Whilst it is heartening to see my own law firm, Inksters, included in a list of top ten tweeting law firms (we are often excluded from such lists which look only at the top ten firms by size/turnover) I believe that such lists need to be taken with a large pinch of salt.

The latest list by I-COM comes on the back of the more controversial list produced by Flagship Consulting. That latter list looked only at the top 100 (by turnover) law firms as listed by The Lawyer and re-ordered that list according to Klout and Peer Index ranking. They also threw in Quality Solicitors and High Street Lawyer to the mix but no other law firms. This excluded all of the small law firms who tend to use social media much better than the larger ones do.

I-COM, however, have included smaller firms but, unfortunately, their list is not comprehensive enough. Thus in England they exclude sole practitioners such as Tessa Shepperson, Steve Williams and Paul Hajek who rank very highly on Klout. These lists will only be an accurate reflection of Klout ranking amongst law firms if they include all law firms and not just a select few. This was demonstrated by the I-COM Scottish list yesterday which initially omitted various law firms who should have featured in the top 10.

On the back of my blog post about the Flagship Consulting list a web page was set up by FellSoft on Social Networking Metrics: Law Firms. This includes law firms in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. It allows you to filter the firms according to country, number of employees, twitter following, Klout ranking, Peer Index ranking, the AM Law 100 and The Lawyer 100. It also takes into account (where known to FellSoft) additional niche twitter accounts that may be operated by the law firm in addition to their main corporate account. As at today’s date the FellSoft list would produce the following rankings in Scotland:-

Twitter Followers

1. DLA Piper

2. Eversheds

3. Inksters

4. Biggart Baillie

5. McGrigors

6. Harper Macleod

7. Burness

8. Thompsons

9. Brodies

10. MacRoberts


I have included DLA Piper and Eversheds as they do, of course, have Scottish offices. They were excluded from the I-COM Scottish list.


Klout


1. Eversheds

2. Biggart Baillie

3. Inksters

4. DLA Piper

5. Harper Macleod

6. MacRoberts

7. Burness

8. McGrigors

9. Irwin Mitchell

10. Brodies


Peer Index


1. Harper Macleod

2. Brodies

3. MacRoberts

4. Inksters

5. Biggart Baillie

6. Anderson Strathern

7. DLA Piper

8. Burness

9. Dundas & Wilson

10. Eversheds


This demonstrates that you can be at the top of one list (e.g. Eversheds on Klout) and at the bottom of another (e.g. Eversheds on Peer Index). It also shows that you can appear on one list and not in another.

The FellSoft lists do not include Lawford Kidd or MBM Commercial who were both brought into the second list produced by I-COM yesterday. So even the FellSoft list cannot be seen as comprehensive. Indeed there are no doubt many more Scottish law firms with Twitter accounts that should be added to both the FellSoft and I-COM lists.

However, having said all that, my view is that such lists cannot measure the true standing of a law firm’s social media presence and in particular may have no bearing on the actual Return on Investment (ROI) involved. How many clients have the law firms gained via Twitter and what has this added to their bottom line? Such metrics you are unlikely to ever see.

These lists also exclude any metrics associated with individual lawyers tweeting for the law firms in question. The most powerful use of Twitter by lawyers is always going to be individuals tweeting, engaging and referring. Individuals tend to have much higher Klout scores than corporate entities. This is why the law firm Twitter accounts that are operated by an individual lawyer with their own face as the firm’s avatar feature highly in the English Law Firm Twitter tables. The other point is that those using social media know who the lawyers that are using it well are. No need for league tables to tell us.

You also have to be aware that Klout scores can be manipulated. Apparently adding a picture to Facebook with a link through to Klout is enough to earn you an extra 6 points. If any law firm set their mind to it they could easily top the Klout table. That would, however, not necessarily mean they were any more successful in using social media than those ranked much lower than them.

As I did on my post about the Flagship Consulting list I will leave lawyers with a thought from the late Trey Pennington:-

“Don’t worry about increasing your Klout score (or twittergrader ranking or whatever comes next). Just use whatever gifts you have to help other people accomplish their dreams. If you’ll help enough other people get what they want, you’ll have all the influence you’ll need.”