Digital Advocacy

The digital landscape has evolved dramatically since the early days of Facebook-only strategies. Today's advocacy campaigns need to meet supporters where they are—across multiple platforms, each with its own strengths, audiences, and engagement styles. From Instagram and TikTok to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat, understanding how to leverage unpaid digital advocacy effectively can save you thousands on large-scale digital advertising while building a more engaged community.

Online advocacy campaigns are a powerful way to raise awareness, mobilize supporters, and influence decision-makers on a variety of issues and causes. Selecting the most effective types of digital media to use is essential for maximizing impact and engaging with your target audience.

You don’t need a clipboard for online petitions, but you do need a strategy. Online petitions are a great way to bolster your supporter base around an issue. You can use a digital action as a hook to get folks involved with your campaign or cause in the long run. List building isn’t always easy, quick, or cheap—make sure you plan ahead so you can do it right and make the most out of your new supporters.

There are so many different types of ads that it can feel overwhelming to choose which ones to use for your digital advocacy campaign. You can certainly use all of them, but there are some that are likely better suited to your campaign than others, depending on your goals.

When you are setting up your digital campaign budget for advocacy, how much should you spend on digital advertising? Per unit, digital advocacy advertising is comparatively cheap – while you may spend several hundred dollars (or more) per point on TV, your cost per thousand impressions (CPM) can be as little as a dollar or two for digital advertising. That means that digital advertising can be a fantastic way to reach out to supporters and promote your advocacy campaign when you’re working with limited dollars.

When it comes to a digital advocacy campaign Twitter is a great platform. Unlike more traditional platforms, there aren’t budget minimums you need to worry about and you can reach a lot of people very quickly. There are also a lot of great targeting options based on Twitter’s user data. 

Digital advocacy is about engagement and capacity building—likes are just a starting point. Over the last few years, Facebook’s algorithm has evolved, as has its advertising options, making it easier than ever to capitalize on the audience you’ll find there and turn likes into actions that advance your advocacy goals.

The simple concept of Twitter is to post short thoughts- 140 character thoughts to be exact. In a just a sentence or two, millions of people worldwide (310 million monthly active users) engage in conversations, find information, and express their feelings on a multitude of relevant topics. Whether it be a large event like a presidential debate or a local issue like a ballot measure, Twitter can be a significant social media platform for your advocacy campaign.

With Trump as president, nonprofit organizations have an opportunity to use digital advocacy to grow engagement and reach donors and constituencies. This doesn't make it any easier to get legislation passed, but it does present an opportunity for growth that may not have existed in the past for your organization.

Digital Advocacy is on everyone's mind. Last month, I attended the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington, D.C. and one panel caught my eye: New Tools From the 2016 Elections That Nonprofit Techies Need to Know About. Given that our clients are both campaigns and nonprofits, it was a perfect fit. 

It seems like every month there is a new social media platform taking off that those of us who do digital work hear about from our clients (Peach anyone?). While the instinct is to be on every channel to reach the most people, it can work against engagement.

The lion’s share of your political or advocacy campaign will be spent on message development and saturation. But as Election Day looms, you’ll have to start focusing your efforts on get out the vote/ GOTV. While you should make sure to include the rest of your online platforms in your GOTV efforts, a good place to start is social media. Not surprisingly, it’s a great digital platform for social pressure. You can use social media in a few ways to encourage your target audience to vote.