Practice

Practice — 8 Comments
7
Jan 13

Law Firms Using Social Media for Recruiting

Inspired by Sarah Halzack’s (@sarahhalzack) article “For Non-profit NPR, Social Media is a ‘Great Equalizer’ When it Comes to Hiring,” Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) recently posted “Are Law Firms Using Social Media for Recruiting?“  Kevin tweeted his post last night, and I wanted to respond but needed more than 140 characters.  Here are my thoughts on which firms have taken steps toward using social media for recruiting and what firms need to do to succeed at using social media for recruiting.

I’m not aware of a law firm that has had as much success as NPR.  However, the following firms have taken significant steps suggesting that they are committed to incorporating social media in their recruiting strategies:

  1. Cooley’s Recruiting Twitter Account. Last summer, Cooley launched a dedicated recruiting Twitter account, @CooleyCareers, and shares information about job postings, law school recruiting initiatives, and associate outings.
  2. DLA Piper’s Summer Associate Blog. Last summer, DLA Piper launched DLA Piper Summer 2012, a blog focusing on its 2012 Summer Associates.  Select Summer Associates posted about their experience working at DLA.
  3. WilmerHale’s Careers Facebook Account. WilmerHale has Facebook page dedicated to its recruiting department, WilmerHale Careers, but hasn’t posted since May 2011.
  4. WilmerHale’s Summer Associate & Associate Blogs.  WilmerHale also maintains two blogs–one for its Summer Associates and one for Associates.  Select Summer Associates and Associates post about their experiences as a Summer Associate or Associate at WilmerHale.
  5. Waller. Waller maintains a blog devoted to young lawyers, Young Lawyers Blog, and a corresponding Twitter account, @wlansden.

I’m sure other firms have taken steps toward incorporating social media in their recruiting strategies, but the above firms are the ones that caught my attention in 2012.

There is definitely room for improvement.  Law firms using social media for recruiting need to humanize their accounts and engage with potential new hires. I recommend that law firms look outside the legal industry for ideas on how to use social media as a recruiting tool.  For example:

  1. Twitter. In order to see success, firms need individuals engaging with law students and associates on Twitter.  Look at @RecruiterStacy for ESPN.  She has over 20,000 followers and consistently engages with potential new hires.
  2. Facebook. Create a business page for the law firm recruiter so he or she can engage with potential new hires.  Or, maintain a separate Facebook business page dedicated to the firm’s recruiting department, such as PwC’s Careers Page.
  3. YouTube. Create a YouTube channel for the recruiting department so potential new hires can hear from associates or others working at the firm.  PwC is an excellent example of a company using YouTube for recruiting.
  4. Blogs. I’m sure @kevinokeefe has some thoughts for this category!  I recommend updating the blog on a regular basis and having a Twitter and/or Facebook account (either the individual recruiter’s account, the recruiting department’s account, or an account tied to the blog) to share posts and promote the blog.

What are your thoughts?  What other firms are using social media for recruiting?  Success stories?

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5
Jan 13

Creating Effective Twitter Lists

If you are like me, glancing at your Twitter news feed can be overwhelming.  I follow a larger number of people (over 5,000), so it’s impossible to read what everyone tweets each day.  However, many of the people I follow share valuable, interesting information that I don’t want to miss.  Twitter Lists have helped me organize the people I follow and carve out time for Twitter in my 12-14 hour work days.   I usually spend 15-20 minutes on Twitter each day, and obtain valuable information that makes me more informed, entertained or engaged.

If you are interested in experimenting with Twitter Lists, here are my tips for creating effective Twitter Lists.

