The same goes for our involvement in social media. Our twitter account and (forthcoming) Facebook profile are ways to connect with others who share our deep interest in consumer safety. We would be foolish to ignore websites that host such discussions because we would miss out on the goings on in this field that we’re passionate about.

Avvo CEO Mark Britton blogged yesterday about the complications that accompany Facebook’s incredible growth. I commented on the post that, as an early Facebook user, it has been funny to watch as whatever privacy or limitations to growth the site began with were stripped away one by one. At first, users were outraged, but slowly became acquiescent to the site’s growth, knowing that it just can’t be controlled and is actually an incredibly useful and informative tool. Professionals have experienced a similar transformation: what began as an unnecessary development has become essential.

The question of how much professionals should get involved online is important for lawyers to consider. Kevin O’Keefe blogged recently that while it’s important for lawyers to engage online, they should refrain from doing it for wholly self-serving reasons. He’s right: that’s not the purpose of social media and it increases the likelihood that a lawyer will impinge on the ethical guidelines outlined by today’s webinar.

Every aspect of our society has become more immersed in technology and social media. It’s unstoppable. I have no doubt that the next generation of lawyers will be deeply involved in maintaining their online presence through blogging, tweeting, or using whatever hip new service is available to them. But lawyers  should continue to strive to maintain a clear line between online communication and solicitation.

Photo credit: webtreats

Many safety advocates hope that DUI laws will expand from reprimands in the form of fines, suspensions, and jail time, to the mandatory inclusion of ignition-interlock devices that prevent a car from starting unless the driver is under the legal limit of .08 blood alcohol content. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for one, has said it is “dedicated to supporting state legislation that expands the use of current alcohol ignition interlock technology so that interlocks are mandatory for all convicted drunk drivers in all 50 states.”

So far, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico require ignition-interlocks for first-time DUI offenders. Among other states, California is leading the charge toward heightened regulation. Drunk drivers with suspended licenses from a prior DUI are required to install the devices effective three years from the date of their conviction. And Starting this July, ignition interlocks will be mandatory for all drivers with DUI convictions in four counties, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, Alameda, and Tulare. Last October, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill promising that the law will be imposed statewide by 2016 if it proves successful. “By installing ignition interlock devices we are making it harder for DUI offenders to get behind the wheel while intoxicated and we are working to save innocent lives,” he said.

Of course, ignition-interlocks aren’t perfect. The best line of defense against drunk drivers remains friends and family who take away the keys of someone who has had too much to drink. But the new technology could be another line of defense to protect against fatal accidents like Saturday night’s.

In my view, teenagers are most likely to kick the distracted driving habit if they come to the decision on their own. On Friday, Consumer Reports wrote about a distracted driving simulator being tested in the northeast. Massachusetts-based Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation developed the technology to show teenagers how dangerous texting, typing, and talking can be for a driver (see the video below). Participants are then invited to participate in additional tests online at DistractU.com.

I gave the online test a try and was surprised by how difficult it was. For the first exercise, participant is asked to count how many times a team of people passes a ball between them, with additional distractions to keep the participant on his toes. After the video is over, the narrator informs reveals that someone in a bear costume danced across the screen during the exercise. The point? While distracted, a driver might be able to perform basic functions on the road. But they aren’t equipped to drive and monitor unexpected developments simultaneously.

If you’re a parent living in the northeast with a stubborn teenager, try to seek out the simulators and see if your son or daughter can handle distracted driving. And definitely ask your kids to take the online test, which is peppered with information and stats about dangerous driving.

And just in case, though we hope you never have to use it, print out our car accident check list and place it in your teenager’s glove box.

