Key takeaways
Social media advocacy is the observe of utilizing social platforms to advance causes like charitable campaigns, connecting with political leaders, or driving social change.
It differs from model advocacy, which focuses on utilizing social media to extend model consciousness and belief.
Utilizing the fitting instruments, organizations advocating for causes can empower workers/volunteers to share pre-approved content material to their social media. It is a nice method to enhance the attain of messaging whereas protecting the main points constant.
Social media advocacy may be considered in two alternative ways. On this publish, we’re wanting on the observe of utilizing social media as an advocacy software to:
The opposite definition of social media advocacy is utilizing social media connections to extend model consciousness and belief. If you happen to’re on the lookout for a publish on utilizing social instruments for model advocacy, take a look at our publish on worker advocacy on social media as a substitute!
Attain a large viewers
Social platforms supply the potential to achieve an unlimited phase of the inhabitants in a context the place they’re already speaking about matters vital to them.
Greater than half of individuals in 26 international locations surveyed by Pew Analysis Heart use social media channels. In some international locations, greater than 80% of individuals use social media.
Supply: Pew Analysis Heart
A rising variety of these individuals use social media to entry information. Within the U.S., the Pew Analysis Heart discovered that 54% of Individuals get information from social media.
Much more vital for social media advocacy, 21% of all U.S. adults, and 37% of these aged 18 to 29, get information from social media “information influencers.” These information influencers create content material about all kinds of matters vital to social media advocates. These embody areas like social points, public well being, and the surroundings.
Supply: Pew Analysis Heart
Join with stakeholders and allies
These information influencers are an apparent level of potential outreach on social media. However social platforms additionally supply the prospect to find and join with vital stakeholders you won’t have thought of, in addition to allies which might be vocal about your trigger.
Begin with some thorough analysis. You need to establish key allies, policymakers, and members of the media. Hootsuite Listening is a robust software right here to establish vital conversations and high gamers in your sphere. When you establish these vital gamers, make sure you observe them and keep watch over what they’re saying on social.
Then, you’ll need to attempt to catch their consideration, and even the eye of their followers. Getting seen by vital figures generally is a problem. Outbound engagement is a helpful technique that Hootsuite recognized as a high social media development for 2025. That is the observe of commenting on different accounts’ posts. You grow to be a part of the prevailing dialog and construct related relationships.
It’s a low-touch type of outreach that may assist get you on the radar of vital stakeholders and allies – in addition to their followers. Hootsuite’s Social Developments analysis confirmed that 41% of entrepreneurs at nonprofits and 34% of healthcare entrepreneurs have been testing proactive engagements.
Leverage the fervour of present on-line communities
It doesn’t matter what trigger you’re engaged on, there’s a related on-line group to faucet into. The extra area of interest and particular your work, the extra possible you might be to discover a passionate group of individuals already speaking about associated topics. They could even be doing associated work.
Happily, there are instruments that can assist you discover these individuals so you may interact respectfully and successfully.
Hootsuite Listening helps you uncover trending hashtags, organizations, and occasions wherever on the earth. You possibly can monitor what persons are saying about your group and your trigger.
Hootsuite Listening doesn’t simply monitor what persons are saying. It makes use of enhanced sentiment evaluation to let you know how they actually really feel. This helps you gauge public opinion associated to your trigger. You possibly can establish key moments for outreach. You’ll additionally discover one of the best key phrases and hashtags to make use of to attach with probably the most lively contributors within the dialog.
Consciousness advocacy
In one of these social media advocacy, the purpose is to construct consciousness about a difficulty or trigger. You’re not essentially attempting to affect a particular motion. You primarily need to carry consciousness to a topic.
In fact, consciousness usually results in motion, however in one of these advocacy the purpose is to teach and inform. You may give attention to sharing infographics or highlighting private tales of individuals affected by the problem at hand.
Coverage advocacy
It is a extra action-oriented type of social media advocacy. The purpose is to affect or change public coverage. This may contain social actions corresponding to:
reaching out to native political leaders,
sharing petitions,
or creating campaign-based hashtags.
