Setting the Stage for Legal and Marketing Professionals in the Social Media World

On Tuesday, November 2nd, Edelman Toronto and McCarthy Tétrault, one of Canada’s leading national law firms, brought together over 100 marketing and legal professionals to the Toronto Social Media Summit. Building on the success of the Social Media Summit hosted in Montreal earlier this May, this 2nd edition focused on the challenges that brands, professional PR firms and law firms are facing today in the realm of social media.

Hosted on the 53^rd floor of the Toronto Dominion Towers – McCarthy Tétrault’s headquarters

We kicked off the day with our very own Steve Rubel, presenting Six Digital Trends Organizations Can’t Ignore. Barry Sookman, Technology Law Partner of McCarthy Tétrault followed shortly thereafter with a presentation on Using Social Media in the Legal Sphere. They then joined our featured speakers, Stuart MacDonald, CEO and Founder of Tripharbour Limited, Dave Fleet, VP, Edelman Digital Toronto  in the interactive panel discussion drilling down on Social Media Policies and Processes, moderated by Vanessa Grant, Business Law Partner from McCarthy Tétrault.

From left to right: Vanessa Grant, Stuart MacDonald, Dave Fleet, Steve Rubel, Barry Sookman

There were several key takeaways from the discussion and to highlight a few:

“Social media shouldn’t be 100% of 1 person’s job, but 1% of 100 people’s jobs” – Steve Rubel

Get Legal Involved Early On

It was heard loud and clear that legal teams need to be involved from the get go when developing marketing and communication plans, especially those that incorporate social media. The integration of legal and brand departments will be the key to the campaign’s overall success. To minimize the overall risk of bringing your brand online, it’s important to bring in the legal department earlier on rather than later to ensure a seamless collaboration between the two departments.

Create a Social Media Policy to Guide and Empower Employees’ Online Behaviour

 

“Policies need to evolve – they need to be living, breathing documents” – Steve Rubel

With the lines blurring between the professional and personal lives of an employee, it continues to become increasingly more difficult to control what is said online by employees within your organization. Every organization should be thinking of implementing a social media policy that is a living, breathing document to act as an online behaviour guide. As was discussed during the panel, it’s not enough to merely establish and introduce the policies to your employees; it’s important to facilitate training to ensure they understand the risk and how they could potentially affect the company’s reputation and brand.

Embrace the Conversation

Social media forces brands away from one-way communication and towards an ongoing dialogue between individuals, brands and organizations at large to build a sense of trust and reputation. Used correctly, social media can enhance marketing campaigns but more importantly, it promotes what Edelman  calls public engagement. Public engagement allows companies and brands to build trust and confidence through real and authentic conversations.

Check out the photos below for a taste of the event!

The audience was actively sharing their learnings and takeaways from the presentation onto Twitter and as a result, #smsummit was a trending topic in Toronto!

This is only the beginning of a movement across Canada. Stay tuned for future events to come in other cities!