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)

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 $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 Source: The Next Web doubled

Protect your brand - and your cause 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 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

SMS/Text Messaging Campaign Text the word citizenship (ciudadania in Spanish) to Subscribers can enter their zip code to find legal help in their area.

CitizenshipWorks Mobile App

Physical Presence Calculator

Study Tools

Mobile and SMS opportunities Notifications about clinics & workshops Appointment reminders Follow up re. outcomes Your ideas?

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Thank you! Liz Keith |

Building on the Possibilities that Mobile Technology Offers  Mike Monahan State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project / Georgia Legal Services Program  2014 Equal Justice Conference

It’s 6 a.m.

It’s 6 p.m.

It is not just Polite to Point, it is essential and welcomed.

Mobile Can Move Your Audience from Here to There.

TEXT interpreter probono milvets to Cheap and Easy: Mobile Landing Page

Cheap and Easy: Mobile Landing Site

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 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.

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: 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

Flickr.com for Photo Sharing

Foursquare

Available for download

New York City October 30, th & Lexington Station And then this happened

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 andwww.LawHelpNY.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