Social Media Best Practices

The easy way is not the best way when it comes to addressing law students’ and law schools' online identities. Students, staff and administrators, and employers agree that the goal of law school is to land graduates in careers that are relevant and satisfying (and sufficient to pay the bills). When asked how social media fits into this plan, the easy answer is “it doesn’t.” Easy for the student because she needn't care to keep track of what is posted about her online. Easy for staff because “say nothing” is simpler advice than “create your audience and harness SEO to market yourself professionally.” Easy for employers because it limits the amount of information, often to a single piece of paper in their hands, on which they base judgments of the candidate, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, “keep away” is the advice most law students hear as part of the opening pitch from their career services office or central administration. Thanks to the urban legends1 of the guy who lost his job because of carelessness on Facebook or the girl who never got a call back because of her blog, most schools say to minimize what is posted about you online and make sure nothing new pops up. But at a time when every student and every school must be looking for a competitive edge, promoting the appropriate use of social media for professional development may be the key.

Law students, law school staff and employers of law students must understand the role that social media can and should play in helping each obtain their goals.

Properly used, social media helps law students:

• narrow their interests
• learn in greater depth the nuance of their field
• connect with relevant practitioners, and
• create friendships, mentors and employment

Law schools and their staff will benefit when social media helps them:

• connect with students on students' terms and turf
• easily learn from others' successes in the field
• save marketing and communications resources
• quickly develop meaninful online relationships with prospective students, alumni and donors

Employers can successfully use social media to:

• recruit more, better-suited applicants
• quickly learn more about candidates' skills, experience, work product and work ethic
• recruit and screen any time of day or night, no travel required

Learn more by reading each section of this website (linked above and in the navigation at the top of the page). Please provide comments and feedback by contacting the author.

1 I use the term "urban legends" because despite all the warnings and examples of bad behavior that exist, a Google search for "lost job facebook" returned very few recent examples of individuals who have actually been fired due to social media use (the Kevin Colvin example linked above being the most infamous, but also a Swedish nurse and bored British teenager) — especially few in the United States — while a Google search for "found job twitter" returned dozens of relevant success stories. Since this was orginally posted, I have found one story of a law student who was expelled based on his Facebook use - but it is a unique set of circumstances.