It is absolutely amazing to me how many people have DUIs. It seems as though not having a DUI is now the exception rather than the rule among clients and witnesses in the cases we handle. This is despite the fact that awareness continues to increase year after year. Although fatalities are down, this is still an enormous safety problem in our country. This infographic, courtesy of Geoffrey G. Nathan Law Offices and MassachusettsCriminalDefense.net, synthesizes the facts nicely. Nice work Geoff. Representing my hometown well is a bonus. Drive safe everyone and try to be one of the folks that needs to call Geoff for help.
Lose a Cell Phone or Laptop? Take These Preventative Measures to Keep Information Safe
It’s a horror story that happens all the time – a company cell phone and/or laptop is left at a restaurant. Inevitably there is valuable and confidential information on the device and now it’s out in the open and who knows who will get their hands on it first. However, there are two very important tactics you can take before hand to keep your information safe. Those two options are frequent backups and remote wiping applications.
Backups go without saying. Essentially you should never travel with a unique set of documents or information. Being the only one with that information is a recipe for disaster, especially when air travel is concerned since you’re laptop will be run through the ringer in the name of security. What’s that you say? Backups don’t track information you edit on the go? Well, then maybe you should be using a cloud syncing service such as Dropbox, SkyDrive or Amazon Cloud Drive.
Dropbox
Personally I love using Dropbox. It’s a spectacular tool that allows you to sync files across a large variety of devices and also has several enterprise level options that introduce collaborative features as well as redundant backups and enhanced security. What’s really nice about using Dropbox is that most of the time you don’t even know you’re using it. The service essentially creates a folder on your system that looks just like any other folder. You can create, edit and save any file in that folder just like you would anywhere else. Automatically that file is synced across the cloud and is accessible through either the Dropbox website, mobile apps or any other system you’ve installed Dropbox too.
Have an enterprise account? Well, that option allows you to automatically share documents with other users and has real-time updating of collaboration on documents. It’s a tool that no business should be without.
Find My iPhone
The second piece to this puzzle is remote wiping of devices. If you have an iPhone, you can already do it. Simply activate the “Find my iPhone” service when you activate your iPhone. This allows you to not only find where your iPhone currently is, but also allows you to remotely wipe the device deleting all information on the phone. The information can only be restored when the owner of the device syncs back up to iTunes with proper account information. What’s nice is that this service works across all Apple devices so your iPhone, iPod and iPad are all automatically protected.
Similarly, there are several options for Android phones to perform the same features. If you’re a Google Apps customer you can wipe your device remotely from the Control Panel. If not, you can use a wide variety of apps, but one I particularly like is Android Lost which not only wipes your device clean, but also any memory card installed in the device.
Lastly, you need to protect your laptop. There are several options out there that perform similar functions to the two apps listed above. For enterprise customers there is Druva’s inSync. This platform can be cloud based or onsite server based and allows for a full host of services from mobile backups to remote device wiping. Additionally this service can deploy to mobile devices as well giving you double security on your smartphone. What’s amazing about the software is that it additionally provides a Dropbox like service as well as remote wiping and location services. A great all-in-one tool. (Also, for Enterprises using Microsoft Exhcnage, ActiveSync provides a way to remotely wipe information off all mobile devices.)
For individual plans, look to CompuTrace offered by Absolute. Dell actually already includes it on any laptops sold through their Small Business store, and it essentially provides a great solution for locating and deleting information remotely.
While the above solutions certainly all there is, it’s a good place to start your own research as to what works for you and your company. However, always make sure to protect yourself and your information whether you’re out and about or even just sitting in the office. Preventative steps can go a long way in making sure you don’t have a massive headache (or unwanted negative publicity) down the road.
How Does A Practicing Attorney Have Time For Social Media? Bundle Post and HootSuite Have The Answer
Although I have had profiles for several years, I am fairly new to social media and only really began actively using Twitter and Facebook in January of this year. It was in January, after months of preparation for a truck accident case we tried at the end of 2011, that I had some time to do a few of the things that I had been wanting to do for years. The first was to launch a blog. My first love in terms of communication is the spoken word. Hey, I am a trial lawyer after all and what trial lawyer doesn’t love to hear himself talk? However, the written word is a close second for me and LAWYEROLOGY! has finally provided me with a place to communicate to a far larger audience.
