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Watch Screenshot this! Using social media for legal education.
We were thrilled to have so many questions submitted during this session! We were not able to cover them all in the allotted time, so our presenter Caitlin from Westjustice has generously provided some written answers below.
How much resourcing in terms of time and staff would you recommend to do this strategy well?
To do this well, you need at least 4-5 hours a week. This includes a few hours to prepare posts, plus an hour or two to post and follow up (ie. share to stories, monitor and answer comments and DMS etc). This also includes ad hoc work to share posts from other organisations, to plan content and so on. With 6-8+ hours a week, you can properly monitor and analyse the posts and potentially be more responsive to emerging trends or issues.
Do you run targeted paid campaigns or boost any posts?
To date, we haven't. This is because we are mainly trying to build an audience for legal education (rather than trying to build client base) and have found having other organisations or followers share our work has been effective in spreading the information and helping to build our following.
Have you noticed any sort of correlation between followers and views/engagement after posting?
Definitely! With some of our more liked and viewed posts, our follower and engagement count climbs for days (sometimes weeks).
Do you have a plan for when/if a social media ban for young people is introduced?
We are currently working through what this ban might mean. We will continue our CLE/instagram work for older teenagers/young adults and also consider how we can engage younger cohorts if they can no longer access social media.
Have you noticed any increase in young people’s offline engagement with the service? Like making contact about a legal issue after hearing about the service or particular legal information from social media?
Yes we have, we have had a number of clients (either young people, or their families) who have come to Westjustice because they either learned they have a legal problem or learned that CLCs exist through our Instagram.
How do you connect the analytics to outcomes in WJ work?
We analyse the analytics after each instagram series to either repeat things that worked well or pivot and try something new if something didn't work.
Two questions. Could you say how much time is put into socials – would it be equivalent to a full-time role, or 20-30 hours a week? And when you’re doing reels, are you scripting very specifically, and having the talent/lawyer read the exact script? Or is it paraphrased from talking points?
See answer above for hours. For reels, each lawyer does things a little differently. Some script every word, where as some speak off the cuff. Either way, the legal content is approved by the relevant legal director/supervisor in our organisation.
It can be a fine balance of making sure we accurately present legal information but still do so in an engaging and easy to understand way. We find the reels where lawyers are just speaking casually always get the most engagement because they feel the most genuine.
Did you use information from the Public Understanding of Law Survey in considering your strategy?
Not specifically for this project, but we have used it since to understand legal need in the region and built that into a number of Westjustice programs, including the Instagram.
Is there any specific reason why you chose not to also use Facebook?
We do use Facebook but moreso for community engagement (adults) rather than to disseminate legal education to young people. We find we have a different audience and a different level of engagement on Facebook. This is probably partly because of demographics/age groups of the different platforms but admittedly, we probably get the most traction on Instagram because it is where we put the most work.
Is there any further evaluation taking place beyond social media metrics? eg. measuring legal awareness among young people or flow on impacts on enquiries/service numbers?
Westjustice recently recruited a Data and Impact Program Manager so this isn't work that we are currently doing in detail but is definitely something we will be looking into over the coming years (I'd love to use the Instagram as a way for young people to book appointments but that might be a pipedream...!)
Do you have any tips for going to higher ups with a social media strategy? Since it's so creative and there is risk, it can be difficult to get passed.
This is a really good question, because it can be risky with something so public. Some of the topics we cover are really serious and we have to balance not being flippant about issues with still remaining engaging. As the Director of Policy, Impact and Enagement, I ultimately wear the risk of the work we do on Instagram. This is something I have made clear across the organisation, from the very first day we ran our training on using the Instagram.
Our training also focuses on how to ensure staff remain a professional representative of our organisation while preparing their content. Staff know that if they follow this training and (heaven forbid) something goes wrong, I am the one who will deal with it, which also gives our 'higher ups' the confidence to take more creative risks and engage in the "trial and error" way we have approached making content.
We also have a dual sign off process. Legal supervisors sign off on the legal content and I sign off on the content overall, and then only a few staff have the ability to post the content once final - so there are a number of mechanisms built in to manage risks. Thankfully we've never had anything go really wrong (apart from the odd disparaging or offensive comments on our posts which we quickly delete) but it does require constant management!
What do you think made April's post the most liked and saved of all your information posts? Was it the content, or the format, or both?
Great question! I think there's a number of factors - on sensitive issues or issues that can be scary like getting stopped by Police, having a reel/video and a genuine person talking you through the information in an engaging and empathetic way is always a good way to get through to people. Secondly, I think it's a very important topic and it comes up a lot, so we repost the reel fairly regularly. And finally, probably a bit of luck - right topic, right day, right person, right format...?!
When you said, 'post early and often' - does that mean early in the day? Also, do you differ posts between FB & IG based on your audiences for those platforms, or just keep the posts the same on both?
Definitely post early in the day (7-8am ish). We've found that this helps catch people in the two peak scrolling times - on the way to work/school and on the way home.
You mentioned Canva - is it easy to use?
It is very user friendly. I am not very tech savvy and I am entirely self-taught on Canva. It's actually quite fun and a good task when you're hitting your slumps in the day (right before lunch or right before home time…!)
Have you published your findings from your engagement/consultation with young people and how they engage with instagram?
We haven't but I am happy to share them if you'd like to follow up with me directly.
Have you seen a particular age where 'young people' may begin to disengage with social media, or a particular avenue of social media and start to prefer one avenue over another?
We haven't seen young people disengage so much as change their preference for social media channel (ie. Tik Tok or Be Real…the list goes on). I think our current approach is to also share our info with service providers so that if young people are disengaging or not following our social media, that at least someone else in their life is...their teacher, their social worker, their older siblings, their friends etc.
Would you ever go further and try to disseminate legal information via Reddit?
One day when I have an army of staff and resourcing, we'll be on every social media platform including Reddit. For now, we're focused on Instagram, but in the coming years we are definitely keen to understand how other platforms are being used and what our role could be in those forums.
Have you considered hiring cool young people to lead the insta work?
We do have cool young people on staff in various roles, and I promise we 'vibe check' a lot of the content with them….with varying results…!
Do all staff have social login access?
No, all staff have Canva access but only 2-3 staff have the logins to post. This is largely a risk management strategy, to make sure nothing goes out without prior approval.