Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 2)
Mar 29th, 2009 | By Laura Bergus | Category: Law School, Lead Article, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Networking
It’s only been a month since I first emailed my career services counselor with a link to my ticked-off post about law schools ignoring the potential value of social media. We’re now working together to get my law school in line in providing modern, useful social media advice. In the last few weeks, we’ve surveyed the students and drafted what will hopefully be an article for a legal trade mag. The preliminary survey [please visit and contribute to the survey - you don't need to be an Iowa student!] results indicate that not very many law students are thinking much about using social networking sites to promote themselves as professionals. I was honestly kind of surprised by this. Over 90% use Facebook, and over 75% use social networking sites at least “several times per day” (29% using them “whenever online”). But only just over a third have a LinkedIn profile.
The more exciting part of our plan for my school to “get real” about social media will come in the form of practical information for students: hands-on workshops on setting Facebook privacy settings, joining LinkedIn, how to find people on Twitter and the like. I’m hoping for a mandatory session during orientation (to go along with all the other riveting mandatory sessions) where the usual horror stories are replaced with helpful tips on professional online identity-building. (Interestingly, when I googled “facebook horror stories” to insert a link about the millions who must have lost their jobs due to poor judgment reflected in their profiles, most of the results were several years old, few with real details and many were just people looking for other “horror stories” to tell to teens, etc. Good evidence to scrutinize this urban legend more closely…)
So, law students: get out there and make yourselves as professionals online! This includes not only LinkedIn but a myriad of other social networks for lawyers and law students, such as Lawyrs, Advanced Advocates, Law Marketing, LexTweet and more. Making an effort to craft your online identity and will cost much less in time, effort and cash than mailing out a hundred dead-tree résumés. Once you get connected to your soon-to-be colleagues, be willing to promote what is there. For inspiration and some specifics on social networks, don’t miss What Career Service Office Advisors Should Be Telling Students.
A word of caution: whether you like it or not, digital text and images are so easy to copy, cache and transport, you can presume that anything posted online will last forever. The good news is that few employers will look past the top few search results, but you must be prepared to address anything that might be lurking in the ether. An honest “I made choices in the past that I wouldn’t make now” will get you further than denial.
Most of all, trust in yourself and your abilities and don’t hide. Know that social networking success stories are out there. Make yourself one of them!
Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 1 Here)
Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 3)
Related posts:
- Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools – Join the Discussion!
- Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 3)
- Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 1)
- Why Some Law Schools Discourage Social Media: Student Blogging
- Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools – the website
- What Career Service Office Advisors Should be Telling Students About Social Media [Part 1/2]
- What Career Service Office Advisors Should be Telling Students About Social Media [Part 2/2]
- Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools Webinar
- Top 20 Blog Posts of All Time
- Facebook Cuts Junk Launches Facebook Lite
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I really hope this goes somewhere. I’m fighting with my administration on other fronts right now, so I’m probably going to wait until next year to deal with their non-existent approach to social media. Hopefully you will have a lot of success so I can point to Iowa’s program as an example. Good luck!
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[...] Laura Bergus added an interesting post on Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 2) | Social …Here’s a small excerptThe more exciting part of our plan for my school to “get real” about social media will come in the form of practical information for students: hands-on workshops on setting Facebook privacy settings, joining LinkedIn, how to find people … [...]
Josh – it’s been great so far: very receptive and wanting to hear what students need and expect. Definitely see the value of a replicable program. Thanks for the comment!
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[...] Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools (Part 2) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)A Facebook for law students?Advanced AdvocatesBest Practices in Law Schools Survey is great; but what is “clinical?”The Connected Law Student [...]
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This article provided right things to became a perfect lawyer.
Neil
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I enjoyed reading your latest article. Keep up the good work!
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[...] media, you may have seen earlier posts – Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and “The Website“. Now I’m hoping you will take the next step and join [...]