Using Social Media to Network with Other Advocates and Promote Your Work

1. Using Social Media to Network with Other Advocates and Promote Your Work Matthew Burnett Immigration Advocates Network Coordinator Pro Bono Net Kate Bladow LawHelp Interactive Coordinator Pro Bono Net

2. Outline • Overview • Social Networking for Advocates • Social Networking for Organizations • Getting Started • Examples from the Field • Common Concerns • Resources • Questions

3. What is a Social Network Site? • Web-based services that allow individuals to • Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system; • Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection; and • View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (boyd & Ellison, Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship)

4. Types of Social Network Sites • General Sites – Open to the public and have millions of users • Examples: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn • Niche Sites – Sites developed around a specific interest or profession • Examples: Martindale-Hubble Connected, ABA LegallyMinded • Social Media Sites – Sites designed to host social media that incorporate social networking features • Examples: YouTube (video), Flickr (photos)

5. Which social media sites do you currently use? Poll

6. Major Social Networking Sites Facebook • Over 300M active users (equivalent to U.S. pop.) • 50% of active users login daily • Less than 1/3 are college students • People over 35 represent the fastest growing age group • More than 10M users become fans of Pages each day • More than 2B pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week • More than 6B minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)

7. Major Social Networking Sites LinkedIn • Focus on professional networking • Average age of user is 41 • 95% of users are college educated • 64% of users are male • 53% of users have a household income of over 100K

8. Major Social Networking Sites Twitter • Twitter is the 3rd most used social network • Unique visitors increased from 1.2M in May 2008 to 18.2M in May 2009 • 93% of Twitter users have less than 100 followers, just over 1% have more than 500 followers and less than 1% have more than 1,000 followers • Only 40% of Twitter’s users are retained

9. Why Network Online? • Engage supporters • Recruit volunteers and law students • Professional development/networking • Keep track of issues in the field • Learn and share information about projects and best practices • Fundraise • Listen to what others are saying about your organization or issues that you care about

10. Social Networking for Advocates Social Networking for Advocates • Adoption • Benefits • Professionalism/Ethics

11. Social Networking for Advocates Adoption: • Shriver Survey • 30% of respondents reported using social networking sites • Most popular sites were LinkedIn (17%) and Facebook (13%) • 7% said that social networking sites were extremely useful, 35% said they were useful, and 26% said they were somewhat useful • High correlation between age and social networking adoption (higher adoption among younger advocates)

12. Social Networking for Advocates Adoption (cont.): • ABA Survey • 56% of respondents thought social networking was important • 28% rated Facebook as helpful; 27% rated LinkedIn as helpful • 61% of respondents said communicating with friends was most important; 34% rated networking with legal colleagues as most important

13. Social Networking for Advocates Adoption (cont.): • LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Survey • 54% of respondents reported being a member of a social networking site • 33% reported using social networking for only personal use; 18% for only professional use; 49% for both personal and professional use • Also high correlation between age and adoption

14. Social Networking for Advocates Adoption (cont.): • Pew Survey • 35% of American adult internet users have a profile on a social networking site • 22% on Facebook • 6% on LinkedIn • 89% of respondents said they use social networks to stay in touch with friends; 43% said they use social networks to organize with others for an issue or event; 28% use social networks to promote themselves or their work • Again, high correlation between age and adoption

15. Social Networking for Advocates Adoption (cont.): • Trends • Social networking adoption is • higher among younger lawyers/adults • higher among legal professionals than online adult population, but slightly lower among poverty law advocates • Social networks are used more often for personal networking than professional networking

16. Social Networking for Advocates Benefits: • Professional Networking • Keep track of what colleagues are working on • Reconnect with past colleagues • Connect with individuals who do similar work or share the same interests • Collaboration • LinkedIn Groups (Legal Aid Group) • Resource/Information Sharing • Status updates on Facebook and Twitter • Specialty sites to share work product (i.e. JDSupra)

17. Social Networking for Advocates Professionalism/Ethics: • Distinction between “personal” and “professional” can be difficult to navigate • Remember basic attorney ethics rules around client confidentiality, attorney advertising, etc. • Consult state bar regulations or bar counsel if you have concerns

18. Which social networking sites does your organization currently use? Social Networking for Organizations

19. Social Networking for Organizations Social Networking for Organizations • Advocacy • Fundraising • Staffing, Budget and Policies

