There's an excellent article that appeared recently on the LawMarketing portal entitled The Ethical Pitfalls of Online Social Networking. Targeted at lawyers, the article describes some "horror" stories of attorneys who revealed too much personal information on social networking sites such as Facebook, leading to adverse employment consequences (example: one associate at a top-tier law firm repeatedly complained on her Facebook page about how tired she was and her need for a vacation. A partner in her firm, who was part of her Facebook network, was spurred by the whining to check the associate's billing hours. The partner discovered some shockingly low numbers. She was offered a "permanent" vacation).
The LawMarketing Portal article is a good reminder that content added to social networks is in the public domain, and attorneys should therefore not divulge any personal information on these sites that they'd be embarassed to divulge to a colleague or supervisor in person. Of course, there's also the issue of divulging confidential information, which would be improper from the standpoint of a lawyer's ethical obligations to clients.
As per the article and a prior post on this blog, social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn can be valuable networking and marketing tools for attorneys. However, one has to act sensibly and limit disclosures to personal details that enhance one's professional image and appeal (for example, a personal detail such as divulging that one loves to play Scrabble is perfectly fine since it might pique the interest of clients, colleagues or other contacts that also like Scrabble and help build connection and rapport). Good rule of thumb: if in doubt, leave it out (see the article referenced above for additional tips).
Stay tuned: post coming soon entitled "LinkedIn 101 for Lawyers"
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