Gina Rubel Contributes to JD Supra Legal Blog

Our friends at JD Supra reached out to a collection of legal professionals to pull together a year-end blog post around two questions:


1. What surprised you in 2010?
2. What should lawyers expect to see in the new year?


Gina Rubel, Esq. President/CEO of Furia Rubel Communications weighed in with her thoughts below.

1. I still find it surprising that many law firms in the U.S. are either 1) blocking social media and/or 2) do not have social media policies in place. In the age of digital communications, it is important for law firms to understand how to harness the power of social media for networking, business development, public relations and marketing while still understanding the ethical and legal implications. Social media impacts the practice of law, legal matters and litigation at almost every level. From employment matters to communicating with witnesses,
 and discovery to juries, providing the proper rules and tools for lawyers will make their social media experiences more fruitful.

2. I predict that social media is going to continue to play a substantial role in how law firms conduct business. Law firms will more readily adopt social media policies for their firms, will educate clients on how to use and not use social media, be more proactive in monitoring the use of social media by their staff and clients, and engage in the online dialogue that dramatically affects their marketing and public relations efforts.

JD Supra and LinkedIn Launch 'Legal Updates' to Create World's Largest Legal Content Distribution Network

Congratulations to our friends at JD Supra. Today they announced that LinkedIn, the premiere social networking platform used by more than 70 million professionals, has added JD Supra's Legal Updates (http://bit.ly/c8JRjh) to its exclusive list of (now) sixteen Intelligent Applications (InApps), which also include Reading List by Amazon and Presentation by Google.

Powered by JD Supra content-articles and analysis published by legal professionals around the world-Legal Updates distributes a feed of expert commentary and guidance as well as legal news tailored to the professional interests of LinkedIn members. Currently, Legal Updates is the only application for distribution of professional legal content and information available on LinkedIn. It is free to LinkedIn members and available immediately.

The Legal Updates app will be the subject of an online demonstration led by JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler, on July 22, 2010, at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT. Ms. Cuyler and co-founder Adrian Lurssen will demonstrate the application's more powerful features, including customized legal feeds on LinkedIn and the ability for users to recommend JD Supra documents to their LinkedIn contacts as well as sync their JD Supra and LinkedIn profiles.

For webinar registration, go to: http://bit.ly/9NOeuL.

The benefits of JD Supra's Legal Updates Application on LinkedIn include:

- JD Supra's Legal Updates application empowers legal professionals to communicate their expertise not only to their own list of LinkedIn contacts but beyond to LinkedIn's entire network of 70 million professionals across a range of fields, including Insurance, Banking, Tech, Real Estate, HR, and more.

-With JD Supra's Legal Updates application, LinkedIn's 70 million members can receive custom-tailored, fully editable content feeds based on their industry and areas of interest. Real estate professionals get updates on real estate law; HR professionals get updates on HR law, etc.

-The JD Supra application provides a compelling reason for lawyers to join LinkedIn, and for those who are already members, a reason to more actively use LinkedIn.

-JD Supra Legal Updates provides the only searchable repository of professional legal analysis and information on LinkedIn.

The features of JD Supra's Legal Updates Application on LinkedIn include:

-Prominence: JD Supra articles are uploaded directly on LinkedIn and delivered straight to members' homepages.

-Custom feeds: With Legal Updates, JD Supra can deliver custom-tailored, fully editable content feeds to any of LinkedIn's nearly 70 million members based on their industry and areas of interest: real estate professions receive real estate articles; HR professionals receive HR articles, etc.

-Managed feeds: Users can subscribe to feeds in over 50 different subject areas and/or subscribe to feeds from individual JD Supra authors.

-Web 2.0 sharing: Legal Updates users can instantly recommend and share JD Supra articles with colleagues on LinkedIn.

-Library building: Users can mark articles as "favorites" and build a library of helpful reference articles over time.

-Information sharing: Legal Updates allows other LinkedIn members to see which articles you have recently read, shared, made favorite, and uploaded.

-Browsing/Searching: Users can perform a text search or browse the full JD Supra library of documents in all subject areas from within LinkedIn.

-Enhanced profiles: JD Supra members can sync their JD Supra and LinkedIn accounts, automatically adding their JD Supra articles to their LinkedIn profiles.

-Connection: JD Supra articles contain one-click access to any author's full portfolio of JD Supra content.

-Network expansion: Each article comes with a button allowing the reader to add the author to his/her network.

For more in-depth user case studies, bios, and training resources, visit http://bit.ly/dtBW1u

Twitter stream for Rubel's Presentation to Legal Marketing Assoc. Metro. Philadelphia Social Media for PR

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to present Leveraging Social Media for PR at the Legal Marketing Association Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter. Before the program, I created a Hashtag on Twitter #LMAPHL (which I hope the chapter will continue to use) and pre-scheduled tweets of what I was going to say using HootSuite.com. I shared this with the group at the beginning of the program too.

Today, I went on wthashtag.com to capture the Twitter stream and share it with our readers (thanks to the help of @tjeong who set it up for me at http://bit.ly/cJTVNO. Although there is often redundance because people re-tweet what has been said, wthashtag captures the transcript and converts it to chronological order which makes it much easier to read.

