The CLE Professionals' Guide to Social Media -- What Is It, Where are They, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, LinkedIn, How are Lawyers and Law Firms Using it?

The social media phenomenon has penetrated not only the way we communicate and get information in our personal lives, but has also affected our professional and business lives. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogging have changed the ways in which businesses communicate with their customers and get information about their markets. Social media is a marketing and communications force that the CLE industry cannot overlook. Learn how social media technology can be successfully harnessed as a tool in CLE programs, publications, and marketing.

With more than 250 million active users, Facebook is a social media phenomenon that has rapidly become a rich opportunity for marketing and business networking. Facebook offers CLE organizations an opportunity to learn more about their customers and market their products. This panel discussion will cover ways to incorporate Facebook into your organization’s marketing strategy, without placing excessive demands on your already overworked staff. Attend this session for a practical demonstration of how to set up a Facebook group or fan page for your organization, examples of creative and effective uses of the medium, and tips to maximize your number of Facebook “fans”.

Twitter, tweets and followers? You’ve very likely heard of the growing phenomena of Twitter and how people are “tweeting” to their “followers.” You may not realize that some CLE organizations are effectively using Twitter to reach potential customers and promote their programs and publications. This workshop will be a practical guide to understanding Twitter, how to use tweets to grow the number of your followers (your target market), and imbed promotional material in other useful information. This session will also cover professional networking and potential CLE applications for the professional/business networking site LinkedIn.

Once a frightful word, “viral” is the new catch-phrase in marketing to describe how a promotion quickly and easily permeates your target market and creates a marketing phenomenon. Viral marketing, also referred to as word-of-mouth marketing, isn’t anything new, but the advent of social media – blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others – has made it significantly more potent and accessible. Likewise, the advent of small, inexpensive, easy to operate video cameras and editing software has moved video production from the hands of highly-trained video professionals to just about anyone with the interest. Learn the mechanics, opportunities and challenges of viral marketing, with an emphasis on video, and practical ways in which you can enlist “influencers” to help independently promote your CLE products through their own social networks.

CLE used to be as simple as organizing speakers and printing up materials. Now content may appear live, in a webcast, as a download, in print and online. With the explosion of media alternatives, what are the implications for CLE and publishing professionals, and what are the legal red flags that arise? Attorney Terence Brennan, a partner at the law firm of Roetzel & Andress, draws on his experience in advising companies on all forms of technology, publishing, media and related corporate transactions, for a discussion of how emerging technology changes the legal issues affecting media, publishing and programming enterprises involved with continuing legal education.