Archive for June, 2010

This is the third post in the series, Twitter Law U Gameday:  Where's the Band?  So far, we have examined what law schools are on Twitter http://blog.lawwriter.com/2010/05/  and why all law schools need to have aTwitter presence http://blog.lawwriter.com/2010/06/.

Today, we give credit to those schools who really get it.  A lot of schools think it's enough just to have a Twitter and Facebook account–that's their comprehensive social media strategy. Then they can go back to their constituents and report that they are on social media, and their job is done.  They are sorely mistaken.    

A comprehensive social media strategy is a well-thought out plan orchestrated to fire on all cylinders.  The plan must take into account who the target audience is, different ways to reach that target audience, strategies to attract new audiences, and the accounts should be updated almost daily.

The following schools have made the grade and deserve their just recognition:

All Roads Lead to Rome Award

These schools really get social media.  They have several different social media accounts designed to reach their target audiences in many different forms:

UVALaw is on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and has its own YouTube channel

Harvard_Law is on Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, and has the following Twitter accounts:  the law school, class of 2010, registrar, international legal studies, housing and the library.  Yes, 6 Twitter accounts in all for the law school.

MULaw is on all the usual suspects, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, and it also has a faculty blog. More law schools definitely need to get their faculty involved with blogging.

Pied Piper Award

If you tweet it, they will come:

Harvard_Law  7,078 followers

UChicagoLaw  2,871 followers

UVALaw  1,698 followers

UMichLaw  1,465 followers

Go the Extra Mile Award

These schools are constantly bombarding their followers with the school news:

WidenerLaw   3588 tweets

UChicagoLaw  2297 tweets

Harvard_Law  1989 tweets

First Impressions are the Most Lasting Award

These schools have great descriptive Twitter handles, not to be confused with any other school:

UTexasLaw

IUMauerLaw

IowaLawSchool

StanfordLaw

UChicagoLaw

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover Award

These schools don't quite understand branding, but they are doing a decent job tweeting:

sjquinney   Huh? University of Utah's law school, of course.

MULaw     Montana University Law?  Nope.  Maryland, perhaps?  Nope, it's Marquette.

dpulaw     Of course, DePaul Law School

Master of the Retweet Award

These schools have mastered the art of retweeting, something so many schools seem afraid of:

AlbanyLaw

ChicagoKentLaw

So, that's The Good.  Our next and final post will reveal The Bad and The Ugly.

This is the second post in a four-part series: Twitter Law U Gameday: Where's the Band? This post highlights why law schools need to have a Twitter presence.

When I talk to law schools about jumping into the Twitter stream, the most common protest I get is “but we have a website, isn’t that enough?”  The answer is NO, and here is why: 

“A website, while a valuable informational tool, is viewed in today’s world as static, in contrast to the “real-time” communication stream of Twitter.  Twitter doesn’t replace your existing information resources, such as newsletters and websites—it is used in conjunction with them.  Twitter gets your information out to the public in a direct and immediate manner.  A law school’s website is often updated without anyone even knowing about it.  With Twitter, the school can Tweet about the content as soon as it’s updated on the website, thus reaching a vast audience and immediately letting them know about the new content.” Jump Into The Stream, www.Techcrunch.com, May 17, 2009.

So, the greatest value of Twitter is the immediacy of the message delivery—it streams live in real time. The immediacy of the message is so great that Harvard Law School even used it on February 10 of this year to update snow predictions for its students and faculty! RT: Boston Tweet: Boston has downgraded the snowstorm to an advisory with less than 6" of accumulation – the snow emergency ends at 6pm.  

Law schools should use Twitter daily to promote their brand name, expertise and knowledge. Law schools can use Twitter to do everything from announcing press releases and awards, to messaging existing students, to recruiting new students and promoting alumni relations.  For example, the University of Chicago Law School had this recent tweet: Alumni News: Alan Meese '89 Receives William & Mary's Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence 

The value of Twitter is keeping the school’s brand name in front of students, potential students and alumni every day.  For a law school, keeping the name of the school in front of a student who has applied to law schools and consistently bombarding him or her with news of great happenings on campus is invaluable in influencing that student to attend that school.  Nobody is perhaps doing a better job of this than Widener Law School with 3588 tweets,  or University of Chicago Law School with 2,297 tweets, It is also a useful tool to persuade alumni to make donations for the same reason. 

Yet another advantage of Twitter is so schools can control their own content and message.  The school is the author of the Tweets and can control the message about the school that it wants delivered. Moreover, if a negative message about the school is distributed by a disgruntled student, for example, the school will have a direct and immediate method to counter-attack the student’s negative message on Twitter.

Finally, the competition is already using Twitter effectively to target new law students and to service their existing students and alumni.  The University of Virgina Law School, for example, demonstrates its social media prowess by not only having a Twitter account, but also a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Linkedin account. For many Generation Y students and alums who are on-line constantly and don’t respond to traditional methods of communication, that will be an important consideration in deciding which law school to attend and which donations to make.

So, kudos to the law schools who have joined Twitter and, in the process, created their own personalized news magazine.  To the rest of you, what in the world are you waiting for?