I’ve made it no secret in the past that I’m a big fan of the services Avvo provides, both for lawyers and non-lawyers. But I’m particularly excited about this new blog, dubbed NakedLaw, because it jives with my goal for the GJEL blog. Every day, GJEL attorneys are immersed in complex legal issues that can sound like gibberish to even the most educated readers who just don’t happen to have a law degree. But GJEL blog tries to discuss the day’s issues related to consumer safety, legal culture, and California local news in a way that’s accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

NakedLaw has already written a post on an issue that we’ve been following closely: product recalls. NakedLaw lists a guide for consumers to protect themselves in the event of a product recall. Take a look at the guide, which covers everything from faulty car parts, to poisoned food, to dangerous childrens’ toys. So far, other posts include “Should Fat Be Illegal?” “10 STD Law FAQ’s,” and “18 Reasons Not to Let Grandma on a Boat [Video].” So needless to say, NakedLaw is worth a read.

Well it was Avvo’s time, and the product looks spiffy. But Avvo’s changes aren’t only cosmetic. The redesign was accompanied by a set of new features like neighborhood search, to locate lawyers not only by metropolitan area, but also by city block. And lawyers can now create pages based on three different templates, one of which enables video guides, a modern way to showcase their expertise online. See the video run down of new Avvo features here.

Even before this “new suit” went live, though, Avvo had established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the legal community. Kevin O’Keefe wrote in December that Avvo had already surpassed the unique monthly visitors of Martindale-Hubble, and was inching closer to catching Lawyers.com. As of last October, Avvo only trailed Lawyers.com by 40,o00 unique visitors. In February, the gap widened considerably, but as a social media website, the creativity and potential for growth appears to be in Avvo’s favor.

Keep up the good work, Avvo! For more on Avvo, read our early reaction to its launch, and interviews with CEO Mark Britton and head of marketing Conrad Saam.

Today I’m switching gears and bringing you an interview with someone who is not lawyer, but who nonetheless can give us legal types some great insight into what it takes to be successful online. Matt McGee is a hyperlocal blogger who has been really successful in using blogging to promote his wife’s real estate business, and by doing so, has made himself a bit of an expert on hyperlocal blogging.

While some attorneys blog solely about legal issues, and while blogging about legal issues is one effective way to market a law practice, building a relationship with the community through hyperlocal blogging can also be effective. Matt was kind of enough to offer us some insight into the world of hyperlocal blogging, and how it can be used to successfully promote a business. If you’re hungering for more of Matt McGee after reading this interview, be sure to check out his site, Hyperlocal Blogger, where you can also find links to the real estate blogs he and his wife use to promote her real estate business.

GJEL: What inspired you to start hyperlocal blogs for your real estate market, and what were your initial goals for them?

Matt: The idea at the beginning was mostly to promote my wife’s real estate business, but it was also somewhat of an experiment in local blogging and a learning experience of sorts. The goal for each was to have a site for each of the main cities in our area that anyone thinking about moving here could follow along and learn about the community, while also setting up my wife as the local expert for each area. I’d love to say we started the blogs with purely altruistic, serve-the-community ideas in mind, but it was as much a business idea as anything.

GJEL: Have those changed at all as you’ve gotten into it more?

Matt: Well, the goals are still the same, but we haven’t really executed as well as I’d like. My wife is too busy to blog about real estate as much as she should, so I’ve done most of the writing about community news and events. So, I’d say the goals are still the same, but the focus has changed due to the reality of the situation. Instead of being about the town and about real estate in the town, each of the blogs is mostly about the towns … with just a little real estate in the mix. I don’t know if that’s good or bad; it’s just not what I was expecting. We’re probably about 90%-10% in terms of general content vs. real estate content. I’d prefer it to be about 70%-30%.

GJEL: How do you walk the line between blogging about your business and blogging about your community?

Matt: Well, I guess I answered this one to some degree already, but let me reply in general on the idea of self-promotion and local/community blogs. When we launched all four blogs, a reader would have had to do some digging to find out that they were, to some degree, business blogs. Sure, each has “real estate” in its name … but the content was all community-based. There was no advertising of my wife’s real estate business. Aside from a mention on the “About” pages, we downplayed the real estate connection completely.

We did that because we wanted to attract readers from across the community – not just readers who were looking to buy or sell a home. We also did it because real estate has a big spam element when it comes to online marketing, SEO, etc. So we decided to hold off on any real estate promotion for a while, to allow the blogs to build up some readership and some trust with the search engines.

I think any small biz person that’s thinking about starting a local/community blog should keep in mind that, generally speaking, if people are looking for information about your business, they’ll visit your business web site or blog. They come to a community blog looking for community information. An occasional business-related post is probably fine — say, for example, if the business is supporting some local event or charity — but general business blog posts should probably stay off the community blog.

GJEL: Tri-Cities isn’t quite as big a market as the Bay Area, obviously, but are there common types of content you look for, or places you look, when you’re trying to figure out what to write?  Do you think the size of the area where a business draws its customers from should affect any of that thinking?

Matt: Well, there are different types of local blogs. Some are very much into hard news and crime, and so in a bigger city you’ll get more opportunity to report that. We live in a fairly low-crime area, and since our blogs are mostly designed to promote the area and indirectly promote a real estate business, we generally stay away from reporting crime. That said, there was a burglar in our local mall a year or so ago, and we posted about that — and that post got a LOT of traffic.

I think in most cases, a successful hyperlocal blog will share a lot of community news and information that traditional media skips. Posts about upcoming events always seem to do well on our blogs. The newspaper might only give an event 2-3 sentences, but if the event is important to people, they’ll be looking online for more information.

GJEL: Are there any ideas for content themes, or categories, that you would recommend as a “default setting” if you were just starting a blog?

Matt: All of our blogs have a similar set of categories that seem to work well for us: Business, Events, Life, News, Real Estate, Schools, and Sights. Most of those should be self-explanatory, but maybe not Life and Sights. With the Life category, that’s where we post stuff like a trip to the local museum, or “wouldn’t it be great if we had one of these in town?” posts. And the Sights category is where we post photos from around town, like a nice sunset or a shot of people trying to cool off in 100+ degree heat. So far, everything we’ve written has fit into one of those categories.

GJEL: It seems like hyperlocal blogging would work really well for a real estate business, because getting people interested in real estate means getting them interested in the community. Do you have any advice for people who are trying to incorporate hyperlocal blogging with another type of business (i.e. law )?

Matt: It definitely is a natural fit for real estate professionals, but I think it can work in the legal industry and others, too. Again, I’d say the key to making it work is to focus on making a community/neighborhood blog, not an industry blog. It’s all about focus. If you blog about what’s happening in town — school news, new businesses opening up, local events, etc., it doesn’t matter if you’re a lawyer, plumber, shoe store owner … whatever! People are online and looking for local information, so it doesn’t matter who you are.

The problem is in turning blog visitors into customers, and that’s still a gray area for us. In the interest of building readership and trust, we held off on any promotion of my wife’s business for about the first year the blogs were online. At that point, we added a template to the bottom of each post that shows her photo and says something about “if you’re here looking for real estate help, please contact” her and gives her phone number. I’m still hesitant to push much further on self-promotion because I think it’ll turn people off.

All of which is to say that, if you asked me what the direct and certain benefit has been of our local blogs on my wife’s real estate business, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you. But I can say this: When she asks people how they found her, many clients say “You’re all over the Internet!” They may not remember which blog, web site, or PPC ad it was, but we know the visibility is good. And the blogs tend to rank well for her primary business keywords, so if nothing else they’re taking up space in the search results that a competitor might have had.

GJEL: How have you incorporated Twitter, if at all, in meeting other bloggers in your community?  Do you ever do any offline meetups in Tri-Cities?

Matt: My wife has been to about 4-5 local tweetups, but I’ve only been able to get to one, I think. They’re good, I think, for meeting people — especially that tend to be online influencers to some degree. They’re active on Twitter, Facebook, and with their own blogs, so it’s nice to be part of a local network like that. And word-of-mouth marketing is important for all small businesses, so hopefully as these people get to know you better, they might be more likely to tell a friend — “Hey, I know a real estate agent you should call.”

