Expanding the Reach of Online Resources Through Innovative Optimization and Social Media Strategies • Liz Keith, Pro Bono Net, San Francisco, CA • Leah Margulies, LawHelpNY, New York, NY • Michael L. Monahan, State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project, Atlanta, GA Low-income communities needing legal help can be reached via mobile technology to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This session will survey search engine and social media optimization strategies, demographic updates on low-income mobile access, and useful tools for identifying and supporting innovative technology strategies for legal services.
Transcript
Expanding the Reach of Online Resources Through Innovative Optimization and Social Media Strategies
• Liz Keith, Pro Bono Net, San Francisco, CA • Leah Margulies, LawHelpNY, New York, NY • Michael L. Monahan, State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project, Atlanta, GA
Low-income communities needing legal help can be reached via mobile technology to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This session will survey search engine and social media optimization strategies, demographic updates on low-income mobile access, and useful tools for identifying and supporting innovative technology strategies for legal services.
Expanding the Reach of Online Resources Through
Innovative Optimization and Social Media Strategies
Equal Justice Conference 2014
Leah Margulies Project Director, LawHelpNY
Liz Keith Program Director, Pro Bono Net
Mike Monahan Pro Bono Director – State Bar of Georgia and Georgia Legal Services
Panelists
Setting the Stage: Trends in Technology Adoption
Among Client Communities
Liz Keith
Pro Bono Net
2014 Equal Justice Conference
Source: Pew Research Center, State of the Digital Divides (2013)
Source: Pew Research Center, State of the Digital Divides (2013)
The Internet has transformed from a “novelty into a utility” - Lee Rainie
Source: Pew Research Center, State of the Digital Divides (2013)
Gap between Internet use at home vs. other location at lower incomes
Source: Pew Research Center, The Web at 25 in the US (2014)
But smart phones are helping to bridge the digital divide 90% of all US adults have a cell phone 58% smart phone
Mobile Substitution
Those with lower incomes are far more likely to use their phone as their primary Internet device:
45% of those with incomes < $30,000 vs.27% with incomes > $75,000
Mobile Substitution in Legal Aid
Illinois Legal Aid Online found that 27% of traffic to their Spanish website in 2012 came from a mobile device, versus 16% of traffic to their English site
PBN found that 25% of traffic to LawHelp.org/espanol in 2013 came from a mobile device, versus 21% of traffic to the English LawHelp.org.
Mobile use by ethnicity
Source: Pew Research Center, The Web at 25 in the US (2014)
• When asked about government outreach using social media, minority respondents were significantly more likely than whites to say that this type of outreach “helps people be more informed about what government is doing” and “makes government more accessible”.
• They are also much more likely than whites to say it is “very important” for government agencies to post information and alerts on social networking sites.
Attitudes about the social web
Source: Pew Research Center, Government Online
Social media is the new word of mouth
•Website referrals from search engine traffic is flat (41%) or declining
•Website referrals from social media traffic grew 111% in 2013 to 15%
•“Social signals” are a growing factor in search engine optimization for websites
If you don’t grab your URL / username on social media sites, chances are someone else will.
Take an hour to reserve your accounts on:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Vimeo
Where do differences persist?
•Age is #1 factor (over 70) •Income and education attainment •Very rural areas (for broadband) •Language preference (based on those who preferred to take Pew’s survey in Spanish)
•But these gaps are closing
Northwest Justice Project YouTube playlist
Pocket DACA
Pocket DACA • Screen for DACA eligibility;
• Find legal help;
• Keep up-to-date on DACA news;
• Polls for potential applicants;
• Key DACA resources; and
• Answers to frequently asked questions.
It is available for download (Android and iOS) at http://bit.ly/pocketdaca.
A legal aid program, a marketing company and software vendor walk into a bar…
Reorienting Outreach and Web-Based
Strategies
Leah Margulies LawHelpNY
2014 Equal Justice Conference
LawHelp/NY Promotional Fliers
Multilingual Fliers
Outreach Strategies
Schedule outreach events with local libraries, offices of elected officials, community groups, local and state agencies, churches, colleges, schools, local Hispanic bar associations, etc.
Outreach staff with NYC Interfaith Roundtable Leaders
How are people getting online?
% with broadband access at home:
– 80% of households making more than 75K – 42% making between 15-24K – 32% making less than 15K
Adoption in 15-24K range grew by 21% between 2009-2010
Source: NTIA, Digital Nation 2010
PEW data like this led to our experimenting with online outreach and the SEO TIG proposal
Use Internet Marketing
- To increase visits and page views, brand and social awareness, even fundraising, etc.
- Because it’s cost-effective – can fit into the budgets of most non-profits.
- To grow your search engine ranking. Great rankings are extraordinarily competitive. Below are some For-Profit sites we are competing with.
FindLaw.com FreeAdvice.com
Online Outreach: Facebook and Twitter
Online Outreach: Blogs
LawHelp/NY Had 3 Main Objectives for SEO TIG
1. Increase visibility of LawHelp.org/ NY in search engines
2. Initiate a Spanish-language SEO and social marketing (SM) campaign to reach New York's large Spanish-speaking user base
3. Develop a toolkit, “The Non-Profit Guide to Internet Marketing,” and model “dashboards” so
efforts can be replicated. Go to LawHelp.org/NY/toolkit.
Strategies Focus on organic, free and low-cost strategies
appropriate for nonprofits: 1. Keyword Research 2. Optimize keywords on page and in code (title and meta tags) 3. Link building campaign 4. Website Banner Ads 5. Blogs 6. Use Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr,
Foursquare, etc.
First, develop a list of keywords and phrases that describe your work and use Google’s Keyword tool to check the strength and popularity of those keywords.
Prior to our search engine optimization efforts, LawHelp/NY was only
ranking or showing up in the first or second page of search engine results for a small group of generic keywords which varied based on our name, for example NY Law Help, LawHelp NY, New York Law Help, etc.
2
1 1
3
2 2
3 3
1
4
2 2
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
asistencia legalnueva yorkservicios legal denueva yorkayuda legal en nuevayorkservicios legal ennueva york
Spanish Keywords Phrases with Highest Growth Across All Search Engines
With your list of keywords in hand, optimize individual pages by incorporating keywords into the text on the page
or in the code in the web page header.
Link-Building
Click here for LawHelp/NY
Click for free legal information in New York State
Or Click here: www.LawHelp.org/NY
Or Click here: New York City Custody and Visitation Information
DON’T DO THIS: DO THIS INSTEAD:
Geo-targeted ads in over 140 Latino news websites nation-wide
Facebook Banner Ad: 10,508,399 impressions and 1,627 clicks
My New York Legal Help blog, entries tagged Disaster Relief. Approximately 70,000 visits between when Sandy hit and the end of 2013.
Tweeting in English
Spanish blog and Spanish Twitter
Clinics this week
Published end of February, 2014: Downloaded 652 times
Ten Trends
Five Tips
Launched new blog this week Insurance, home and flood, has emerged as a top concern
This just in: Proof of loss submissions extended to October 2014
New mobile site with LiveHelp
Launching this month!
LawHelpNY portals • Main websites www.LawHelpNY.org and www.AyudaLegal.org • LiveHelp • LawHelpNY mobile with LiveHelp (Eng. & Span.) • Mini-portals—Consumer, Disaster and Housing each
with its own url. • REALNY.org (new blog, Eng. & Spanish) • Facebook & Twitter & Flickr, etc. • SMS pilot-targeting immigrant women victims of DV • More to come
