By Dana Alley, Personal Account Manager
SEO Specialist
The last thing you want is a law firm social media disaster! It can happen to anyone, and like most disasters, it happens so quickly you have little time to react.
Last month around this time, KitchenAid Appliance Company found themselves smack dab in the middle of the “Social Media No-No” limelight. During the middle of the presidential debate, the head of the KitchenAid social media department, accidentally posted a rather crude and tasteless tweet (about a candidate) to the corporate twitter account. It was supposed to go to the employee’s personal account!
Even though the author removed it within minutes, they were
not fast enough to avoid re-tweets, screen captures, and responses.
I talk about and encourage delegation a lot, so more than likely, another employee at your law firm might be managing your Facebook and Twitter accounts. That person, more than likely, also maintains their own account. It’s easy to lose track of what account you are linked up with at any given moment.
Here is a classic situation:
Jane logs into the company Facebook account to share a flyer about a local event they will be attending. Afterwards, Jane notices an article on an ‘iffy’ topic and starts to read (and by ‘iffy’, I mean anything you many not want to share on your law firm’s page, like a political topic). She finished reading the article, and hits LIKE for Facebook (sometimes it’s just automatic). BAM! ACME Law Firm now likes that article about that political topic, and it’s going to show up in the VERY PUBLIC newsfeed on Facebook.
Jane may or may not notice this. Even if she does notice, and goes to delete it; if another person likes or reposts that comment, you start to lose control. Most of social media is integrated like this – any sharing or FB activity you take part in on another website is posted back to whatever FB account you are logged into at the moment.
It takes a tiny bit of effort, but this is EASILY avoidable and worth the effort when you consider the costs. Train and require your staff to immediately LOG OUT of the firm law firm social media account AS SOON as they are done with their post.
Don’t let your social media get out of control! Delegation is an excellent tool and you definitely need others in on your marketing, but don’t be afraid to set up rules and guidelines. Don’t let social media disaster strike by accident!
