Anyone Doing Outreach on Craigslist?
The ABA Journal is asking its readers if they've advertised for clients on Craigslist, an online classifieds site. My immediate reaction: "Hmmm, I wonder if any legal aid programs have done any outreach on Craigslist?"
From Quantcast's report on Craigslist's demographics, about 20 percent of Craigslist visitors make less than $30,000 a year. But scammers use Craigslist, too. (See Beware of Craigslist Scams, Avoid Craigslist Job Scams, and A Craigslist Scam You Might Fall For.) And, at least in Baltimore, Craigslist has a legal forum, where people are asking legal questions.
So while the demographics aren't perfect, about 8.5 million low-income people are using Craigslist. Are legal aid programs missing an opportunity? Could they tell potential clients how to spot a scam or show them where to find help after being scammed? Or maybe legal aid programs could point out legal information that Craigslist visitors could use instead of the opinions of an unknown forum member?
I don't know. What do you think? Has your program talked about this or done any outreach on Craigslist? - K
Kate - We here at Montana Legal Services did do some Craigslist postings. We used Christine's catchy one liners from her coasters as the headline and put a jpeg of the coaster in the post along with links to MLSA and Montana Law Help. Some of it was accepted, some of it was kicked off, most of it was deleted after 30 days.
The only thing is we had no real way of telling if it generated any response. We are looking into doing it again with different ways to track if people respond to the posts.
Any questions feel free to ask.
Lori
Not a bad idea... I just posted an ad about the Juvenile Expungement Help Desk. Thanks for the suggestion!