"INVISIBLE" USERS AND THE ART OF
MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA
confidence using, the different tools available
should you choose to participate and contribute
down the road.
interaction, 25 percent follow Twitter, 18 percent
use Facebook and 9 percent have a Google+
presence.
and passive listening. On LinkedIn, for example,
61 percent use it as a platform to receive news
and information, while only 21 percent use it
•A question in the "Legal Technology Purchasing
Survey" regarding respondents' specific use of
Twitter gets us closer to the so-called silent,
invisible tracker phenomenon. Of the 52 percent
who indicate having a Twitter account, only 4
percent post frequently, while 25 percent of
users mainly use Twitter to follow others and
track specific topics, trends and competitors.
to share news and information. This year, 74
percent of social media users across various
platforms use them to monitor, only a 6 percent
increase from 2012.
PROOF IS IN THE NUMBERS
Many users are taking advantage of this approach,
and according to numerous legal social media
surveys, the percentage of social media listeners (aka
silent users) far outweighs those actually blogging,
tweeting and updating their LinkedIn profiles.
•According to the 2013 American Bar Association
Legal Technology Survey Report, lawyers'
social media use continues to grow, but only
modestly, with 27 percent of U.S. law firms
now maintaining blogs, up 13 percent from
2010. Technorati, the top blog search engine,
is tracking over 1.3 million blogs worldwide,
including more than 8,500 law-related blogs.
•Once you start comparing blog activity in terms
of active blogging versus legal professionals who
merely read blogs, the point of user "invisibility"
becomes more apparent. The 2013 ILTA/Inside
Legal Technology Purchasing Survey reveals 84
percent of all survey respondents read legal or
legal technology blogs, legal news aggregators
or legal association-specific online news sites.
Furthermore, 86 percent of survey respondents
use LinkedIn for professional social media
•The 2013 In-House Counsel New Media
Engagement Survey released by Greentarget,
InsideCounsel and Zeughauser Group reveals the
stark contrast between active social media use
These in-house statistics are comparable to what is
happening with law firm social media engagement.
While these invisible users might not comment on
blogs, participate in LinkedIn group discussions
or send substantive tweets, they could follow
a blogger or other online publisher and set up
LinkedIn and Twitter to monitor their peers' and
competitors' social activities.