GJEL: HyperLocalBlogger.com is obviously THE place to go for local blog techniques and ideas. Are there any other websites or eBooks you might recommend to people who are just starting local blogs?

Matt: If you’re just starting, I think the focus should probably be on blogging in general as opposed to local blogging — I mean, in terms of reading and learning. As you learn to create a great blog, it’s pretty easy to make your focus on local content. Problogger.net and Copyblogger.com are two great ones for blog advice. Remarkablogger.com is another great one. And there’s a ton of great articles going back three years in the Blogging category of the SEMMY Awards - that would be a treasure-trove of material for a starting blogger.

This week brings with it more interviews of the people who are at the very top of the game when it comes to online presence. Today I bring you an interview with John Day, a prominent attorney who has been blogging since 2004. I met John at a Beer for Bloggers event hosted by Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog following the Avvocating Conference, and was quickly impressed with his early adoption of blogging, and acceptance of the idea that an attorney needs to have a strong online presence. We got to talking, discovered that we grew up only a few miles from each other and knew some of the same people, and somehow I managed to convince an already busy John that he should do an interview for this blog. So here it is, one of the legal industry’s early bloggers, sharing his thoughts on the topic.

GJEL: John, you were one of the early adopters of blogging in the legal field. Can you explain how you found out that blogging was something that could be beneficial to you and your practice, and how you decided to start blogging?

John: I discovered blogging in late 2004 and thought it would be a great way to share important, timely information with my fellow lawyers on an informal basis.  I started the blog in Feb. 2005 and 1712 posts later I still use it for that purpose.

GJEL: You use Lexblog as the platform for your blog. How did you decide to go that route?

John: Kevin O’Keefe was, and is, the leader in the field of lawyer blogging.  I went to him for the same reason I buy suits at Brooks Brothers.

GJEL: What were some of your goals for social media for your practice? Did you expect to network, find clients, improve your Google rankings, or something else? Do you feel that you’re achieving those goals?

John: My goal was to share information with the hope that referring lawyers would see that I was a competent lawyer who kept up-to-date in the field.  I hope that goal has been reached, but it is difficult to measure the effect of blogging alone when I also write books, articles, newsletters and do a significant amount of speaking in the torts area.

GJEL: The list of speaking engagements on your firm profile is quite lengthy, you’ve written a book, and you’re a practicing attorney. How on earth do you find time to blog?

John: I usually blog between 4:15 and 5:00  in the morning, although sometimes on weekends I will do several posts at once and schedule them for  publication later that week.  The  software used by LexBlog permits me to write a post one day and actually make it available for viewing later.  I confess that blogging takes time and when I am in the book updating mode (which is right now – the third edition of Day on Torts comes out in April) things get a little hectic.

GJEL: In addition to blogging, you and one of your colleagues edit the Trial Law Report newsletter, which covers many aspects of civil litigation in Tennessee. How did you decide to put out a newsletter, and what are some of your goals in doing so? Is the intended audience for the newsletter different from the intended audience of the blog?

John: I publish and write the newsletter with the goal of educating judges and lawyers (including myself) on changes in the Tennessee law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial.  I also do it to make money – I charge for the newsletter and basically get paid to stay current on the law while at the same time demonstrating to my peers that I do so.

GJEL: You and I met at the Avvocating Conference last week. Did you come up with any new ideas to expand your personal or firm presence on the internet? How do you feel about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms and their uses for attorneys?

John: I did not meet you at the conference – I met you in a bar.  You say you were at the conference and I will assume that you were.  On social media – lawyers, especially us old guys, need to understand that the cheese has moved.  Social media, a phrase that did not exist when I started practicing law, will continue to be a growing force as lawyers try to figure out how to market their practice efficiently.

