ABA Social Networking Policy
ABA Advisory Panel: Social Network Usage
The ABA leadership and Standing Committee on Strategic Communications are developing a social network policy to determine how (if) the ABA will utilize social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Thus far they have surveyed lawyers and law students separately and found as follows:
Among practicing lawyers:
- 1/3 of respondents did not have accounts on any of the 3 social networks mentioned
- Among respondents who did have an account, LinkedIn was considered professional
- Among respondents who had an account, Facebook was considered strictly casual
- Lawyer attitudes toward social networks varied (waste of time, useful for business)
- Most respondents favor an ABA group on LinkedIn, fewer favor one on Facebook
- Younger respondents favored the idea of the ABA having a presence on social networks
Among law students:
- they are much more engaged in social media than practitioners
- nearly 90% of surveyed law students had Facebook accounts
- about 75% of surveyed law students accessed Facebook daily
- they tend to be more positive about social networks in general
- they tend to favor ABA groups on both LinkedIn and Facebook
In a related story, the ABA Journal did not report that anyone was the least bit surprised by the findings.