Even though I started LAWYEROLOGY! for non-business reasons, I quickly realized that it could also serve a marketing function for my law firm. The only problem was that I had a law office to run, a full load of cases in fifteen different states, a wonderful wife, two active kids and an adamant opposition to having someone else post as me or for me on the blog or any other social media platform. In other words, I had very little time to dedicate to an effort that appeared to be very time consuming. On the other hand, if I was going to speak at seminars around the country about being a tech savvy lawyer and evolving with the times, I simply had to find a way to get involved without sacrificing my principles by simply hiring someone to do it for me.
After some quick trial and error, I found the two tools that have allowed me to successfully jump into social media and hit the ground running. The first tool is Bundle Post. Bundle Post is the creation of a very successful social media consultant by the name of Robert Caruso (@fondalo). With Bundlpost, I can package all of the content I want to publish without adding much time at all to my workday. I am already a voracious reader and Bundlepost provides a means to quickly and efficiently publish the content I am already reading each day to followers, friends and blog visitors.
This is how it works. Bundle Post allows the user to create multiple feeds from different content sources that automatically update periodically. It also allows the user to create unique content that can be saved and stored within the program. I have feeds coming in from all of my favorite online sources – the things I read everyday. Bundle Post allows me to quickly scan those feeds for items that interest me, or that I have already read, and easily review them for publication. It also automatically hashtags whatever items I choose with a click of the mouse. Bundle Post is user-friendly so I was able to set up Bundlepost in short order. In about thirty minutes each morning, I can prepare all of the content I want to publish for the entire day.
Now, a word about scheduling. There is a world of difference between scheduling content personally selected and/or written by you and having a robot blast RSS feeds and spam twenty-four hours a day. The later is not what Bundle Post allows me to do and not what it was designed to do. If you are looking for full social media automation, something I would discourage you from doing if you are interested in true engagement, then look somewhere else. All of the content I publish is read, selected and/or drafted by me. Being a lawyer, I am highly opinionated and there is simply no way that I am going to allow random content that may or may not reflect my beliefs to be blasted into cyberspace. At the same time, I cannot manually post everything I want to share at random times throughout the day. Bundle Post allows me to package everything, articles, original content, links, etc., in a neat CSV file that can simply be loaded into Hootsuite and scheduled. Of course that does not prevent me from also engaging spontaneously, something I will do frequently throughout the day depending on my schedule. For more infomation on Bundle Post, visit Robert’s website Bundlepost.com, check out his YouTube video here, or this great infographic.
So Bundle Post allowed me to eliminate the time consuming task of manually retrieving and posting the content I want to publish, but I also needed the ability to actively engage with friends and followers. After all, social media is not about chopping down traditional news to 140 characters and just blasting it out to the world. Social media is about being social. It is about engagement and spontaneity and you cannot schedule or package engagement. Enter HootSuite.
HootSuite is a social media dashboard that allows the user to monitor and manage multiple social media profiles. The CSV file of content from Bundle Post is easily loaded into HootSuite and published according to whatever custom parameters the user sets. With HootSuite, I can also easily monitor reactions and responses to the content I publish and respond throughout the day. I have a firm belief that if a person takes the time to engage with me personally, that it is my obligation to do the same. Rest assured that if a response of mine is posted on Twitter or Facebook, I am the one writing it. This is something I simply refused to sacrifice throughout this process.
What HootSuite allows me to do is view all of my profiles and engagement in one place, making the time investment required to monitor and engage a fraction of what it would be using separate social media interfaces. Please check out HootSuite.com as well for more information. In the end, I am a trial lawyer and certainly not a tech writer so I recommend reading what the experts have to say to get a better picture of how these tools can work for you.
So at the end of the day, what am I left with? No net increase in time dedicated to creating content. I was already a writer, just not a blogger. No net increase in time dedicated to selecting content. I was already reading the content I now publish on a daily basis before my foray into social media. If there is one thing law school does teach you, it’s speed reading. A minimal thirty minute time investment dedicated to packaging and scheduling my content with Bundlepost and Hootsuite. Finally, a thirty to sixty minute time investment spread throughout the day engaging, commenting and responding. Total time investment – sixty to ninety minutes a day. Result – over four thousand Twitter followers, numerous regular visitors to lawyerology.com and smctriallawyers.com, a respectable 58 Klout score on klout.com, the number one +K influencer on Klout.com in numerous topics including Law and even leads on a couple of potential cases. Gotta get that ROI (return on investment). Most importantly, I have gotten what I think social media is all about, engagement with great friends and followers all over the world that share the same interests, professions, likes, dislikes and, at times, the same opinions as me. That ROI is priceless.