Conclusion and Resources - Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools

Conclusion & References

Conclusion

Now is a pivotal moment to embrace social media. More and more of our interactions are happening online, opening up opportunities for finding and sharing ideas and information like never before. Younger generations are realizing the value of being purposeful about what’s posted about them online. Whether you are a student, a counselor or someone looking for new talent, you can benefit from learning about and using social media in a responsible and effective way.

Resources and References

The following resources are linked within the main article are listed here in the order they appear there.

Introduction

Overview of social media from Wikipedia:
http://courts.mt.gov/locator.asp
Explanation of search engine optimization (SEO) from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
Drake Law Student Abbie Toney's comments on her school's warnings against using social media:
http://abbietoney.blogspot.com/2008/12/social-networking-evil.html
Bank intern Kevin Colvin who allegedly lost his job due to posting party photos on Facebook when he had said he was out due to a family emergency:
http://gawker.com/tech/your-privacy-is-an-illusion/bank-intern-busted-by-facebook-321802.php
Article on slowing economy and fewer entry-level legal hires from the National Association for Law Placement:
http://www.nalp.org/entry-levelrecruitingslowswitheconomy

Students

Survey of University of Iowa law students (and a few others) about their online identity and use of social media:
https://survey.uiowa.edu/wswebtop.dll/WSPubReport?esid=8241&subaccountid=515
Suggestions for tailoring Facebook privacy settings from Lawyerist.com:
http://lawyerist.com/2009/05/04/professional-facebook-privacy-in-under-10-minutes/

Staff

Download a draft policy that your institution can adapt for staff/agent use of social media [Word doc]
http://smbp.laurabergus.com/images/social-media-policy-draft-lbergus.doc

Employers

Twitter 101 for recruiting (Note: this is a LinkedIn Slideshare and requires a LinkedIn account to view)
http://tinyurl.com/ma6wpf

Resources for institutional use

When your law school is developing a social media plan or policies for use, these resources may be helpful. (Again, in no particular order.)

Beth Kanter has a blog and wiki devoted to critical issues in social media for non-profits (extremely useful in the government/institutional context as well)
http://beth.typepad.com/
A comprehensive toolkit from the Blog Council for addressing key social media policy issues and writing policy
http://blogcouncil.org/disclosure/
Know the extent to which your school can limit its employees' use of social media in and outside the workplace (specific to blogging but applicable to other forms of social media participation)
http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/labor
A useful flowchart for making institutional social media policy decisions
http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=5d005d7f82ae13f1a4e7ae756afe900a
Law.com's recommendations for what to weigh and what to include in making social media policy
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/
A list of metrics for helping measure social media interactions
http://www.thesocialorganization.com/social-media-metrics.html
Basic considerations for social media policy and links to many example policies
http://wiki.altimetergroup.com/page/Social+Media+Policies
DePaul University's guidelines for social media use
http://brandresources.depaul.edu/vendor_guidelines/g_recommendation.aspx
Dave Fleet's suggestions for internal social media policy
http://davefleet.com/2009/05/social-media-policies-company-internal-policies/
Example blogging policy and blogger's code of ethics
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2004/11/blogging_policy.html
Need to know when to respond to a post about your school? Try following the Air Force's flowchart, linked here:
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/12/31/diagram-how-the-air-force-response-to-blogs/
Gartner's public web participation guideliens
http://blogs.gartner.com/gartner-public-web-participation-guidelines/
Sun Microsystems' straightforward policy for employee social media use
http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp
The United Kingdom's Civil Service website's straightforward policy on social media participation for its employees
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/work/codes/participation-online.aspx
Mashable.com's comprehensive Twitter guidebook
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

The following are social networks catering to lawyers, law students and others in the legal education or services field. They are listed in random order. This is not an endorsement of any of these networks. Please comment below or contact the author if you would like to see other networks added to this list.

Social Media Best Practices

for Law Schools