Engaging existing customers and clients while developing new business leads has reached new dimensions in 2010. Years ago companies relied upon traditional media such as radio, television and newspapers to advertise and promote their brands. Creating brand awareness and developing customer loyalty could take weeks and months as ads saturated small towns to major commercial cities from coast to coast. Lawyers too invested significant sums in producing and distributing glossy brochures and promotional literature branded with the Firm’s philosophy and backed by years of expertise.

In today’s economy, businesses and their law firms need cost-effective, broad reaching branding tools to launch new products, issue press releases, drive Internet users to rich and developed content on interactive Web sites, and disseminate critical advisories such as product recalls. From a company taking its first steps out of a business incubator to venerable brands and their trusted trademark counsel, the latest buzz is all about creating buzz itself, online, and through the use of interactive online tools which are aptly named Web 2.0. We have collectively reached a new generation of communication and business networking which is premised upon conducting “brand conversations” with the consuming public through Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter and engaging in virtual handshakes and alliances through LinkedIn.

Advantages
The primary Web 2.0 tool is Twitter. On Twitter, brands and lawyers regularly distill trends in the law, product launches, promotional campaigns and drum up consumer dialogue in 140 characters or less. Tweeting can occur at any hour on any day. As a result, there is always a global population of readers ready to receive information. Brands and law firms can quickly build a global online following as it only takes a few keystrokes to become a "follower" of a particular brand, attorney, or law firm. Social media has rapidly become a top priority for many brands which has lead to the creation of social media directors who are paid to tweet and respond to consumer questions or complaints. For lawyers, the ability to direct people to press releases announcing recent wins at court or helpful articles on developing case law is made even easier through Twitter. Through the power of the "retweet", a sentiment or announcement can be circulated and re-circulated throughout cyberspace. Twitter also offers users the ability to bookmark or create lists of individuals and brands making it even easier to categorize and make sense out of the digital stream of information.

Page 1 2 3

Before joining Hodgson Russ, Mr. Suzan was a senior associate at a prominent firm in New York City. His experience includes prosecuting and defending trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board; representing and counseling clients on federal trademark litigation matters; managing and supervising foreign trademark agents in international oppositions, cancellation actions, and infringement proceedings; advising clients on the availability and commercial advisability of proposed trademarks; counseling clients on all facets of trademark clearance, prosecution, infringement, licensing, domain name, and Internet and new media matters; preparing, filing, and defending proceedings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy; drafting, reviewing, and negotiating agreements for a wide range of Internet services; and advising clients on enforcement policies for worldwide protection against counterfeiting activities. Mr. Suzan is the author of numerous articles on topics in his areas of concentration, including "Legal Strategies in the Age of Social Networking" and "Expand Your Brand Into the U.S.," both published in The Lawyers Weekly. He is also the author of "Tapping to the Beat of a Digital Drummer: Fine Tuning U.S. Copyright Law for Music Distribution on the Internet," published in the Albany Law Review; he received first prize from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) for this article. At Albany Law School of Union University, Mr. Suzan was the managing editor of lead articles for the Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology.