitter,  how professional service businesses (ie law) can harness this group to become clients. I am skeptical that lawyers and other service businesses can use social media to achieve this goal. Chris responded that you need to be a priest and build a church. What he means is that you should use social media to be part of multiple groups that will help your access each group.  Your goal is to be in the center and be the priest.

The trust paradigm is not new. Charles H. Green lectured that you shouldn’t view business through the lens of competition.  The purpose of companies is to serve society.  He argued that competitors should work together to serve the public.  Cooperation between competitors serves everyone interests.

David Sax, writing in Save the Deli observed this spirit of cooperation in the thriving Los Angeles Jewish Deli scene.  Throughout the country, Jewish Delicatessen is an institution that is in decline.  The pastrami is expensive and people are worried about the impact of schmaltz on their cholesterol.  But in LA, the Jewish Deli is thriving because deli owners cooperate.  If Nate N’ Al’s is out of stuffed derma, they call over to Greenblatt’s  for help.   You should do the same when using social media.

As Julien Smith eloquently put it:  “Social media is still an experiment. Be curious of other people when using social media. Only by risking can we create greater things for everyone.”

There is no question that the Internet has changed the way companies hire people.  Currently 45 percent of employers use social networking sites and conduct online searches to screen applicants.  If you are a job applicant, that means that your potential employer is reading you Twitter feed and analyzing your blog posts. 

While it is not illegal for an employer to to search a candidate’s social networking profiles, there are risks. In an article written by Jeffrey S. Kein and Nicholas J. Pappas for the New York Law Journal, they highlight a number of legal issues arising out of employees’ use of social networks. They list Anti-Discrimination Laws, Legal Activities Laws, National Labor Relations Act, Terms of Service Violations, Privacy Implications and Business Considerations. I will briefly discuss the the legal implications of Anti-Discrimination Laws.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS

By simply viewing a candidates social networking profile, certain information can be gleaned that can be a basis for a claim under discrimination laws. For example,  if an employer views the LinkedIn profile of a candidate and the employer decides not to hire the candidate or take action within a short time because the candidate lists that she is handicapped, the employer could be held liable.  The mere fact that the employer viewed her social networking site can be used as circumstantial evidence of discrimination.

Under New York Law, an employer must use the same standards when deciding who to fire.  The authors cite an Simonetti v. Delta Airlines, where Delta decided to fire a female employee because she posted revealing photographs online. She argued that she was being discriminated against because other male flight attendants also posted similar content and were not fired.

Article of the Week:

10% of Twitter users account for 90% of tweets: http://tr.im/n54w

The latest Law Reads:

@Turkewitz Did Sotomayor Violate NY Ethics Rules in Private Solo Practice with “& Associates” Name? http://bit.ly/eF4jU

@VBalasubramani blogged: “Tony La Russa’s Legal Claims Against Twitter Look Tenuous” http://bit.ly/eDcSe

Social networks increasingly leading to questionable firings http://twurl.nl/w1kyhn

Facebook Friend Earns Judge a Reprimand http://bit.ly/3XUE7a

Small Businesses Take Tentative Steps Toward Online Networking http://bit.ly/2KVVF (via NYT)

6 tips for landing big customers http://bit.ly/fvJsr

@jowyang In the age of Twitter, blog posts start to matter more and more, see this wraup of #TWTRCON http://bit.ly/XKLyA

Google giving small businesses local search data http://bit.ly/yF09I

10 Ways Twitter Will Change Business: http://twurl.nl/7310i5

The Twitter Marketing Debate:

Larry Bodine: Twitter Not Effective for Law Firm Marketing

@barrettdavid: Is Twitter “Effective” for Lawyer Marketing? The “Bodine Debate” – http://twurl.nl/zxg53t

@glambert “Legal Marketing, Statistics and Hard Work” – http://is.gd/N9kT

@nikiblack “Legal Tweets: Kevin O’Keefe on social media for lawyers at the “Get a Life” conference” ( http://bit.ly/RYohc )

@lancegodard My take on esq & twitter hasn’t changed http://bit.ly/17cI6s but ways they use it have: http://snurl.com/j1tea via @jdtwitt

Your employees are probably participating in social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. But what are your workers doing on Facebook while on the clock? Are they networking or are they sharing their 5 favorite beers? On the one hand, you want to trust your employees and make them feel like they have autonomy to perform their work duties. On the other hand, you are paying them to work and you want them to present themselves professionally.

