Social Media

Do Lawyers Need Social Media Training?

Rather than focus on social media training for lawyers, wouldn't it make more sense to for law firms and bar associations to encourage lawyers to use social media like the vast majority of Americans?

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Eighty percent of the people in this country are using social media. Nearly three-quarters of Americans use Facebook daily to receive news, share information, and engage each other.

All age groups use social media. Facebook is near ubiquitous for people 45 and younger. 63% of those age 55 to 64 and 56% of those 65 and older use Facebook.

Why is it that lawyers are not using social media in similar numbers? Lack of social media training and coaching? Not likely.

Americans did not sign up for courses to learn how to use Facebook and Twitter. They just started using them. People learned social media by following what others did, and through trial and error.

Ethics, client confidences, lack of time, and potential damage to reputation are the reasons I hear for lawyers not using social media. I hear lawyers need training to overcome these challenges.

But is training really needed? We spoke on the telephone (desk and cell), met people face to face, wrote articles, spoke at conferences, met with clients, and sat on committees — all with less training than we now expect lawyers to have for social media.

As lawyers, we followed what other lawyers did to network and build a name. We learned by following what others did. We did what we were encouraged to do.

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I am well aware of ethics, client confidences, and reputation issues. So are lawyers who are keenly aware of how to go avoid such problems.

Tens of thousands of lawyers are using social media for news, learning, networking, and reputation building. They did not take training to do so. They are not breaching confidences or violating ethical cannons.

Rather than focus on social media training for lawyers, wouldn’t it make more sense to for law firms and bar associations to encourage lawyers to use social media like the vast majority of Americans?

Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) is the CEO and founder ofLexBlog, which empowers lawyers to increase their visibility and accelerate business relationships online. With LexBlog’s help, legal professionals use their subject matter expertise to drive powerful business development through blogging and social media. VisitLexBlog.com.

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