Here is what the dashboard looks like on wthashtag.com for #LMAPHL:

I have also copied and pasted the transcript below for your convenience.

wthashtag.com/lmaphl

Transcript from April 15, 2010 to April 16, 2010: All times are Pacific Time

April 15, 2010

3:50 pm GinaRubel: Today I'm presenting Leveraging Social Media for PR to the Legal Marketing Association Metro Phila Chapter #LMA will be tweeting at #LMAPHL

4:05 pm GinaRubel: Social media benefits for Lawyers = biz dev, referral source relations, community relations, crisis mgt, info and event sharing #LMAPHL

4:10 pm GinaRubel: Social media benefits for Lawyers = internal communications, issue advocacy, marketing, PR and media relations #LMAPHL #LMA

4:15 pm GinaRubel: Lawyers should blog b/c it's authoritative, great for SEO, should be niched, supports law firm marketing strategies #LMA #LMAPHL

4:15 pm GinaRubel: Social media benefits for Lawyers = network building, reputation mgt, thought leadership, client advocacy, litigation mgt #LMAPHL #LMA

4:18 pm CRMSuccess: About to hear @GinaRubel speak to #LMAPHL about social networking and PR.

4:20 pm GinaRubel: Lawyers PR strategy for LinkedIn should be to create content then share then engage #LMAPHL #LMA

4:20 pm GinaRubel: Blogging support PR and marketing for lawyers through exposure, thought leadership, SEO, brand reinforcement, rep mgt #LMAPHL #LMA

4:20 pm GinaRubel: RT @CRMSuccess: About to hear @GinaRubel speak to #LMAPHL about social networking and PR.

4:22 pm aleiter: RT @GinaRubel: Lawyers PR strategy for LinkedIn should be to create content then share then engage #LMAPHL #LMA

4:25 pm GinaRubel: Lawyers should engage carefully on Facebook b/c of inherent litigation issues although great biz dev tool #LMAPHL #LMA

4:25 pm GinaRubel: Lawyers and law firms should ALL have profiles on LinkedIn which should fit w/i firm social media policy, support brand #LMAPHL #LMA

4:30 pm GinaRubel: Watch out for litigation issues = jurors use of social media, witnesses friending attorneys, parties sharing case info #LMAPHL #LMA

4:35 pm GinaRubel: Twitter is a great tool to leverage PR for legal marketers / lawyers #LMAPHL #LMA

4:40 pm GinaRubel: Great social media tools include HootSuite, OneForty, TweetBeep, iGoogle, Google Alerts, Feedburner, HelloTxt #LMAPHL #LMA

4:41 pm LindsayGriffith: RT @GinaRubel: Social media benefits for Lawyers = internal communications, issue advocacy, marketing, PR and media relations #LMAPHL #LMA

4:41 pm LindsayGriffith: YES RT @GinaRubel: Lawyers PR strategy for LinkedIn should be to create content then share then engage #LMAPHL #LMA

4:41 pm LindsayGriffith: RT @GinaRubel: Lawyers should engage carefully on Facebook b/c of inherent litigation issues although great biz dev tool #LMAPHL #LMA

4:44 pm johnmbyrne: Listening to @GinaRubel present to #LMAPHL on social media for law firm PR. Good stuff!

4:45 pm GinaRubel: Twitter strategy for PR & Mkt should be to follow then listen then create content then engage in conversation #LMAPHL #LMA

4:50 pm GinaRubel: Target law firm audiences on Twitter = biz and community leaders, media, clients & prospects, colleagues (con't) #LMAPHL #LMA

4:50 pm GinaRubel: Target law firm audiences on Twitter =competition, family, friends, gov't officials, judges, industry experts, referral sources #LMAPHL #LMA

4:53 pm CRMSuccess: Lead by example. Use the tools. @GinaRubel #LMAPHL

4:53 pm alinwagnerlahmy: RT @GinaRubel: Social media benefits for Lawyers = internal communications, issue advocacy, marketing, PR and media relations #LMAPHL #LMA

4:55 pm GinaRubel: Great social media, marketing, PR and biz dev tool for lawyers / law firms = JD Supra #LMAPHL #LMA

4:55 pm CRMSuccess: Your audiences don't want to listen to 'all about you' - make it about them. @GinaRubel #LMAPHL

5:00 pm GinaRubel: Lawyers need to leverage video content - YouTube + SEO when done right - strategy create good content, post and share #LMAPHL #LMA

5:20 pm LindsayGriffith: RT @GinaRubel: Great social media, marketing, PR and biz dev tool for lawyers / law firms = JD Supra #LMAPHL #LMA

5:23 pm nancymyrland: Gina = Smart! RT @johnmbyrne: Listening to @GinaRubel present to #LMAPHL on social media for law firm PR. Good stuff!

5:23 pm CRMSuccess: You can't do it all. Pick a few social media tools and use them well. @GinaRubel #LMAPHL

8:27 pm JDSupra: thx! RT @LindsayGriffith: RT @GinaRubel: Great social media, marketing, PR and biz dev tool for lawyers / law firms = JD Supra #LMAPHL #LMA

8:30 pm legalisi @GinaRubel did a fine job at the LMA luncheon today. Lots of interesting ideas and tips for SM in legal marketing. #LMAPHL

April 16, 2010

1:09 am gaillamarche: RT @GinaRubel: Twitter strategy for PR & Mkt should be to follow then listen then create content then engage in conversation #LMAPHL #LMA