Twitter is surprisingly large - something
which we’ll examine later in this report.
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Overy
What do Allen and Overy do well?
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@AllenOvery
There are a variety of components
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which make the Allen and Overy Twitter
Allen and Overy are one of the most
campaign particularly effective.
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important and influential legal firms in
the city of London. They have been op-
Quality Content
erating for over 83 years and are truly
Allen and Overy succeeds in using its
international, with 43 offices worldwide
Twitter account in a meaningful and
- including in Casablanca and Istanbul.
valuable way. Most of their content in-
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cludes a mixture of news updates and
In terms of social media, Allen and
article shares. As you would expect,
Overy have excelled in establishing for
these tweets have been created with a
themselves a strong and multifaceted
specific legal audience in mind.
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Twitter campaign. Unlike other legal
firms in London, Allen and Overy actu-
Allen and Overy are very good at using
ally have multiple Twitter accounts ded-
Twitter to promote their own news up-
icated to different client needs. This in-
dates. The law firm have their own dedi-
cludes an account for graduates (@Al-
cated ‘publication’ section on their web-
lenOveryGrads), prospective employees
site which is predominantly used to dis-
(@AllenOveryJobs), and eco fundrais-
cuss legal news and corporate matters in
ers (@AllenOveryCSR).
an in-depth and meaningful way.
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Unlike Slaughter and May, Allen and
Overy have a public Twitter account
which promotes their content for every-
one to see. There are several good as-
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pects about Allen and Overy’s Twitter
It’s refreshing to see that Allen and
campaign, but there is also room for im-
Overy use their social media presence to
provement.
actively advertise their publications -
rather than relying on their prestige to
promote the material in the first place.
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This would be a good lesson for many
London-based legal firms, especially
those who wish to generate more leads.
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For those who work in the legal sector,
Consumer segmentation
the Allen and Overy account is a very
One of the other reasons for Allen and
useful tool for keeping up to date with
Overy’s social media success is their
the latest legal news in the world. For
separate, audience-driven Twitter ac-
this reason, the Allen and Overy Twitter
counts.
account would be a good example of a
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law firm providing their followers with
There are five Allen and Overy accounts
valuable content.
dedicated to different purposes and dif-
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ferent online users. This might seem too
Nevertheless, there is certainly room for
much, but there is a lot of merit in ap-
improvement. If you visit the Allen and
proaching social media in this structured
Overy page, the first that thing strikes a and audience-driven way.
user is that there’s no images. Every-
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thing is very text-heavy and the Twitter
Allen and Overy have recognised that
account isn’t immediately eye-catching.
their online users follow them for a va-
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riety of purposes and (crucially) for dif-
Consistency
ferent lengths of time. Their graduate
Consistency is one of the most impor-
account, for example, is primarily tar-
tant characteristics of any Twitter ac-
geted at students (undergraduate and
count. Allen and Overy are good at up-
postgraduate) who are interested in
dating their tweets - usually every day -
learning more about the firm. This Twit-
but this has slowed down in recent
ter account is much more engaging, with
weeks. At the current rate, Allen and
plenty of photographs and a more per-
Overy are sending out tweets at least
sonal business-consumer relationship
once a week. This is far from ideal, es-
dynamic.
pecially if Allen and Overy want to in-
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crease public awareness concerning
However, the Allen and Overy graduate
their news updates.
account provides the firm with a fantas-
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tic opportunity for recruitment. For ex-
Nevertheless, this law firm should be
ample, it doesn’t take long to notice that commended for its brand consistency on
Allen and Overy are creating close-
Twitter. It doesn’t take very long to gain working relationships with prospective
a clear understanding of who Allen and
employees from King’s College Lon-
Overy are, where their interests lie, and
don. This gives Allen and Overy a fan-
which type of audiences they’re target-
tastic opportunity to cultivate their fu-
ing. Their tweets are somewhat regi-
ture interests and promote their compa-
mented and their followers will quickly
ny as the number one location for future
learn what to expect from the Allen and
graduates.
Overy Twitter account.
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In this sense, Allen and Overy are very
How can this be replicated?
good at exploiting social media for its
If other legal firms wish to replicate this commercial and corporate potential.
success, then there are plenty of lessons
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to be taken from Allen and Overy. The
Their ‘corporate responsibility’ Twitter
decision to make audience-driven, sepa-
account is as equally interesting. In con-
rate Twitter accounts for different pur-
junction with their wider business strat-
poses is extremely effective. It’s more
egy, Allen and Overy have a clear set of
user-friendly and helps to reinforce
corporate, moral, and ethical duties that
Allen and Overy’s unique brand identity.
they abide with. This includes raising
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awareness about important issues, but
As like any good Twitter account, Allen
also taking part in various charity events and Overy are efficient at creating and
and mentoring underprivileged young
regularly distributing quality social con-
people in developing countries. All of
tent. This could be done better, especial-
these efforts are very admirable - but so
ly in the case of their primary account,
is their dedicated Twitter account.
but overall Allen and Overy are doing
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well.
The Allen and Overy CSR Twitter ac-
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count is used primarily to promote these
How can Allen and Overy improve?
efforts, whilst simultaneously increasing
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their brand awareness. At this moment
Use Twitter regularly
in time, for example, Allen and Overy
In addition to updating their main ac-
are currently taking part in the Legal
count more regularly, Allen and Overy
Walk to raise money for several differ-
could benefit from interacting more with
ent charities. Their dedicated Twitter ac-
their followers. Their interactions are
count is filled with advertisements for
very one-sided and there lacks signifi-
this event; encouraging their staff and
cant personal engagement with online
stakeholders to take part in the walk.
users.
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This is a great example of purpose-dri-
This is somewhat surprising because
ven social media by Allen and Overy.
Allen and Overy have over 16.4k fol-
Unlike other accounts created by the
lowers. On the surface, this appears in-
firm, the CSR Twitter account is much
credibly impressive and elevates Allen
more personal and consumer-orientated.
and Overy’s Twitter following way
Through the necessity to raise money
above their competitors.
for important causes, Allen and Overy
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have created a Twitter account which is
However, a quick scan using the soft-
much more engaging on an emotional
ware programme Twitter Fake on Allen
level.
and Overy’s primary account reveals
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some interesting statistics.
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10% of their following can be attributed
to fake accounts. Furthermore, 47% of
Allen and Overy’s Twitter followers are
from inactive users. This is alarming, to
say the least, and drastically cuts down
their audience reach by nearly 60%.
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Evidently, this is something which needs
to be addressed by Allen and Overy. It’s
much better to focus on gaining quality
followers, rather than simply relying on
fake and inactive accounts.
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Overall Allen and Overy have taken sig-
nificant steps to thoroughly establish
themselves on Twitter, but more still
needs to be done.
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What do Taylor Wessing do well?