The Moving Series Episode 2: Social Media Sally Cooper style

Sally Cooper digresses on moving in the social media and you thought she was already pretty expert on this!
The background to this note is comment made by a speaker at a Business Event in 2014 at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston (being a market town between Barrow and Kendal and birthplace of Sir John Barrow (1764) and Stan Laurel (1890)). With other speakers, he took the theme of a hotel in Ulverston wanting to attract attention to itself : “Think of your website as your building viewed from the outside. Think of Facebook as the exchange with the client that happens at a Reception. Think of Twitter as the chat with the waiter or waitress at breakfast the following morning: “Did you sleep well? Got any plans for today?””.  The Duck says you can think of it like that but some of even my tweets tend to have rather more influence than that

Sally's hitherto local guru

Whenever I begin to feel lost in social media, I remember this comment and it helps “position” whatever new service I’ve come across (and might want to use).

 In fact, I decided to take advice from the local “social media guru” : I asked him (a) to look for my office on the Internet and provide me with a list of results, and (b) to work through this list with me to see what changes should be made. The list (in order) provided the full results of an Internet search for SALLY COOPER

• the website at www.sallycooper.com 
• entries on LinkedIn
• Twitter and 
• Facebook. 

In terms of moving office, this was the core information I needed.

The “full results” search was surprisingly helpful in giving a check-list. As every business should, I search my business name from time to time and, whilst I’ve never engaged in (for example) search engine optimisation, I generally find SALLY COOPER : Trade Mark Attorney easy to find. I’m used to saying “I’m not the artist or the musician” and it doesn’t worry me that the artist / musician / Trade Mark Attorney swap places from time to time in search results for SALLY COOPER. A task for 2015 is to repeat a “full results” search and see where changes may still be needed. (The Duck says what about the actress and the occasional hit to this blog please)

So far as website is concerned, I’ve always taken the view that there’s no shortage of information on trade marks generally (and registration of trade marks in particular) on the Internet so the website is “where to find my office” rather than “what my business has to offer”. My regular account when asked how new clients find me refers to (a) the website of ITMA, and (b) the IPO passing on my telephone number in answer to enquiries, and (c) contacts built up over 30+ years of being a lawyer of one sort or another. I’m reminded of the accountant who attends networking events wearing a cricket shirt with “12” on the back. He explains that no-one he meets is ever looking for an accountant – but he’ll be there whenever he’s needed. The update of the website is underway !

I think the order of LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook is right for my business. It was certainly very simple to review what appeared on LinkedIn and update where necessary. My social media guru took me through procedures for sending a personal message to all LinkedIn contacts to advise of new details but (shame to say) I’ve stuck with simply making changes / relying on these becoming available to anyone interested searching SALLY COOPER.

Twitter was only a problem in that I wanted to change @TradeMarksHale to @TradeMarksCumbria but – as social media guru pointed out – this exceeded the 15-character limit. This was the only part of the social media process where others (family and friends) were involved and the result has been a change from @TradeMarksHale to @TradeMarksLakes. Again, very simply to update.

 Facebook is – for me – very much a “friends” place rather than a “business” place. But, having said this, a lot of the people who are Friends on Facebook are people I’ve worked with (or still work with). It’s certainly the case that posting a “moving underway” message when the final day came (and the keys to home and office were handed over) attracted a lot of welcome attention – and a lot of encouragement and good wishes for 2015 !

Picture yourself at ... the mercy of LinkedIn

As the moderator of a couple of LinkedIn discussion groups, I find myself logging on to LinkedIn on a regular basis.  Indeed, between approving new members, moderating comments and deleting attempts to post commercial marketing and other unwanted content, I find myself on LinkedIn far more often than on Facebook or other social media.

Picture Yourself at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

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Jeremy Phillips

Media and Communication at Freshfields 

This morning, on logging on, I found an image of my own smiling face next to the logo of leading international practice Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.  For the benefit of readers whose devices are not downloading images, my portrait and logo were presented beneath the heading "Picture Yourself at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer" and the caption beneath them read "Jeremy Phillips, Media and Communication at Freshfields".

While I have the greatest respect for Freshfields and enjoy the friendship and company of several people who work there, I was a little startled by this advertisement. My first thought was that this was not something that I had authorised and that others might see it too. I then decided that, most probably, LinkedIn's software was sufficiently subtle to enable the portrait of the account holder to be displayed only when the account holder logged in. My third thought was that this was presumably a cheap and cheerful way of advertising one's vacant positions only to those people whose interests and skills matched those sought by Freshfields. Clicking through to the link which Freshfields so thoughtfully provided, here, I then discovered that the firm's LinkedIn account has close on 26,000 followers. Who might they all be? Actual and prospective employees? Clients? Hopeful trainees? Information-gatherers from Freshfields' competitors? My final thought, somewhat mischievously, was that I could easily delete the heading, cut and paste the rest on to my email signature and make it look as though I was working for the firm:

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Jeremy Phillips

Media and Communication at Freshfields 

All of this leads to the question: how important is LinkedIn to the small and sole practices that make up the core of this blog's readership?