How did we ever do without social media?

What was life like before Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

A new, rather novel, and sometimes dangerous dimension has been added to most of our lives, and, while Facebook may fizzle out, no doubt something similar will replace it. My sons tell me that WhatsApp, Snapchat, and others already have.

Lawyers seem to gravitate towards social media more than others. We are, after all, wordsmiths by trade, and the challenge of writing something short and pithy is one taken up by many of us – some more oblivious of the risks involved than others.

Personally, I find Twitter an informative and up-to-the-minute source of information. You hear what is happening while a trial is underway and a judgment handed down. Although stories require quite some time to be pored over and analysed in a news room, the details often find their way onto Twitter long before the BBC or Sky have tackled the issue.

I control two Twitter accounts, one for myself and another for Cosmo, my dog. The firm has an account and several solicitors tweet. Yes, we do have a social media policy, and yes, we have had problems, but we are learning to grapple with the difficulties posed and have warned our team about what not to say and advised on areas of conversation that are best avoided.

Interestingly, until the recent hoo-ha on and about LinkedIn, I had assumed it to be a rather dry and low-risk platform designed to facilitate job applications, headhunting opportunities, and generally boosting one’s ego. How wrong was I! 

The problem with all manner of social media exposure is that nobody seems to fully comprehend how many people can see something you publish. Say you only have 100 friends on Facebook and you say something potentially controversial – that might be seen by another who has 100,000 friends. Likewise, I have just over 500 Twitter followers, but some of my Twitter followers have hundreds of thousands, all hungry for information and dying for a bit of gossip.

Facebook, though, has always been our major concern on a risk-profiling basis. A great many of our team members have Facebook accounts and, judging by those I can see, they appear to be used regularly, albeit I am not ‘friends’ with many of them as this borders on a form of espionage. Who really wants the boss to see what they were doing on a Saturday night?

However, we are aware of the reputational damage that one tired or lazy comment can do to a firm.

We insist on the whole team being made aware of their responsibilities and drum into them the importance of courtesy, good manners, and how inappropriate remarks are to be avoided. Further, there is a great emphasis on confidentiality and keeping clients 100 per cent anonymous. To do otherwise can not only get you into something of a pickle, but you could face a regulatory problem as well.

Computers have many advantages, but misuse of social media can be a curse we must ?all seek to avoid. SJ

Russell Conway is senior partner at Oliver Fisher @Russboy11 www.oliverfisher.co.uk