Better Twitter integration on LinkedIn

Thanks to John Jantsch of the indispensable, “Duct Tape Marketing,” I’ve added additional Twitter integration to my LinkedIn profile.  What is this?

• Creates “Tweets” tab so you can monitor people you are following right from LinkedIn
• Can integrate your Twitter posts onto your home page (Twitter is mostly my blog posts which I already stream into my LinkedIn page so I’m not doing this.)
• Now I don’t have to log in to Twitter much at all!

Here is the link to set up the one click integration.

Social networking: from paranoia to acceptance?

“The rise of social networking, like all innovations, follows a predictable pattern. There is the initial gee-whiz factor and the blank stares from most people when early adopters enthuse over the latest innovation.  Then there is broader adoption and the ensuing hype over how Twitter is a panacea.  Then a backlash develops based on exaggerated claims, ignorance and fear.  Finally, the technology becomes such a basic part of doing business that it no longer garners unusual attention.  Society by then is on to the next innovation.” Randy Wilson in the Spring 2010, Alameda County Bar Association, The Bulletin

For a long time we have been in the backlash stage of social networking acceptance.  Suddenly, organizations and employers saw the risks and dangers of social networking and failed to embrace its promise.  There were a spat of articles about the need for companies to adopt strict and even punitive social networking policies that were a laundry list of prohibitions.  That made no sense and would often be counterproductive to the business needs of organizations.  How can employees engage prospective customers if they were locked out of the using the tools (Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn) that many of their customers relied on most?

Now it appears that businesses are beginning to get that message and they are training their employees in how to best use these tools to reach out to their markets. And perhaps we are finally getting to the acceptance stage of social networking which will allow us all to freak out about some new technological advancement.  Oh goody!

Will social media force change on jury trials?

This is an intriguing idea but maybe the notion of jurors living in a complete blackout during trial is no longer practical in the age of social networking and maybe not even beneficial for justice.

Long, long ago, juries weren’t isolated from all information while deliberating but were kept free from conflicts of interest.  Now, that such isolation is increasingly impractical, maybe we should consider returning to a different notion of what constitutes a fair and impartial jury.

In-house counsel pay attention to lawyer blogs

According to this study, 43% of in-house counsel turn to blogs as a primary source for news (really?).  More importantly, 27% consider lawyer blogs important to their decision to hire outside counsel.

I’m always dubious of these kinds of studies but it makes sense particularly if the blog is related to the subject matter for which in-house counsel would consider hiring counsel.  To be fair, blogs ranked the lowest among the factors in-house counsel consider when hiring.  Bios on websites out-ranked blogs in importance.

Friday Freebies: uninstaller

“Cleanse Uninstaller Pro is the advanced uninstaller that finds and removes even the most stubborn software. Uninstall faster, easier and more completely than you do with other programs. No more problems with uninstalling!”

Link here:

Social networking tips for attorneys

The first three tips for attorneys making the leap into social networking are particularly useful in this list of five.  Being authentic, finding a comfortable medium and being consistent are key.  I chimed in on the discussion about ethics issues in the comments section.

Facebook and privacy – again!

This time it looks good for Facebook and privacy.  According to this screen-shot, courtesy The Atlantic.com, Facebook is simplifying it’s settings and making common sense recommendations.  More importantly, they are letting members prevent third party websites and applications for receiving personal data.

But before, I let Facebook off the hook, I want to hear from the Electronic Frontier Foundation which has been an excellent consumer watchdog on this issue.

More on social networking litigation

Earlier in the month I posted about how litigators need to ask their clients upfront about their social networking activities as this comes up increasingly in litigation.

Here is even more evidence of its importance.  In a  the recent court case where a person whose MySpace profile is, “Trigga FullyLoaded” was traced to a man arrested for 15 armed robberies and the man’s attorneys attempted to argue that there wasn’t conclusive evidence tracing the incriminating evidence posted to his “Trigga FullyLoaded” profile.  So far, a Court of Appeals court has found the admission of this evidence a harmless error and let the man’s conviction stand.

Additionally, all litigators need to vet their expert witness social networking activities as well as clients as this activity could be used to impeach a witness.

Training key to employers social media policies

According to this article, only 17% of employees believe they had a right to access personal email from their work computers but 50% admitted to using personal emails from their employers computers and 60% had sent work related spreadsheets and documents to their personal email which opens up considerable risk to their employer’s confidential information.

I’m glad to see the author, Katherine Parker, a partner at Proskauer Rose, mention training as key to insuring employee compliance with the employer’s electronic information policies.  But I think training is an even more important component than Ms. Parker suggests here.

Social networking use is inextricably linked to email.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc. all require that a user setup an email address to establish a profile.  If employees access these services sometimes for work and sometimes for personal reasons (including looking for a new job) what email address should an employee use for this service?

What is good for the employer is good for the employee.  This is a key message to employees.  If an employee runs afoul of the employer’s policies – complaining publicly about the employers, letting slip confidential information on Twitter, innocently but inappropriately sending confidential information to a personal email that gets intercepted by a third party, the employee is going to suffer consequences more extreme than the employer if this information gets back to the employer.

Training, training, training.  I come back to the initial statistics: employees know they don’t have rights to their personal email, profiles etc. at work but many don’t care and use the employers’ property anyway.  Only by properly educating employees as to why its important to the employer and for themselves to follow the rules, will compliance improve.  Also employees need to know best practices that allow them to do the things they need to do personally without running afoul of the rules.  This requires training.

Google likes websites with blogs

There is a debate whether to include your blog within your website or to set up with a separate URL.  Here is an article that makes a strong case for including your blog within your website.  Most of the argument in favor is based on the fact that with a typical small business website, you have ten to twenty pages of static content – much of it unchanged over time.  With a blog you can double that content within a few weeks and it is continually fresh content as well.

To be fair, the article doesn’t address whether it makes more sense to have a separate blog URL or not but it does suggest that the critical issue in terms of Google visibility, is having a blog for your business.