school sponsored blawgs: i'm not buying it

[dennis]

California Western Law School is taking an interesting and possibly misguided approach to law school marketing: school sponsored student blawgs.

There are eight blawgers, and a brief skimming of the posts confirmed my suspicion that the posts are thinly veiled PR pieces for the school.

Most blawgers love their law schools, but what makes a blawg interesting are the posts about the writer, and not the posts about the school.

That is why a student blawg is not a good school-sponsored marketing tool. Our lives are filled with procrastination, balancing tests, dating, shockingly inappropriate classmates,  blunders, and plenty of f-this-shit moments. The non-school related stuff is why we read blawgs, and that is exactly what is lost when the law school sponsors a blog that won't stray too far from "oh look how great Bumble Law School is, tee hee." 

I think the only effective blawg-marketing route takes a lot more nerve than most law students and law schools have: the school should support its non-anonymous bloggers, but not exercise any influence over them. Only then will the recommendation of that blogger mean anything.

Easier said than done right?

For example, I am fully aware that some of my school's administrators and professors read my blawg. Heck, my dean of students has quoted my blog while looking right at me. (Just to see me sweat, I'm sure.)

My school is not hostile towards my blogging because the administrators realize that I love the school and I am not going to write anything crazy or malicious. (With the exception of my career counselor, who is convinced that prestigious law firms will burn my applications…)

Sure, I'm going to have those "F-THIS! OH MY GOD WHY IS IT SNOWING?!" moments, but that is what makes my blog more relatable than the beauty pageant "things are wonderful, always" blogs produced by admissions. School-sponsored student blogs are only perceived one way:

And hopefully a law school's applicants are smart enough not to believe company-sponsored testimonials.

Prospective students contact me early during the law school application period, and I answer questions via email and twitter up until the first day of class. This is effective for the school because I serve as a positive yet real testimonial.

Sure, a student having so much unchecked contact with applicants is risky, but the power of a real and visible testimonal is an invaluable recruiting tool that cannot be contrived, which is exactly what California Western is trying to do.

Comments

[Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

I am one of the CWSL bloggers and I have to say that you're ranting is ill-informed.

I've never had anything edited from any of my posts nor are they all happy-happy-joy-joy. I think I am honest--I've posted about the insanity, the incredible volumes of work, and how there are times where each student is convinced s/he is the biggest idiot on campus. I emphasize that it is work.

Of course I have in my head that the blog is a marketing tool for the school and I do tend to keep things positive, but I do that because it is in my nature to be positive. As my BizOrgs professor said, "entrepreneurs are by nature optimists" and since I have been running my own biz since 1999, I guess I fit that. I don't see anything good coming from posting negative stuff... at least not without including a lesson learned or a possible solution. Bitching just to bitch signifies nothing.

CWSL has been very hands-off about what I post and they have never objected to anything I have posted on any of my other blogs (I have personal and biz ones, too).

Oh, and the blogs are not "sponsored." I do not get anything for blogging for CWSL. Wait, I did get a surprise very small credit (way less than one book!) to the school bookstore after my first year of blogging, but that's it. Full disclosure.

So, to quote the movie Stripes, "Lighten up, Francis."

[Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

And I'm disgusted at my own typo... should be YOUR ranting. D'oh!

[Luke]

I don't think hosting a student blog is necessarily a bad idea for law schools or law students who participate in them. At least someone at Cal Western is savvy enough to realize that (a) blogs exist (many schools haven't gotten this far yet) and (b) their target audience reads them.

As to credibility, I would tend to discount the information on any company-hosted blog, including a law school's. I'm not sure I would call them "thinly veiled PR pieces" but we all start out blogging with some idea of what we want to write about. In this case, there's a self-selected group who saw the opportunity to blog about the school as more valuable than the time they would have otherwise spent doing other things. I would guess that a group like that would skew positive from the average of the student population.

What will really be interesting is if a truly negative statement is made on one of the blogs - critical of administration, individual professors, etc. - what the school will do about it. There are three obvious choices for the administration in such a scenario: (1) respond and engage (2) ignore it (3) quietly 'disappear' the blogs. I would like to think CWLS would choose (1) but if push came to shove, suspect they would choose (3).

[Traffic School Online]

Very nicely done indeed.I think listening to your members is key and ACTING on the info they share/provide is also important. Taking their feedback, knowledge etc and doing something with that information..whether that means promoting it so other members can benefit or making changes to how the community is run, features it includes, etc. Certainly you should communicate how you are acting on the info your members provide.Don't forget that another way to build online community is to leave your own community from time to time and visit others.

[New York Defensive Driving]

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[Traffic School Online California]

yes, most blawgers love their law schools..Now a days marketing is the key tip, which is playing a major role in the competitive world. I hoping the same best informative posts and articles from you as they contain more weight age and thanks for stopping by and sharing some great information..

[Nevada Driving School]

Black Hat Marketing!

[drivers ed]

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[indiana defensive driving]

as above mates said, marketing is the key tip which is playing a major role in the competitive world at present and it will spread its wings.

[forum watches]

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