What causes do you care about?
Maybe you want to call attention to poverty and hunger here in the US or around the world. Perhaps you care deeply about eradicating racism, sexism, Islamophobia, ableism, and the other hateful biases that divide our society. Maybe you want to sound the alarm about climate change, galvanize people to vote, or just inspire people to support their local public library.
Whatever cause or social issue you’re passionate about, you can use social media to raise awareness and encourage action. Using social media for advocacy may seem a daunting prospect, but in reality, anyone who spends time on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, or the many other social media platforms available today can drive positive change in the world by advocating for issues close to their heart. The key is to start small, spend time looking at what other advocates do, test to analyze what works and what doesn’t, and share worthwhile content. Below is a quick guide to help you get started.
Choose a channel
It’s a good idea to operate via whichever channel appeals to you most rather than trying to be everywhere at once. When using social media channels to launch advocacy messages, it is sensible to start where you maintain the most active presence and where you understand the medium well. For example, if you feel more comfortable writing, you might gravitate toward a text-based social network. If you’re more visual, you might try Instagram or TikTok.
Be authentic
Effective advocacy posts center around three core elements: they are authentic to the person creating them; they have a conversational, rather than preachy, tone; and they contain some kind of visual element, whether a photo or video. Think about what you want to say about a topic and how you feel about it, rather than trying to copy someone else. In addition, try to incorporate popular hashtags used by other advocates and organizations to enhance audience engagement and increase connectivity with posts.
Engage with others
Social networks are just that: social. That means you need to find a community of like-minded people and organizations who also care about your cause. Get involved by liking, sharing, or otherwise amplifying other users’ posts that resonate with you. Reply or comment as well—start a dialogue. This is a good way to build your network while also reducing the need to constantly create unique content. In addition to saving energy and time, this approach can also bring your followers. It’s also an excellent way to learn more about your cause.
Follow thought leaders and policymakers
In terms of increasing reach and improving public awareness of causes you care about, following the social media accounts of policymakers and members of the media and regularly engaging with them can be an effective approach. Take for example X, which enables users to engage in conversations with each other that other users, in turn, can also join in on. To increase exposure, you should follow other advocates as well as people you want to get your message to, such as policymakers, reporters, watchdog organizations, NGOs, elected officials, and other relevant parties.
Quality trumps quantity
When using social media to increase awareness of a particular cause, take care not to post too frequently, since this could be viewed as spamming and will prompt blocks. What counts as “too frequently” may vary across the different platforms. TikTok, for example, recommends posting about one to four times per day, depending on your audience. Facebook’s ideal posting frequency is much lower—about once to twice a day at most.
In addition, you should ensure that the content you create is “shareworthy.” Share engaging, high-quality, fact-checked posts that people might find useful, informative, entertaining, or otherwise worth their time. Examples might include personal stories, posts containing important facts or data, or articles with great visuals, inspirational quotes, or breaking news.
To position an advocacy campaign for success, you can publish content at different times of the day, on different days of the week, without posting too much. Rather than coming across as a monologue, content should be thought-provoking and encourage interactions.
Educate yourself
Make sure you understand what you’re advocating for. You don’t need to have a terminal degree in whatever cause you care about, but you want to understand the problem and viable solutions as best you can. Reading blogs, following the news, talking to other advocates, and paying attention to press releases from decisionmakers is crucial for anyone who seeks to be a changemaker. Remember that education also happens offline, too—talk to people in your community or read a book.
Assess your impact
In addition to sharing other users’ content and searching common key phrases and hashtags regularly, keep a close eye on your own results so you can distinguish between winning strategies from those in need of improvement. Social networks allow you to view the engagement data for your content, so make use of this valuable information.
Islamic Relief USA’s IRaise campaign
The nonprofit humanitarian organization Islamic Relief USA champions a variety of important causes, like support for refugees, eradicating poverty, and ending hunger. If any of these causes or the organization’s many other humanitarian relief projects inspire you, you can become a fundraiser via IRaise. This campaign allows you to create a dedicated, customizable fundraising page for a specific Islamic Relief USA project or cause. Once your page is created, you can share it on social media to spread the word and encourage others to join in.
Social media can be a powerful way to advocate for the causes you care about. Think about the changes you want to see in the world and use the tips above to get started.