Top Lawyer to Follow has only tweeted three times in two and a half years!

Readers of this blog will be aware that I am often very critical of top legal Twitter lists. The Lawyer will be relieved that this latest post does not arise from a list promoted by them (see Law Firm Twitteratigate – The Whole Story and The Lawyer excludes Scotland and top Twegals from UK Legal Twitter list! #Twitteratigate2).

The latest gaffe (HT @GavWard)  is in the July 2012 edition of Evan Carmichael’s Top 100 Lawyers to Follow on Twitter.

Evan Carmichael lists the number one lawyer to follow as @LandUseAttorney – Andrew Svitek. However, this ‘Top Twegal’ has not tweeted since February 2011 (when he tweeted three times) and the last time he tweeted before that was January 2010! Three tweets in two and a half years and this is the Top Lawyer to Follow on Twitter. I think not. What would possibly be the point in following him when he does not even tweet?

I don’t know how Evan compiles his list but he should perhaps review his methodology. There are certainly some worthy inclusions in it but @LandUseAttorney should not be there at all let alone in the top spot. That accolade simply discredits the list.

@LandUseAttorney does have an incredible number of followers: 184,027. Whilst he only follows 721. Perhaps, that is why Evan gave him the top spot. However, the number of followers is not necessarily indicative of an account worth following. Followers can be purchased and followers to following ratios can be manipulated (I don’t know and am not suggesting that this is the case here). In any event lots of followers does not make a Twegal worth following if they don’t actually tweet!

As a side note the list has @RichardMoorhead in at number 25 (nothing wrong with that) but with Richard Susskind’s name and Avatar rather than Richard Moorhead’s ones attached to it! (HT @LegalAware)

If @LandUseAttorney started tweeting again tomorrow I doubt anyone would raise an eyebrow. A quick look at the account shows little engagement with others when tweeting did take place with it mostly being broadcasting and the occasional retweet. Compare this, for example, with @LegalBizzle who took a break from Twitter for a couple of weeks or so this month. When he returned on 19 July there was an outpouring of relief from a huge number other Twegals – e.g. @Jezhop: *audible sigh of relief* (that you can’t hear, obviously) – @LegalBizzle is back 🙂

Now there you do have a Top Twegal and you don’t need a list to tell you that. You will soon find Twegals worth following via other Twegals. You will glean it from their mentions, retweets, #FFs and personal Twitter lists. That’s how Twitter works. My advice is to ignore the Top [insert number here] Twitter lists and follow your instinct.