  1. Choose up to 15 categories for your lists. Twitter allows you to create up to 20 lists or categories for the people you follow.  You can place a person in multiple lists.  I recommend that you think of up to 15 categories or list titles you want to use for sure and keep five open for categories you might think of as you review your feed and organize your lists.  My lists include categories such as Legal News, Other News, Top 20 Legal, Top 20 Recruiting, Top 20 Other, Big Firm Lawyers, Law Students, Dallas Lawyers, Other Lawyers, Competitors and Law School Career Offices.   After I created my 15 lists and while I began placing people in certain lists, I realized I wanted a list for in-house lawyers, so this is why I recommend not using all 20 lists initially.  You’ll think of categories as you begin adding people to list.
  2. Allow yourself a week to create your lists. The people you follow on Twitter are more active at certain times and on certain days of the week.  For example, many legal news accounts tweet on weekday mornings while many of thought leaders I follow who aren’t in the legal profession tweet on weekends and evenings.  To capture your favorite people and add them to your lists, you need to jump on Twitter at different times throughout the week.  I recommend Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, Sunday evening, at least one weekday morning (between 8:30-9:30 CST), and at lest one weeknight.
  3. Create over-inclusive lists. You’ll notice that I have several lists titled “top 20.”  However, I initially had more than 20 people on each list.  You want to give yourself time to evaluate the tweets to see which people are your favorites–the ones who provide critical information that you aren’t going to obtain from anywhere else.  You can always remove people from a list, so make your lists over-inclusive at the beginning and weed out people over time.
  4. Everyone you follow doesn’t belong on a list. The goal behind the Twitter Lists is to capture the information shared by the most important people you follow.
  5. Identify the Top 3 Lists. Once your lists are created, you can review the lists each time you jump onto Twitter.  However, there will be days you don’t have time to review all your lists.  Identify your top 3 lists.  These lists are the ones you will check daily — the ones that always deliver important information you can’t afford to miss.  My “top 3″ are Legal News, Other News, and Top 20 Legal.
  6. Do you want your lists public or private? Finally, you can make each list a public or private list.  The majority of mine are private.  I create a public one when I give presentations and want to create a list the audience can find and follow.  If your list is public, the person you add to the list will receive a notification that you added him/her to a certain list (and the name of the list).  If your list is private, the people you add never know that they have been added to a list.

What are your tips for using Twitter Lists or fitting time for Twitter in your busy schedule?  Feel free to share in the Comments!

    #LawJobChat / Practice — 8 Comments
    26
    Jul 12

    Legal Careers + Olympics: #LawJobChat No. 16

    Our July 2012 #LawJobChat is tonight, Thursday, July 26, at 9pm EDT.  Since the July chat falls on the night before the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics, we’re focusing the chat on legal careers tied to the Olympics, such as:

    In this chat, we’ll explore the roles of the lawyers outlined above, including their daily tasks and career paths.  Our guests for the July chat include several prominent sports lawyers who are active on Twitter, including @DavidCohenEsq, @LauraJeffords, and @Sports_BKLawyer.

    Click here or here for details on how to participate in a Twitter Chat.  As always, I’ll post the #LawJobChat transcript following the live chat.

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    30
    Dec 11

    I ♥ Flipboard!

    I received an iPad for Christmas and immediately fell in love with the Flipboard app.  The app, also available for iPhones (as of Dec. 2011), aggregates all web links shared by your contacts on various social networking sites and displays the content in magazine-like format, as shown below.   You flip through the pages of content by sliding your finger across the screen.

    Now, I prefer reading social networking updates on Flipboard rather than each social networking site or app for the following reasons:

    1. Scan updates. Flipboard displays enough content for each web link so you can determine if the link is worth reading (or saving to read later – see #2).  If you touch the screen and slide your finger across, you flip to the next page of updates.  The magazine-like display and touch to flip function allow you to quickly scan the information shared by your networks rather than scrolling down pages to read updates and clicking on links.
    2. Save and read later. The Flipboard app syncs with Instapaper and Read It Later.  Choose one for your Flipboard account (you can create either account for free) and you can save links to read later.
    3. Comment, like or share. Finally, you can interact on your social networking sites from the Flipboard app.  If you enjoyed an article shared on Facebook, you can “like” the link.  You can also comment or share links.
    Practice — 1 Comment
    16
    May 11

    Social Media Time Management: Market in Morning, Engage in Evening

    Chris Brogan’s post, Organize Your Business,  outlines a time management strategy he uses to prioritize his daily business tasks.  Instead of spending the beginning of each day focusing on the most important tasks, he spends the beginning of each day focusing on something that will lead to long-term business growth.  He refers to this task as “lead generation and promotion,” and it includes marketing activities such as sending an email newsletter or writing a blog post.  Brogan focuses on marketing activities first to ensure that his business is visible and seen while he’s working on the other important tasks of the day.

    The fourth and final component of Brogan’s organizational scheme is correspondence.  His final task of each day is responding to (non-urgent) emails or commenting on blog posts.

    I love Brogan’s approach of marketing in the morning and engaging in the evening, and I think it is one way job seekers can manage their social media tasks (click here for another way job seekers can manage their time on social media).

