Has Social Media Become a Professional Necessity?

It's easy to think of online social communication as a frivolous part of our personal lives. Mention blogs, and people's thoughts quickly race to amateurish personal websites devoted to family photos, hobbies or pets. In reality, there's a whole dimension of professional interaction happening now on the Internet and as professionals, it's up to us to take advantage of these opportunities or risk getting left behind.

More and more, professionals are using social media in their work lives to stay in touch with colleagues, hunt for jobs, coordinate their business efforts and stay current in their rapidly changing fields. As a result of this, social media and blogging have the exciting potential to give professionals a new way to build their own communities. As Chere Estrin (author of the blog, The Estrin Report, and CEO of the Paralegal Knowledge Institute) says:

I have learned over the years that leveraging your background is the very best tool you can use to get ahead in a word-of-mouth field. ...How has social media helped? Social media has been a prominent tool that is assisting me to get ahead in a world where you will never make partner, never win a nationally prominent award, always be the "helper," never fully getting the credit for the "win" and put mostly in the background. Social media has allowed the paralegal profession to become much more prominent, much more accepted and upped the ante in terms of requirements to enter the field and higher sophistication of assignments. In short, more people know of the field, more people accept it, more people push it upwards.

This applies to banking professionals as well as to paralegals. For example, although the banking industry has been hesitant to fully adopt social media as a way to reach their customers, sites such as LinkedIn and various industry blogs already offer professionals a chance to connect with each other, engage in sales prospecting, perform market research and trend analysis, and more. We can expect to see more of this as professionals who grew up using these technologies come of age. Increasingly, access via online social media is an expected part of industries' business models.

Of course, there are pros and cons to putting yourself out there. The key is to remember that the online experience is no different than so-called "real" life, and in some ways is more permanent. People can forget; but not the Internet, which has the potential to record every embarrassing photo or thoughtless remark forever. It's wise to educate yourself regarding legal and ethical concerns and to be constantly mindful of the image you intend to convey.

The advantages can make all of this caution worthwhile. The Internet offers quick access to professional websites and blogs (for example, CLAS's own blog, CLAS Notes), professional social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, web-based ordering applications and more, all of which are increasingly becoming part of our professional lives. We asked around and discovered additional industry resources including Avvo, a site that rates lawyers and has real lawyers who answer questions (in a general way) for free online; and blogs including Larry Bodine's Law Marketing Blog and Morgan Smith's Cogent Legal Blog, just to name a few.

By participating in online discussions and contributing to online professional communities, you have the chance to do much more than simply gather information. You have the opportunity to keep track of your colleagues' professional lives, stay up-to-date on industry trends, communicate with your customers in a more efficient, immediate way, and to build the professional community you belong to.

By Teresa Altarriba

Related Links:
You can keep up with CLAS on Facebook, Twitter, or by subscribing to our blog, CLAS Notes.
CLAS Notes - CLAS Information Services Blog
The Estrin Report - Created for Professional Paralegals
Blogging and Social Media for the Legal Profession: Advice on What Works and Why