Associate Life Survey: Your Online Networks

We received 629 responses to Monday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on social networking, and it looks like most of you are avid surfers.
Overall, 81% of you use at least one social networking site or maintain a blog. Facebook was the overwhelming winner, as 94% of attorneys who use social networking sites have an account there. LinkedIn was a distant second, used by 46% of these respondents. Myspace was third with 21%.
A surprising number of attorneys are also blogging. Just over 9% maintain an account with blogger, and just under 3% use Livejournal. One percent wrote in that they use WordPress.
Despite the occasional employer attempts to block access, about 91% of social networking attorneys log in from the office at least once or twice a month, and 61% log in at least daily. One in three attorneys logs on to his or her Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, from the office, more than twice a day.
While they may do it from the office, however, most attorneys are using their online accounts for fun, not for profit. Almost 97% of respondents with social networking accounts are using them “to keep in touch with friends”, 56% are using them “for fun”, and 9% are using them “to look for new friends.” But less than 7% are using them “to look for jobs”, and only 5% are using them “to look for clients.”
More findings, after the jump.


More attorneys may be using Facebook to complain about their professional experiences than further them. Eleven percent of respondents with social networking accounts say they use them “to vent.”
And even if they aren’t saying anything in particular about their employers, most attorneys think that there’s at least some content in their online profiles that they wouldn’t want to share. Just over 51% say they would scrub their online accounts before starting a new job search.
Even so, a fair number of associates and summer associates will add their colleagues to their networks. About 71% will let their law school classmates join their networks (vs. 85% who share with “close law school friends”), and about 56% share with their fellow associates or summer associates.
Bosses, however, are not particularly welcome. Only 9% of attorneys with social networking accounts will share their networks with partners, a number which drops to 4% among attorneys without LinkedIn accounts. And only 6% of attorneys — and only 2% of attorneys without LinkedIn accounts — will add clients.
Meanwhile, legal bloggers are slowly winning friends in online social circles. Just over 4% of respondents on Facebook say that they’ll add a legal blogger.

Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.

Sponsored

CRM Banner