Today I’m happy to bring you the wisdom of the fabulous Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo. Conrad (whose interview I posted here Monday) was the first person I had contact with at Avvo, and as head of Marketing at Avvo, he’s a great person to hear from. But I’m really happy to be able to have Mark’s input on how the internet and social media are affecting the legal industry, because Avvo is his brainchild. Mark is also full of good advice. Since not everyone was able to get it first hand at the Avvocating Conference, I’m happy to share the wealth.

GJEL: In one of your presentations at last month’s Avvocating conference, you mentioned a concept called “the long tail.”  Can you explain a little bit more about what that means for our readers?

Mark: People think of search as very general queries (e.g., divorce lawyer California”).  As the Web takes on more content and search engines become more sophisticated in finding that content, people are generating very specific search queries.  “I am looking for the best California divorce lawyer that can handle immigration issues – especially visa issues” is a long-tail search query, and Google is able to match it with 72,600,000 pages.  The more diverse, quality content you have out on the Web, the more often Google will serve up your page  in response to a long-tail search.  And that page does not have to be a website or blog.  It can be as simple as an answer to question on Avvo.

GJEL: How does Avvo’s Q&A fit into that concept?

Mark: perfectly, actually.  Without even trying, lawyers answering questions on Avvo are putting together all sorts of keyword combinations that the search engines will match with a long-tail search.  Q&A allows lawyers to build out thousands of keyword-rich, individual pages that are simply free advertising aimed at potential clients – whether they find the lawyer’s answer via Avvo or a search engine.

GJEL: What are the other benefits of participating in the Q&A section on Avvo?

Mark: There are many.  First, in addition to the new business and free advertising lawyers get through our Q&A, we give our top contributors free advertising in various places on our site.  Second, many lawyers use their Q&A to demonstrate their expertise during initial consultations – either over the phone or in-person.  Third, many lawyers simply like to help people and will answers many more questions than will ever turn into clients.  Finally, many lawyers tell me that answering questions is cathartic and fun.  They like to get on the site and simply answer a couple of questions to ease their mind; because, in reality, many of the questions are very rudimentary.  The questioners are so confused, and the simplest guidance can help them.

GJEL: Are there other portals that offer a similar opportunity?

Mark: There are Q&A sites all over the Web.  Most are quite small in comparison to Avvo.  Comparing the larger Q&A forums, we are different because we focus on the legal profession and we know that everyone who answers is a lawyer, which makes the quality of our Q&A much higher than, say, Yahoo’s or LinkedIn’s Q&A forums.

GJEL: In one of your slides, you showed an amazing number of legal portals — do you have any recommendations for small law firms like ours to maintain or monitor our presence on all or most of them?

Mark: Build and maintain or your Core Web Presence (“CWP”) (e.g., a website, blog or Avvo profile), and then pick four or five online social networking sites where you will spend most of your time.  You might meander now and then, but becoming part of a big site’s social network is key.  Then, from that social network, link back to your CWP as much as appropriate.  It will help drive traffic to and branding of your CWP, which is your calling card on the Web.  The social networking sites are the satellites to your CWP.

GJEL: Is there a good way to prioritize our efforts?

Mark: Yes, by respecting this “Core Web Presence” strategy and being a strong community member in a limited number of satellite sites. I often recommend LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as the best satellites to supplement your CWP.

GJEL: Most of the discussions I’ve had about Avvo have been with other attorneys about how it can be useful to us in terms of marketing and making our profiles available for clients to find. But it’s definitely worth considering Avvo as a service to consumers, not just as a marketing tool. I know, for example, that Avvo is starting some consumer webinars. Can you explain what value those will bring to consumers, and what else Avvo has in the works to help people with their legal questions and to help them find the right attorney?

Mark: When it comes to dealing with legal issues, consumers are lost – completely lost.  The more we can give them tools – whether it be our directory, our Q&A forum, or Legal Guides forum, webinars, etc. – the better consumers will be served.  The reality is that consumers think lawyers make things hard.  The more that a lawyer can use the Avvo platform to make things easier, the more likely they are to hire that lawyer to do their legal work.

