Being Sued is Not #1. A Lawyer's Tale of Social Media Worries and Business.

I just finished describing my social media story in an article the Denver Bar Association asked me to write. If lawyers can learn something from my story, then maybe this adapted version might be helpful to you and your business.

Two years ago my social media bio consisted of a poorly-utilized LinkedIn account and an announced aversion to the very idea of “friending” business and community connections. Today, I’m 4100+ tweets into Twitter. I have Facebook friends that are my friends, but many more who share my interests in business and community. I have this blog and a spot on Huffington Post as well as guest posts in other blogs. And I have an under-utilized LinkedIn account.

The intersection of social media and the law has even become part of my legal practice. My seminars on the subject are always well-attended (if only the same was true for my more traditional topics). While there are some serious legal issues to keep in mind (and post on here at a later date), in the real world harm to your business is much, much more likely from the mundane pitfalls of looking stupid and wasting your time.

For most businesses, B2B or B2C, profit or nonprofit, branding—making yourself more attractive and memorable— and networking on an unprecedented scale are two primary reasons for using social media. The good and bad of any branding effort or in-person networking event applies to your social media as well, only multiplied by a factor that is always bigger for the bad than the good, and it’s forever. The offhand remark you might regret making at a cocktail party gets passed around and around in social media and saved on servers across the globe.

Reduce the risk of a dumb post going viral by setting your social media goals up front and applying those goals in every tweet, Facebook comment and their kin. Goals will also reduce the time you will waste. Wasted time is inevitable; staying on goal limits the huge time traps inherent in the games, quizzes and videos that will stream by you. I use the blocking/filter/list features found in most social media to segregate or eliminate the time-wasters.

Another sure way to waste your time is making your social media all about you and your great business. The “social” in social media means you should be sharing useful information (which is not limited to promoting your latest blog post) and by engaging in conversations that relate to your goals.

Not to mean that your social media should be all business, either. I reminded the lawyers that clients don’t hire lawyers, people hire people; that same may be true in your business. If so, don’t be afraid to show a little of your personal life, but not too much about your kids or your vacations, please. Something on your hobbies or activities is good (several of my connections are road cyclists, and now they know I am, too). If you or your business is active in charitable or community efforts, tell us about it and why that activity is important, and don’t forget to “tag” the charity (in Facebook include “@” before the name) so your comments can be seen by others who support it, too.

Your social media should have a style reflective of your personality, or at least the part of it you use when you talk with clients. Will your intended audience be engaged by posts written like a press release? Probably not. No Funny Lawyers was started on not much more than the whim that if I could bottle the non-technical and sometimes funny (or at least attempted) explanations of business law I give my clients, then maybe some other business owners might find enough value in them to pick up the phone.

A word of advice on blogs. There are a bazillion blogs, but few are on topics and updated regularly enough to be relevant to your potential clients (and the search engines they will use to find you). Be intentional in your decision to blog: pick a subject, a voice, and an audience, and make a commitment to set aside the hours it will take to post good content regularly. Then take some time to learn at least the basics of SEO (search engine optimization), or talk to an SEO consultant, so that your good content can be found.

If you don’t want to leap as far as a blog, following most of the guidelines I’ve touched on will make your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, or Twitter feed something like a blog and, thus, valuable to those interested in the business concerns that matter to you. By sharing and showing, not telling, your knowledge and dedication to your business and your customers, you will be an engaged and valuable member of the business social media community.