A view from North of the Border: Law Firms, Law Students and Twitter by @LegalEagleMHM.

In this vlog, Michelle explains what Twitter is, the potential benefits of law firms embracing Twitter (especially with regards to Scottish law firms), personal benefits for using Twitter in the context of road traffic law, and, finally, the uses of Twitter by individuals and corporate firms.

Michelle feels that Twitter is not the ‘be-all-and-end-all’ and is merely one marketing tool, raising the profile of law firms, students and law firm employees. Michelle feels that Twitter gives law students an opportunity to establish interest and knowledge about a subject, and also that Twitter can even generate networks of lawyers who know where to go for specialist advice. Michelle has used Twitter to download legal sources, to do legal research, to enroll students for special projects, to build a personal profile, and to establish rapport with fellows. Michelle however advises that it’s very important to conduct yourself professionally at all times, as what you write can reflect on you personally, and your firm; not to be of an opinion of being critical, but to be collaborative by re-tweeting if appropriate. Michelle feels that it can be used as an academic resource, solely for information gathering, or leverage for blogging (practitioner, academic or otherwise).

Michelle provides that a single tweet can make a massive impact – this is a point that appeared to be made previously by David Allen Green in his evidence in the Commons Select Committee.

David Allen Green: Strictly, the number of followers is irrelevant. If you have a single tweet that is of any interest, it will go round the world very quickly, regardless of how many followers the particular tweeter has.