GJEL: You also advised lawyers in Seattle: “Don’t fear the negative review.”  Can you explain a little more about why negative reviews aren’t necessarily a bad thing?

Mark: The modern Web consumer – which is a much more sophisticated consumer on average – wants transparency in all products and services they are researching for purchase.  Think of how you buy goods and services.  Let’s say you are buying a new bike.  You find a site called “Superbikes” and every bike is rated “Super” and all of the client reviews are glowing.  Are you going to trust that site?  No, you are going to search for another site that speaks to you more honestly – a site that is not simply a shill for advertising.]

GJEL: What percentage of Avvo reviews are positive vs negative?

Mark: 85% positive.  That is because most lawyers do great work – they are just really bad at telling their story – i.e., marketing.  The more they can tell their story and help consumers at the same time, it is a win-win for everyone.  Thus the essence of Avvo.

I recently decided I wanted to know a little more, and I wanted to share with readers some of the insights of those very people who understand this topic the best. So this week, I’ll be sharing interviews with some really bright people. The goals are to share with potential clients ways that they can use the internet to find the attorneys that are right for them, and to help attorneys understand how to put their best foot forward online so that they are the attorneys the clients find.

So today I start our GJEL interview series with Conrad Saam of Avvo. Conrad is the head of Marketing at Avvo. Avvo is a directory of attorney profiles that clients can use to find the right attorney for them. Clients can view attorneys’ Avvo rankings, reviews from other clients and attorneys, and answers to basic legal questions to help them decide which attorney to hire. For more on Avvo, see my past post.

GJEL: Conrad, there’s no doubt that social media is a great way to network with other attorneys and reach potential clients. Here at GJEL, we have a blog, and a Twitter account, which are great ways to build relationships—but what Avvo does is different. What advantages does the profile-based directory have over other forms of social media?

Conrad: Avvo provides a comprehensive overview of the legal industry – 90% of licensed lawyers have profiles on the site.  As such, we provide consumers with breadth and depth of information that they have never been able to access before.

GJEL: I mentioned that we have a blog and a Twitter account, but of course, we’re on Avvo too. Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo gave a great presentation on maximizing Avvo Profiles at the Avvocating Conference. Of course, not everyone could attend the conference, and many attorneys I know are still discovering the things they can do with their Avvo profiles. What would your top 5 tips be for them in terms of maximizing their Avvo profiles?

Conrad: 1.       Claim your Profile!  – take control of your profile by claiming it for free.  This enables you to add as much information as you want and interact with attorneys and consumers on the site.

2.       Add a photo – profiles with photos are 10 times more likely to get clicked on.

3.       Complete your profile – make sure you fill out the profile completely – consumers are craving information and the more information you add, the more likely potential customers are to pick up the phone and call you.

4.       Keep your information current – the award you won in 1984 is less relevant to your reputation (and your Avvo Rating) than the award you won yesterday.

5.       Participate in Avvo Answers – we get 20,000 questions a month from consumers seeking basic guidance.  Avvo Answers is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and connect with prospective clients.

GJEL: There’s some concern about the fact that anyone can leave an anonymous comment on an attorney’s profile on Avvo. Is there anything an attorney can do if a defamatory comment is left on his or her profile?

Conrad: Avvo is the gold standard when it comes to high quality client reviews.  First – every review is read by a human before it is published.  Reviews that don’t meet our guidelines are rejected.  Secondly, lawyers may challenge reviews that they feel are inaccurate.  In this case, Avvo acts as a mediator between the reviewer and the attorney.  If the reviewer affirms the review, it will stay up.  Finally, attorneys can comment directly on the reviews.  All of this human interaction is very expensive, but important to ensure a quality experience for both our attorneys and prospective clients.