Any such advocacy additionally entails a component of elevating consciousness. However the main purpose is to drive actual change on the native, regional, nationwide, and even worldwide coverage degree.
Influencer advocacy
We talked about above that information influencers can have nice worth for social media advocacy. So can common influencers and content material creators who’ve a devoted following in any space that’s related or related to your trigger.
Communities have substantial overlap on social media. For example, a gardening influencer may supply vital worth for campaigns associated to areas like:
local weather change,
meals safety,
agricultural coverage,
and even housing coverage.
Crucial factor is to seek out influencers whose model values align along with your group and your trigger.
For a step-by-step information, take a look at our full publish on easy methods to work with influencers on social media.
Worker advocacy
Staff and volunteers may also be improbable advocates in your group or trigger. These are possible a few of your most devoted advocates. An worker advocacy program helps them lengthen the group’s messaging to their wider social networks.
Hootsuite Amplify helps take the guesswork out of social media advocacy in your employees and volunteers. Your social group creates pre-approved social media content material. Workforce members can then entry (and customise) the content material to share on their very own social feeds.
Amplify integrates with Proofpoint, an industry-leading compliance software that permits you to introduce guardrails towards personalization that goes towards your values or type information.

Particularly when engaged on advocacy in delicate or political fields, this protects each group members and the group by guaranteeing the messaging is vetted and accredited.
1. Set clear objectives
We’ve already talked about a number of the totally different general objectives you may need to obtain along with your social media advocacy efforts. However earlier than you launch your social media advocacy program, it’s worthwhile to get far more particular.
Unsure the place to begin? Listed below are some related benchmark engagement charges in This fall 2024 in response to Hootsuite’s main knowledge.
We’ve additionally received an entire weblog publish to stroll you thru the method of setting clear and achievable objectives for social media.
2. Determine your audience
As soon as you realize your objectives, it’s worthwhile to slender down who you’ll goal along with your messaging. Understanding what you’re attempting to attain on social media determines who it’s worthwhile to converse to.
For instance, say you’re attempting to affect public coverage. You want an viewers of politically lively, knowledgeable social media customers. You’ll additionally need to join with political leaders and members of the media. In case your purpose is fundraising or consciousness, you might have a broader viewers.
Understanding precisely who your audience is and their key demographics additionally guides choices about which social media platforms to give attention to.
For extra particulars, go to our weblog publish on easy methods to discover your audience on social media.
3. Develop helpful sources and thought management
Efficient advocacy campaigns depend on the social aspect of social platforms. Which means it’s worthwhile to create sources that construct momentum. Take into consideration content material that conjures up sharing and engagement, like infographics and private tales.
Thought management can also be vital right here. It helps set up your group and stakeholders because the go-to specialists in your discipline.
Your group possible has present data and marketing campaign sources. If you happen to’re unsure easy methods to adapt them for social media, strive utilizing an AI software like OwlyWriter AI. You need to use OwlyWriter to create social media posts based mostly on an present weblog publish, marketing campaign web page, or different content material.
You too can use OwlyWriter to:
Write a brand new social media caption in a particular tone, based mostly on a immediate
Generate publish concepts based mostly on a key phrase or subject (after which write posts increasing on the concept you want finest)
Determine and repurpose your top-performing posts
It’s vital to create sources and thought management that talk to people and different advocacy organizations. However don’t neglect manufacturers right here. Shoppers need manufacturers to affix the dialog on social justice moments (43%) and political occasions (31%).
Manufacturers have vital sources and advertising groups that may enhance the attain of your advocacy message. Simply make sure you discover a model that desires to be true enterprise companions, slightly than participating in “washing” (greenwashing, rainbow washing, and so forth.).
4. Determine key developments and moments to highlight your trigger
It’s vital to have a constant social media technique and plan your content material calendar. But it surely’s additionally a good suggestion to look at for key cultural moments that create a possibility to attract consideration to your trigger.
