By TIFFANY MONDE
tmonde@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1655

Update your status, make sure to tweet about it and make that connection on LinkedIn. Oh, and don't forget to blog about it.

Social networking has grown dramatically over the last few years. Facebook, which was created as a college Web site at Harvard University in 2004, now has more than 400 million users. What started out as a way for college students to socialize has evolved into a networking venue used not only by individuals but also by businesses.

Blogs have also grown. On Wordpress.com, 1.4 million new blogs were created and page views increased by 5.5 billion between 2008 and 2009.

How are law firms embracing this new technology? Are they riding the wave or fighting the current?

Adrian Dayton, a social media expert and former attorney at Jaeckle Fleischmann Mugel LLP, said older members of law firms often don't understand the technology. Vincent LoTempio, a registered patent attorney agreed and said some lawyers still don't even use computers and do everything by paper.

That said, Dayton suggested that once the older generation embraces it, they usually take a better hold of it then their younger counterparts.

"Young lawyers have no idea how to have a business conversation," said Dayton, adding that many young professionals are coming from a college mind-set where the emphasis is on the "social" aspect of social media.

Rick Cohen, a partner at Goldberg Segalla LLP, said he isn't worried about the younger generation transitioning into the professional world. The firm hasn't had any issues with employees using social networking in inappropriate ways, he said.

"Even our young professionals are using social media in a productive way," said Cohen.

Many companies, according to Dayton, have policies that discourage the use of social media. Web sites such as Facebook get filtered out of their computers. In fact, some firms equate social media to a waste of time; they don't encourage employees to use these tools.

This is not the case at, Kloss, Stenger and LoTempio, where LoTempio encourages his employees to make connections online.

"How can you say Facebook isn't relevant with the amount of people on it?" he said.

The numbers prove his point: In 2007, Microsoft paid $15 billion for the minority share of Facebook, making it one of the five most valuable Internet-based companies.

John Jablonski, also a partner at Goldberg Segalla LLP, said the firm has embraced social media. Calling it "the next natural step," he said employees have used laptops and BlackBerrys for years.

"It's not a new frontier, just an extension of our work environment," Jablonski said.

LinkedIn is the primarily vehicle there, though employees of the firm also are actively blogging and using Facebook.

LoTempio said he hopped on the blog bandwagon in December (www.lotempiolaw.com) and now is involved in a growing group of law bloggers. He also is active on Twitter with 284 followers.

"If I would have done it three years ago, I would have been one of 10 patent bloggers," he said. "Now there are 340 to 350 patent blogs out there."

He looks at social media as an extension of the work that he and other employees already do at the firm.

"It's not so much as being out there so people can see you, but being out there making connections," LoTempio said.

With lots of free online marketing, however, questions arise regarding how marketing and advertising will change in the future.

Jablonski and Cohen agree that it won't replace traditional advertising, but there will be many more dollars invested in social media than in the past.

"If a publication has a print publication but also has a blog and an electronic edition, then you will see your advertising dollars going into all of that," Jablonski said.

Time will need to be invested, as well. Dayton suggested that 10 percent of a lawyer's week should be spent on marketing.

An hour or two a day should be spent on social media alone, he said.

LoTempio said he has seen the trend already in positions that are opening up specifically to handle social media or to train companies to use it.

"If companies don't embrace it,"
Jablonski added, "they will be consumed by it."