Social Media standards
Just wanted to drop a quick note here today to point visitors to a great social media resource:
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles
What you’ll find there is how Coke approaches their social media, from vision to values, and including standards for company, employee and spokespersons.
As an attorney, you probably don’t need to go into quite as much detail as a multi-billion dollar business, but you’ll certainly want to cover the same general topics: What are your policies for your firm? What are your policies for your employees? And what do you expect from your spokespeople?
Remind your employees, at least, that they are representatives of your brand while on facebook and twitter. Be clear to those who handle your social media accounts that you expect them to do things your way, not the way they feel is best.
Vision
As a related side-note to this, it’s worth talking briefly about vision statements.
Have an overall vision of what your brand is going to be online. Is it going to be professional? Friendly? Approachable? Distant? Businesslike? Personal? Will your brand be known for being aggressive and powerful, or sensitive and helpful? Help your employees to catch that vision. Revisit it often. Make it visible online so that potential clients know you are serious about your firm and to help them build an emotional connection to you.
Like Coke, you may want to have a vision statement, a mission statement, and employee policies on your website. It may be rare that a client wants to check those things out, but those who do will be more committed to you if they feel they found a firm that shares their vision of justice. In addition to that, your employees will recognize that they can be held accountable by customers for their behaviors. Finally, posting a mission statement and a vision statement on your website is another way to differentiate yourself from the hordes of attorney websites out there.