20. Social Networking for Organizations Advocacy • Nonprofit Social Network Survey • 86% of respondents reported that their organization has a presence on some form of commercial social network • Facebook is most popular (74%), followed by YouTube (46.5%), Twitter (43.2%), LinkedIn (32.9%) and MySpace (26.1%) • 80.5% of respondents reported that their primary purpose for social networking is marketing (to promote their programs, services and overall brand)

21. Social Networking for Organizations Advocacy • In addition to marketing and outreach, poverty law organizations should consider other uses, including: • Distributing know your rights and substantive legal information, such as short case summaries and changes in the law for attorneys and the public; • Recruiting volunteers, law students, and new attorneys; • Connecting volunteers and pro bono attorneys with one another and with advocates to foster mentoring, substantive support, and training. • Connecting with other advocates in an area of law to discuss emerging issues and identify systemic problems; and • Highlighting issues affecting low-income communities and your organization’s work to protect their rights.

22. Social Networking for Organizations Fundraising • Some commercial social networking sites, such as Facebook, have modules that allow organizations to collect donations • Make sure to do some research before implementing them • Look at the number/amount of donations received by similar organizations using social network sites for fundraising • Understand the potential impact on other fundraising initiatives • Speak with development professionals or fundraising consultants with experience in online fundraising • Among nonprofits, Facebook is the most popular social network site used to raise money, but success stories are few and far between

23. Social Networking for Organizations Staffing, Budget and Policies • Staffing: • 80.8% of nonprofits surveyed dedicate at least a quarter of a FT staff person to social networking initiatives • Staffing model should be based on priorities, goals and projected impact • Consider splitting time between program staff and marketing/communications/outreach staff

24. Staffing, Budget and Policies (cont.) Budget: 40.6% of nonprofits surveyed said that they had some budget for external resources to support social networking While most commercial social networks are free to join, consider potential costs associated with marketing, design, development and consulting Developing your own social networking platform will cost significantly more than using existing commercial platforms Social Networking for Organizations

25. Staffing, Budget and Policies (cont.) Policies: Create a system to keep track of organizational accounts (update when passwords are changed) Define the integration of social networking initiatives with other marketing and communications activities Understand that social networking is more distributed and less formal than traditional approaches (i.e. press releases) Revisit social networking policies often as you and your organization learn from your experiences Consider a policy for employees’ “unofficial” online activities that reflect on your organization Social Networking for Organizations

26. Getting Started First Steps • Listen. • Set goals. • Pick a site and set up your profile. • Connect with a few friends or colleagues. • Ask questions.

27. Listen

28. Listen

29. Set Goals • Know what you hope to accomplish • Target your activities to achieving goals • Be open to unexpected benefits and possibilities

30. Pick a Site & Sign Up

31. Connect

32. Connect

33. Ask Questions

34. Network

35. Examples from the Field

36. Examples from the Field

37. Examples from the Field

38. Examples from the Field

39. Examples from the Field

40. Common Concerns • Privacy • Security • Control • Information Overload

41. Resources • We Are Media Projecthttp://www.wearemedia.org/ • Beth’s Bloghttp://beth.typepad.com/ • Pew Internet Social Networkinghttp://bit.ly/8N28t • Mind the Ethics of Online Networkinghttp://bit.ly/eQzV7 • Social Networking for Lawyershttp://bit.ly/9516nhttp://bit.ly/18ACpJ

42. Look Who’s Talking: Legal Implications of Twitter Social Networking Technologyhttp://bit.ly/8xli8 Drafting Trouble-Free Social Media Policieshttp://bit.ly/4qQVFa Examples of Social Networking Policies http://bit.ly/rGYR4 LSNTAP Social Mediahttp://bit.ly/T61av Resources

43. Resources Technology Blogs • Real Lawyers Have Blogshttp://kevin.lexblog.com/ • Robert Ambrogi’s LawSiteshttp://www.legaline.com/lawsites.html • CLEONet Consultationhttp://consult.cleonet.ca/CLEONET/ • Care2 Frogloophttp://www.frogloop.com/ • NTEN Bloghttp://nten.org/blog • Idealwarehttp://www.idealware.org/blog/

44. Questions/Contact Questions? Contact info: Matthew Burnett mburnett@probono.net Kate Bladow kbladow@probono.net