Social media is about being social. It’s about conversations. It’s about contributing to conversations that are taking place, and sharing them with others.

You don’t have to create original content to blog, you can just add a little message to someone else’s content and move along.

Sorta like I did yesterday with my post “Before you Best or Super Lawyer, Watch This.”

I didn’t create the video. I just shared it.

I attributed, via the direct link to the author — lawfirmsatire‘s YouTube channel — promoted it, and moved on.

I even gave attribution via a H/T (hat tip) to my sister who passed it along to me in the first place (I only did that on Facebook because I’m not sure if she wanted her PTB to know that she was my source, lol).

My friend Tom Matte, via The Matte Pad, posted today about Your Law Firm Should Never Steal Content!

Stealing blog content, or any content for that matter, is never a good idea and will reflect very poorly on your law firm.

Tom’s recent post, Bald Lawyer Pokes Fun at Self and Creates Memorable Brand, went viral and got picked up, and appropriately attributed, by several legal blogs. However, it also got picked up, and not attributed, by others, which is called stealing.

That’s how blogs work much of the time – we see something interesting, reference it in our post and add our own two cents to it. It gives us great content and allows us to cross-promote those that we feel are bringing something interesting and pertinent to the table.

(SKIP)

Here’s where it goes awry…when others pick up your content and don’t reference or credit you and your work. That’s stealing. And for better or worse, the popularity of this post has brought a few thieves out of the woodwork. The people that stole my post did reference the ABA in their post, but it looks like they intentionally left out any reference to The Matte Pad since they are direct competitors.

Tom, ever the professional and gentleman, did not reference the “thieves,” (I’ll ask him in a DM via Twitter to name names), but he’s right.

Look at this post. I picked up Tom’s content. I’ve given him credit. I’ve attributed. I linked back. I’ve promoted him by giving you links to his blog, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.

I have added to the conversation that he began, without diminishing my personal brand. In fact, I have enhanced my brand, because it’s about the conversations that take place around our water coolers.

When it comes to blogging, to paraphrase the great James Carville, it’s about the conversation, stupid.

Sometimes you start the conversation, sometimes you just contribute to the conversation, and sometimes you just listen in on the conversation.

However, don’t steal the content of the conversation. Your mother raised you better than that.

Photo courtesy of http://www.geneabloggers.com