Recently, staffers of The Wall Street Journal were provided a compiled list of rules for “professional conduct” which regulates online behavior. Should your company follow the lead of the Wall Street Journal and draft a written social networking policy advising what your employees can post while working at the office? If you would like to limit potential company liability to lawsuits, the answer is yes. Here are 5 reasons why:

1. A written social networking policy may shield your Company from defamation lawsuits. What happens if your employee starts posting on Facebook untrue statements about a competitor? Without a written social networking policy, your Company could be sued for defamation.

2. Potential disclosure of Company proprietary information. Let’s say that your business has created the next killer app that will be ready to launch in 3 months. By having a non-disclosure section written into your social networking policy, your employee would be on notice and could be held liable for posting on LinkedIn such information.

3. Your business’s social networking use policy should encourage positive and constructive use of the social networking sites, as well as to prevent the use of such sites for personal or inappropriate reasons. You could be held liable for anything that your employees say of a personal nature on social networking sites.

4. Potential use in litigation. Information disseminated by your employees on social networking sites can be uncovered by a potential adversary and used against your company in litigation. Therefore, you should be clear about the type of topics that can be discussed on social networking sites.

5. Intellectual Property. Trademark and Copyright laws extend to what your post on social networking sites. Your social networking policy should make clear that your employees should refrain from posting trademarked or copyrighted material while representing the company.
So, your Company should regulate social networking use in a more expanded way than the way you regulate other Internet use. By being upfront about the potential problems of social networking, you could help both you and your employees successfully utilize this tool and avoid unwanted lawsuits.

Further Resource:

Online database of social networking policies.

Contact the Law Office of Frederic R. Abramson at 212-233-0666 for more information about social networking policies.

Twitter has only been around for a few years.  As a business owner, you are probably wondering how to use the service to grow your local business. Here are a few ideas:

1.  Follow as many people in your target market as possible.  If you are searching for Internet marketers, twitter is a gold mind. However, if you are looking for business owners in the construction industry, your task will be more difficult.  I would suggest using  Twellow, a twitter yellow pages which categorizes tweeters by industry and location.  Another option is using  Google advanced search.

2.  Create a Twitter tribe.  Seth Godin has been spending the last year pushing his idea of the importance of Tribes. If you can create  a Tribe of 1000 local Twitters who eagerly anticipate your every Tweet, I guarantee that you will obtain new customers.

3.  Follow mavens on Twitter. If you don’t know what a maven is, read the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.  On that note, read anything that Malcolm Gladwell publishes.

4.  Never eat lunch alone.  Invite one Twitter follower a day to lunch.

5.  Invite your favorite Twitter followers to join you on other social networks, such as Facebook and Linkedin.

6. Tweet information in your field that demonstrates that you are a leader in your industry.  If you own a restaurant, link to articles about Thomas Keller.

7. Create amazing content on your blog. Use Twitter to drive traffic to disseminate your produce and your ideas.

8.  Create a Tweetup.  It is simply not enough to sit around the computer or iPhone all day and tweet. You need to actually meet your followers in the flesh.

9.  If you live in New York, go to a Mashable event.  People who tweet love Mashable.

10.  Invite your Twitter followers to work from your office.

11.  Provide exclusive offers to your followers on Twitter.  Follow Dell.

12.  Be real.

13.  Don’t push your products all day.

14.  Be curious and engage your followers.

15.  Be funny.  Considering the space constraints, this is extremely difficult.

16.  Be memorable.

17.  Have fun!

Please be advised that I am a New York business law attorney and I am not one of those self-proclaimed Twitter gurus.  Feel free to share your riffs on how to use Twitter to build your local business in the comment section of this blog. I would love to hear from you.  If you are in the New York area, lets have lunch!

The Cutting Edge of Law

• Are Chinese drywall cases the latest product liability gold mine for lawyers? @danharris in his post Chinese Drywall Cases- Show me the Money! argues that it will be difficult to collect any money against any of the defendants because the responsible parties are located in Germany and China.

• As part of the Stimulus package, funds have been allocated to expand and improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure.  Some law firms have set up practice groups advising companies how to prepare a successful grant application.  Will broadband deliver for law firms?

• One legal area that is seeing growth is Trust and Estate’s law. Read this post to find out why.

Twittter Tips

• Building a personal brand is absolutely vital for attorneys because it is so hard to tell the difference between one law firm and another.  Read this tip: Personal Brand, How to Build Yours on Twitter. One great idea from the post is to go out and meet the people that you tweet with.  I certainly need to do this more.

• Twitter has grabbed the world’s attention, but it can do as much harm as good.  Discover magazine lists its Twitter’s Greatest Hits and Misses.  One miss, the Courtney Love slander lawsuit.

