Is clicking Like on Facebook Speech?

Posted by Jennifer – May 7, 2012

A judge in Virginia ruled that liking a page on Facebook is not speech. In the case, employees of a Sheriff “liked” the opposition’s Facebook page. When the Sheriff won the election, he fired 6 employees. We don’t know for a fact that the Sheriff fired the employees because they liked the page, so let’s put that aside for the moment.

At issue here is that the judge determined that the action of liking something on Facebook is not speech. I strongly disagree. When one clicks “like” on Facebook, one is making a decision and engaging in a specific action to show approval or for support for something.  After all, if simply choosing to wear a t-shirt with a specific slogan on it can be considered speech, and numerous cases have found it to be so, how can choosing to click like in front of the 850 million people on Facebook be any less of an action?

In addition, I would argue that liking a specific page on Facebook is a form of association. By clicking like; the user is choosing to show everyone on Facebook, publicly, that he or she has chosen to join a group, in this case, a group of people supporting a particular politician.

By the simple act of clicking like on a fan page, people are publicly showing that they stand for or against something. Sure, in many cases, that might be a specific flavor of ice cream, but it also includes supporting Romney or Obama, being for or against the issue of the day, or  associating with a particular religion. If these sorts of statements and associations are not protected under the first amendment, frankly, I’m not sure what would be.

Is there such a thing as too General (Practitioner?)

Posted by Jennifer – April 30, 2012

My colleague Matt Homann made an excellent point in his blog today. He wrote that clients, “don’t have general needs, they have specific ones;” and that those clients “want you to be great at solving their problem[s].”  Matt called this The General Practitioner’s Dilemma.

This is an issue I run into a lot when helping clients with branding. Many small firms or sole practitioners want to list every area of practice on their websites because they are afraid that if they don’t list an area they could lose a client. My response is and remains this very simple cliché, “Jack of all trades expert in none.” Normally I mess up the quote, but the lawyers always get the idea.

No one can possibly be an expert in every area of practice. Law is simply too complicated these days. And if you insist on putting every area of practice on your site, smart clients will assume you don’t really know what you are doing in the area for which they need assistance. In addition, you are just asking for a malpractice suit as you struggle to understand an area you don’t really know.

If you get the majority of your business from a couple areas of law, your website should focus on those areas. The reality is, except in very small counties with very few attorneys, no sole practitioner or very small firm is handling enough cases in ten or fifteen different areas to honestly say they practice in all of those areas.

Your website and marketing efforts should focus on the areas in which you and your firm truly practice. Build your client base in those areas instead of just hoping people will walk through the door in any area. If you focus your efforts, you will have plenty of income and won’t need that random, irrelevant case.

Keep in mind successful lawyers make efficient use of their time. Efficient use does not include spending time researching basic law or figuring out how to handle a brand new area. Unless, of course, you are a new attorney or are seeking to change the area(s) in which you practice.

Brand yourself as an attorney or firm who practices in the areas that you truly know and in which you actually receive clients. That way you can limit your marketing efforts, send the right message about yourself as an attorney who limits himself to specific areas, and seek out clients in the areas where you can be most efficient and effective in your representation.

Is that link safe? Find out before you click.

Posted by Jennifer – April 29, 2012

I appreciate link shorteners. They make it possible to share links on Twitter and easier to share links on other sites and in emails. But, unfortunately, link shorteners are also frequently used to hide spam or malware.

Fortunately, there are sites that I can use to check and see if a link is safe. Such tools won’t prevent me from seeing spam, but they do help prevent me from infecting my computer with malware.  These are the sites I use:

http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/ (for shortened links)
http://www.urlvoid.com/ (for non-shortened links)

I also use https://www.virustotal.com/ (good for files and links)

Simply paste the link into the appropriate spot on the page. Remember not to open the link in your efforts to paste it into one of the above tools. Here are the steps:

Right click on the link
Click on copy link location
Go to the site where you want to paste the link
Right click on the spot to paste it
Click paste

 

 

 

 

Law students (and job seekers) don’t be afraid of social media. Use it to network your way to a job.

Posted by Jennifer – April 24, 2012

I recently served as a guest speaker for Jaclyn Belczyk’s law school class, “Lawyering in Real Time” at Pitt. My focus was the use of social media. Jaclyn left it up to me to decide what aspects of social media I wanted to address. At first I thought I would use my typical lecture on both legal and ethical issues in social media. But as I thought about it, I realized a better use of my time would be to talk about how law students should, and should not use social media as part of looking for a job.

The market is rough right now, I didn’t need to tell the students that, and they were clearly interested in the concept of using social media to help them find a job. At one point they seemed a bit quiet and downcast, at least as far as I could tell. (I was teaching via Skype.) And so I asked Jaclyn, “what’s up?” She responded, “they were afraid you would tell them not to use social media.” I said, “oh no, quite the contrary.”

In the past the common wisdom was to shut down your Facebook account so no one could see it during a job search. I’m not sure if this is the right advice any more. Sure, if you have posted embarrassing stuff, then you will want to close your account down, or at least make it very private. But to my mind, you are better off turning your social media presence into a place where you can tell the story of who you are; what interests you, and what you can bring to the table as a new lawyer/employee.

Responding to ads and sending out resumes is a way to find a job, absolutely. But a better and less frustrating way to find a job is to use your connections to network your way to an interview. Social media expands your network and might well give you access to people you never would have had a chance to talk to in the normal course of life.

LinkedIn is a valuable business site. Every law student should fill out a completed and detailed LinkedIn profile. But a robust Facebook account with a lot of friends, showing your ability to network; your wisdom in what you do (and do not post,) as well as your interests, and information about your life in general could impress the right person to get you in for an interview. In addition, the fact that you are conversant in the use of social media is a selling point in and of itself.

Don’t be afraid to use social media to network your way to a job. Take advantage of the power of the tools before you. Anything that can help you stand out in this difficult market is something worth spending time on. Just make sure that what you post reflects well on you. And remove any past items that show you in a bad or inappropriate light.

The Positive Impact of a Social Media Presence

Posted by Jennifer – April 23, 2012

Every year the Legal Intelligencer presents a supplement on Women in the Profession. This year I am honored to have an article included in the supplement. My focus? Social Media.

Read the full article online http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202549531281