Twitter handle: @Olswang
Followers: 3503
Following: 344
Tweets: 2813
1. Tweeting every day: The @Olswang team is committed to an everyday presence on Twitter. Sharing news and views from within its industry is clearly beneficial to its followers. The tweets that are passed on are timely, which implies there is a person behind the computer and the news isn’t fully automated.
2. Engagement: @Olswang is not using Twitter for its intended purpose: engagement. This makes me question the value the account is bringing its followers. By passing on link after link of other accounts’ views, what value am I getting out of @Olswang that I couldn’t get out of someone else? What makes the profile unique?
3. Inconsistent tone of voice: The Olswang account jumps from corporate to friendly, tweet to tweet. Most of this can be attributed to the fact the account has been used primarily to pass on news, and not as an engagement channel.
Olswang uses Twitter to share news and spread industry content but lacks on follower engagement, says Melanie Seasons, community innovation director at Onlinefire.
Olswang LLP is a full-service law firm. Its practice focuses on technology, media and telecommunications both in the UK and internationally, spanning Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Singapore.
Its media expertise and enthusiasm for technology means it is actually quite an easy fit for social media and engagement with partners and clients.
Direction
Olswang seems to be taking a very news-led approach to Twitter, keeping its followers up-to-speed in legal, tech and media news.
The profile is approximately 30 per cent news about Olswang, usually with simple subject-led tweets accompanied by a link to its website. Occasionally, there is a tweet about a recent event or a retweet from an employee, but most of the time it’s passing on other people’s or publications’ news in relevant sectors.
While the type of news it passes on is relevant, the value is questionable. People who are likely to follow Olswang for their media and tech expertise are simply getting news from others, with nothing extra. Commentary would be ideal – opinions and conversation is what makes Twitter interesting. Otherwise it’s just an RSS feed.
Engagement
While not prevalent, there is evidence of real-time tweeting, particularly during events. One such example was at the conclusion of a joint event with Career Academics for students. The tweet mentioned @CareerAcadsUK specifically, which in turn received a RT and a reply from its account, upping visibility for @Olswang.
While Olswang’s tweets are ‘on topic’ for its industry, its engagement levels with followers could be drastically improved. Understandably, it is often difficult from a compliance perspective for law firms to get involved with potentially contentious conversations. However, in the example below, a journalist asked a direct question to the @Olswang account about a blog post and seemed to receive no reply. Encouragingly, the employee who drafted the post in question (@noself) stepped in to engage with the journalist.
It is evident that @noself was either watching or the @Olswang account alerted him to the tweet. If the latter was the case, it would have been good for the account to publically loop in @noself to show it was listening. On the surface it looks as if the journalist was simply ignored.
Overall Rating: 4/10