Hootsuite’s analysis exhibits that almost 1 / 4 of social entrepreneurs at non-profits and 20% of these in healthcare have adjusted their social technique to lean right into a meme or development.
Hootsuite Listening and Talkwalker are two key instruments that may actually assist right here. They let you spot developments as they emerge and predict how these developments will develop over time.
5. Monitor your outcomes, refine your technique, and reallocate sources
Social media advocacy work usually entails restricted budgets and stretched sources. Monitoring and analyzing your outcomes helps you study which investments of your time and price range present the best return, so you may refine, restrategize, and reallocate your price range to take advantage of each greenback you dedicate to your social media advocacy technique.
Hootsuite Analytics is a social media analytics software that allows you to simply monitor the efficiency of all of your social channels in a single place so you may replicate what works and get extra engagement.
The software additionally makes it simple to create customized experiences to showcase your outcomes to your stakeholders and share insights along with your group.
Hootsuite Analytics collects your stats from Fb, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
It helps you monitor metrics like:
Attain
Engagement charge
Variety of messages, calls, and emails
Each day engaged customers
Web site clicks
And far more
You possibly can arrange customized boards that offer you an outline of your most vital metrics at a look, over a choose time frame, and search for far more granular data, all the way down to the efficiency of each particular person publish you printed.
With Hootsuite Analytics, you can too:
Discover out when your viewers is on-line
Get personalised suggestions in your finest occasions to publish for every of your social media accounts
1. Movember
Movember is a males’s well being advocacy group that has mastered the artwork of social media advocacy. Their 2023 marketing campaign leaned exhausting into the development that highlights how a lot males take into consideration the Roman Empire.
This yr, they created a sequence of “mustache details” to encourage engagement.
However the marketing campaign’s actual social media advocacy success doesn’t come from the content material posted by the group itself.
As a substitute, it comes from the tons of of hundreds of people that create and share content material associated to the trigger through the month of November. Particularly these males who develop mustaches in help of the marketing campaign, which make for simple social media progress updates. The #movember hashtag has greater than 2.5 million posts on Instagram alone.
2. Nationwide Down Syndrome Society
The highest-pinned video on the Nationwide Down Syndrome Society’s TikTok has greater than 32 million views and an lively feedback dialog.
Whereas not all their movies go viral, they do constantly get hundreds of views and engagements. Their present marketing campaign revolves round City 21, an imaginary city the place everyone seems to be handled with dignity and respect.
The movies help their advocacy objectives, elevating consciousness whereas additionally supporting fundraising and coverage change.
3. Racial bias in pulse oximetry
This instance might sound somewhat obscure, but it surely helps present how social media advocacy can work for grassroots campaigns and not using a acknowledged charity or establishment main the way in which.
For background, pulse oximetry is a technique of monitoring blood oxygen ranges. The medical group has identified for a while that it’s much less dependable in individuals with darker pores and skin tones, however this problem had not been explored to find out how the variation would impression well being outcomes. This grew to become particularly vital through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analysis just lately printed within the Journal of Medical Web Analysis discovered that conversations on X (previously Twitter) elevated consciousness of this downside and “might have impacted regulatory motion introduced regarding the investigation of racial biases in pulse oximetry … and led to a surge in scientific analysis on the topic.”
Considered one of their most attention-grabbing findings is their evaluation of probably the most influential X customers on this dialogue. The person with the second-most affect had simply over 2,600 followers. The person with the third-most affect had solely 513. Small, targeted communities of customers can lengthen a message rapidly to an viewers nicely past that of the unique publish
Supply: Ahmed et al., Racial Biases Related With Pulse Oximetry: Longitudinal Social Community Evaluation of Social Media Advocacy Impression, J Med Web Res 2024;26:e56034
Faucet into the facility of worker advocacy with Hootsuite Amplify. Enhance model attain, preserve workers engaged, and measure outcomes—safely and securely. Find out how Amplify might help develop your group in the present day.