    For example, job seekers could spend five minutes each morning updating the BIG 3 sites with a link to an article, blog post, or an about.me profile — something that will make the job seekers visible while they turn to other pressing tasks such as researching potential employers, sending resumes, or interviewing (or working or studying if they are employed or attending school full-time).   Then, job seekers could spend the end of each day engaging with other users on the BIG 3 — responding to @mentions and direct messages, commenting on other tweets or Facebook and LinkedIn updates, or retweeting other users’ tweets.

    If you are satisfied with how you are spending your time on the BIG 3, keep doing what you are doing.  If you are searching for a new social media time management approach, try marketing in the mornings and engaging in the evenings to see if this approach works for you.

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    20
    Jul 10

    iFocus Time Management Tool for Social Networking Sites

    I previously wrote about the importance of time blocking in your social job search, and you can read that post here.  One entire chapter of my forthcoming book focuses on efficient use of the Big 3 social networking sites in your job search, including tools like time blocking.  And, I recommend (1) setting a timer for the period of time in which you plan to use the Big 3 social networking sites, and (2) refraining from all other activities during this block of time, such as checking emails or answering your phone.

    Yesterday, I learned of a new time blocking tool from a recent law grad I follow on Twitter.  She recommended iFocus for bar exam takers to help them limit the time spent on social networking sites while studying for the bar exam.  iFocus allows you to set time limits for computer activities, such as email, social networking sites, and online news.  As you can see in the image below, you can set iFocus to prevent further use of such activity once the allocated time block is over, or you can opt to receive a notice.

    ifocus set limits

    If you are curious about iFocus, there are additional screenshots on the iFocus site to illustrate how the program works, or you can download the free program and try it yourself.

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    12
    Jul 10

    The First-Year Plan: 25 Contacts, 33 Months

    One new addition to The 6Ps of the Big 3™ for Job-Seeking JDs is the First-Year Plan in Chapter 8.  Chapter 8 focuses on the fifth “P” – Practice – and examines three steps required to use the Big 3 social networking sites efficiently, including blocking your time and activities, measuring your activity responses and activity goals, and practicing on the sites.

    The First-Year Plan is one type of activity goal that first-year law students and first-year law firm associates may choose to measure.  Law students and lawyers in their first year of school or practice are at an advantage because they have 2-3 years before they will need a new job.  They have time to build a network of potential referral sources and employers before they need anything from their networks.   A first-year law student won’t need a full-time job until graduation.  According to statistics, a first-year associate will likely leave his firm between his second to fifth years of practice.

    The First-Year Plan described in Chapter 8 outlines how first-year law students and lawyers can add 25 new, meaningful contacts to their professional networks over a 33 month period (i.e., September of first semester through May graduation).   According to the First-Year Plan, the first-year students and lawyers will add five different types of contacts, all important to their job search:  (1) hometown/family friend contacts; (2) college alumni contacts; (3) law school alumni contacts; (4) contacts from organizations; and (5) practice area contacts.

    The first-year students and lawyers will grow and nurture their networks by performing tasks on the Big 3 social networking sites according to the First-Year Plan.

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    12
    Apr 10

    Time Blocking Your Social Job Search

    Many lawyers and law students mistakenly believe that using social networking in your job search consumes too much time.  While it is certainly easy to get distracted and waste time, it’s just as easy to control your time on social networking sites.

    In my books, I recommend time blocking as one solution.  I first learned about time blocking when I started recruiting – it’s a very common practice in the recruiting field.  Time blocking is just assigning tasks for certain blocks of time; during that block, you do nothing but the assigned task.  For example:

    8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Read, return emails
    9:00 – 10:00 a.m. 15 recruiting calls for Position A
    10:00 -11:00 a.m. Market Candidate B to 8 firms

    For a lawyer or law student using the Big 3 social networking sites in their job search, the time blocks for any given day might look like this:

    8:00-8:15 a.m. Facebook – search 10 law firm business pages for job leads; check to see if firm you are interviewing with on Friday has FB page
    8:15-8:30 a.m. LinkedIn –  prep for interview by searching names of 8 attorneys you are meeting on Friday
    8:30-8:35 a.m. Twitter – search firm’s name on Twitter; save search and check for results again at 6:00 p.m.
    6:00-6:05 p.m. Twitter – check saved search for firm where you are interviewing to see if there are any new tweets about the firm

    During the time blocks above, the job seeker must refrain from all other activities such as answering the phone, responding to emails, or checking the Big 3 sites for personal purposes (do that after you check for professional purposes).  Consider setting a timer (most cell phones have timers) so that you know when to stop; forcing yourself to stop will also help you become more efficient over time.