Attorney Marketing:

• Professor Richard Susskind is the Seth Godin of lawyer marketing.  His recent keynote speech at the recent ABA Tech Show was probably the most tweeted legal event in Twitter history.  Follow this link to hear for yourself what all the buzz was about.

• With the economy still flat, lawyers are on the lookout for cheap marketing ideas.  Dave Larenzo’s article Five Low Cost Ways to Attract More Clients to Your Small Firm provides some timeless advice.

• Lawyers who fail to promptly return phone calls can be the source of great frustration to the person who left the message — and the professional responsible for attorney marketing. But what can be done to stop this problem? Trey Ryder takles this problem in his article How to Prevent Problems with Returned Phone Calls.

• Lawyerpreneurs – looking to post on JD Supra? Here is an article on what to post.
  

@fredabramson

Frederic Abramson

New York Civil Litigaton Attorney

Author of Frederic R Abramson’s New York Law Blog

Today, we’re tweeting with business lawyer @FredAbramson, a trial attorney based in New York City and author of a business law blog

1. @FredAbramson, thank you for joining us today on Twitter. Tell us: who is the person behind @fredabramson?
   I am a dad, a foodie, a huge reader, music fan that is passionate about business.
2. Tell us about your law practice.
   I am a New York business law attorney. My practice entails litigating cases and drafting legal documents.
3. What type of clients do you represent?
   I represent entrepreneurs, business owners, consultants and individuals. Many of my clients are in tech.
4. What’s the most important legal issue affecting those clients?
   Every business has its own issues. Some don’t have proper contracts. Others have problems getting paid. Its varied.
5. What do you tell every new client before you start working for them?
   I will give them a detailed plan of how their case will proceed. All correspondences will be answered w/in 2 hours.
6. How is the economic crisis affecting your clients?
   Entrepreneurs and small biz owners are having a difficult time raising funds. Credit has dried up for many.
7. What’s the most significant client representation you’ve had?
   Representing a hedge fund that invested in a complicated startup venture.
8. Why was it significant?
   There were many parties involved, the product was unique, complex ip issues, and significant sums of $ were on the line.
9. Significant sums have a way of raising the stakes…. Why do your clients hire you?
   Reputation. I am experienced, tech savvy, innovative, accessible and diplomatic. I could also be a bulldog if need be.
10. That’s a pretty good calling card. How do you sell your practice?
    Referrals, social and in person networking, e-newsletter, community involvement, Google adwords and friends
11. How much time do you spend each day developing / enhancing your brand?
    newsletter: 2hrs/wk, networking events 1 eventwk, blog: 2hrs/wk and tweet all the time for fun.
12. You publish the “New York Business Law Blog” How would you describe it? Why do you write it?
    I write about legal issues facing businesses, highlight what is newsworthy for biz owners and provide Twitter tips for esq.
13. What benefits have you realized in blogging?
    as per @kevinokeefe blogs work together with Twitter. Tweet a link to your blog + write a detailed post. Long form tweet
14. What value have you seen as a result of being on Twitter then?
    I have been able to connect with some fascinating people, share information, help others and have learned quite a bit
15. Beyond Twitter and your blog, what other social networking tools do you regularly use?
    I use facebook and linkedin. FB has been more usefull bc 95% of my connections are friends, family and reconnections
    only 5 of my facebook friends are on Twitter and none use it extensively. Totally different audience.
16. That’s interesting re FB. What do you see as the most significant issue currently facing the legal profession?
    Law firms, both big and small are downsizing due to the economy. Lawyers need to be creative to thrive and survive.
17. What will the legal landscape look like in 10 years?
    Law firms may shed the overhead of the office due to tech advances. Lawyers using social media to create virtual law firms
18. What would you do if you weren’t a lawyer?
    I would be an entrepreneur/chef/musician/artist.
19. A fairly unique job title, I’d have to say…. How do you want to be remembered?
    as someone who helped others, made people laugh, made them smarter and made a difference.
20. I have an inkling of what your answer will be, but I’ll ask anyway. What do you do when you’re not working?
    I tweet! Family time with wife and 2kids, cook, read, explore NYC, run, watch sports, spend time with friends
21. Sounds like you maintain a full schedule. What languages do you speak?
    I speak English and Twitter. 6 yrs of spanish classes didn’t help. I can read the 4 questions in Hebrew and culinary terms.
22. Our last question for you: what advice do you have for people going to law school today?
    Lawyers don’t just practice law. Your value increases if u can bring in cases. Rainmaking is not taught in law school.

Sound advice. Thank you so much for tweeting with 22 Tweets and answering our questions today

thank you for tweeting with me! Great idea Lance.