Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Twitter account has emerged as the most successful in the legal sector, according to a recent survey.
The survey, published last month (December) by Intendance, gave A&O a rating of 99. The magic circle firm was followed closely by DLA Piper, which scored 98 and Eversheds at 97.
Intendance allocated points using a formula that considers the number of followers and firms’ commitment to their own Twitter accounts, the number of updates (which counts for more if the time elapsed between tweets is low), the ratio of followers to following and the number of retweets of their posts.
A&O’s Twitter page gained the highest ranking for several reasons including the fact that the firm’s brand is used comprehensively on its account, which also incorporates its corporate website.
The magic circle firm’s website manager Christian Walsh said: “This is nice recognition of our efforts over the past two years and our intent is to continue to embed social media into A&O’s communications. Twitter helps us shape the debate around key issues, and also to listen to the feedback and respond to it.”
Despite having zero tweets Norton Rose’s account, which ranked number 10, scored 88 points in the survey, only two points below Olwsang, which has posted over 100 tweets. Other firms that made it into the top 10 were Withers (fourth place), Clifford Chance, DLA Piper (real estate group), Shoosmiths, (joint fifth place with Olswang) and Taylor Wessing (sixth place).
The survey also revealed that 66 per cent of the top 50 law firms that were surveyed have Twitter accounts, although many are not used proactively, with some even lying dormant with few or no tweets. Meanwhile, a sizeable 35 per cent have unclear ownership.
Readers' comments (25)
mary | 11-Jan-2011 3:47 pm
Really? What are they doing on there? What of meaning can a law firm possibly have to say in 140 characters?
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Tweetiepie | 11-Jan-2011 3:48 pm
"Despite having zero tweets Norton Rose’s account, which ranked number 10, scored 88 points in the survey, only two points below Olwsang, which has posted over 100 tweets."
Did Norton Rose pay to get included in this survey or something? How on earth did they manage to come out over Olswang and the rest? Can someone from Intendance explain?
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Anonymous | 11-Jan-2011 3:53 pm
This survey has no credibility. If Norton Rose can appear in the table at all depsite having no tweets then the methodology has misunderstood Twitter completely. Effective Twitter accounts are those that engage with their community by, in the first instance, tweeting - and also retweeting, replying and using hashtags.
Conduct a search on Norton Rose's Twitter account in any respected engine that measures Twitter effectiveness or influence (eg, Tweetreach, Klout) and you'll find a very low score.
Norton Rose will not be picking up any business from having a dead account, I assure you.
What ridiculous metrics, Intendance. It's like judging a green grocer by what shoes she wears.
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Anonymous | 11-Jan-2011 4:14 pm
So, the head of M&A Paris is leaving and further eruptions to come, but a phantastic success on the twitter front - just pitiful
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Anonymous | 11-Jan-2011 4:52 pm
@Anon, 3:53pm
There was a time when New York law firms were judged by the shoes their lawyers wore.
Besides, my local greengrocer works barefoot, and therefore does not receive my custom. The freak.
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Anonymous | 11-Jan-2011 6:07 pm
Well, congratulations on winning a meaningless Twitter competition.
Their website, on the other hand, is appalling.
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Anonymous | 11-Jan-2011 6:33 pm
such a shame that so many firms bother to go to the trouble to personalise their accounts (allen & overy's is particularly spiffy) but are so ineffective at utilising twitter to its full potential. there are plenty of lawyers on twitter engaging with other tweeters, making for intelligent and interesting discussion most of the time. why top law firms fail to understand how to interact is beyond me...
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Jonathan Lea | 11-Jan-2011 10:44 pm
Is this a joke? There are numerous UK lawyers on twitter who according to the authoritative klout.com website are more influential than Allen & Overy who have a current klout score of 30.
For example, such legal twitter rock stars as @london_law_firm @brianinkster and @jonathanlea have klout scores of 54, 54 and 51 respectively.
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Legal Twitter Rock Star | 12-Jan-2011 12:01 pm
Shameless bit of self-promotion from Jonathan 'self described legal twitter rock star' Lea above there.
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Anon | 12-Jan-2011 12:35 pm
Dreadful report!
I wonder what they were trying to achieve?!
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