GJEL: I’m a bit entrepreneurial myself, so I’m curious: how did the idea for Avvo come about, and when did you know you could really make a go of it?

Conrad: Our founder, Mark Britton is a lawyer and was taking a year off teaching finance in Italy.  While overseas, he kept fielding questions from friends and family who were looking for a specific type of attorney in a specific location in the US.  It became very clear that consumers were lost when it comes to hiring an attorney – and the idea of an unbiased, easy-to-understand legal directory was born.  When did we know we could make a go of it?  There was an overwhelmingly positive response, almost a sense of relief, from people in the early focus groups who saw unbiased client reviews, objective information and an easy-to-understand rating system in the Avvo prototype.

GJEL: Finally, it seems that Avvo is enjoying booming success and is growing much faster than other online lawyer directories like Lawyers.com. What do you think is the primary reason that Avvo is surpassing all the competition?

Conrad: Avvo became the most trafficked legal directory in just two years while competing against large, established corporations with sophisticated marketing departments and massive television advertising budgets.  The simple answer is, we have the only product in the legal directory space that takes the consumer’s perspective.  We provide more information and better guidance than they have ever had access to – which helps them make important legal decisions with confidence.  An extremely positive experience with the site is our primary marketing channel.

Most attorneys who are blogging or using other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are extremely careful about complying with ethics rules. They aren’t sharing client information and they aren’t making any false claims. But it’s important as attorneys to pay attention to not only the content we can control online, but to be aware when something is beyond our control. We trust social media platforms to only put out the information that we tell them to, and we trust them to only share it with those with whom it is meant to be shared. Usually, that’s fine–but not always.

Some attorneys use Gmail for their business and personal email. I personally love Gmail–it’s easy to use, very customizable, and has lots of great features and add-ons. Using it for work and for personal use has never been a problem because it was so easy to file the appropriate messages into the appropriate folders and maintain a separation between public and personal life. But with the advent of Google’s Buzz, all bets are off.

That’s because Buzz was sprung upon the Gmail-using masses without much concern for the privacy of those same masses. When it popped up under my Inbox folder, I was already following twenty people and ten people were following me. Who were these people? All of them were people I had emailed or received email from at one point or another through Gmail. Some of them were really my close friends or family, but some of them were people I didn’t even know personally–people I had received an email from as part of a cycling club list-serv. All of a sudden, those people could see my Buzz updates, my Gchat updates, and updates from four other sites that Buzz automatically linked my account to.

Fortunately, none of my sensitive information was shared with these people, and I understood that whatever I published in the future would be, unless I blocked those contacts. Also fortunate is the fact that most attorneys aren’t updating their social media statuses with sensitive information, either. But what if an attorney had said something he or she didn’t want clients (who might be on the automatic follower list because they email back and forth with the attorney) to see? What if an attorney had said something like “I hate my job, my workload is out of control, I’m not even sure I can handle all these cases properly!” We all have times when we want to complain about a long day at work, attorneys are no exception. That comment may have been meant just for close friends and family who also complain about heavy workloads, and in all likelihood would have been an exaggeration. But how might that affect a relationship with a client that the attorney had spoken with that day? The statement should probably not have been made in the first place, but the fact is, if it was made, it would have been seen by all the wrong people.

It is precisely because of this privacy issue that Google is facing a class action lawsuit that was filed on February 18th. According to Vator News, the lawsuit names Gmail’s 31 million users as plaintiffs.  And according to Ars Technica, Kurt Opshal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said, “These problems arose because Google attempted to overcome its market disadvantage in competing with Twitter and Facebook by making a secondary use of your information {without permission].”

The major worry is that Google or other social media companies could use the information we give them as users for other uses without permission–uses that might be less benign that Buzz, and potentially more invasive. For now, it’s best for attorneys who are using social media to simply be careful about what they put out there, whether it be on a work account or a personal account. In the meantime, it will be interesting to follow the Google Buzz lawsuit and the fallout from it, to see what implications it has for the use of social media in the future.