onlineadvocacy

3 Tips to Amplify Online Advocacy Efforts

Regardless of the type of online advocacy campaign, below are three tips you can use to amplify the grassroots reach of your initiatives online!


Online advocacy tools are revolutionizing the way that associations and advocacy groups engage their supporters in the political process. Organizations are increasingly adopting online advocacy services to enable their supporters to voice their opinions through online campaigns. Sending an elected official an email, connecting with a legislator via Twitter or calling a decision-maker through an online campaign are all types of online advocacy. Regardless of the type of advocacy campaign, below are three tips you can use to amplify the grassroots reach of your initiatives:

1. Share on Social Media

Publish your Action Center (or link to your online advocacy page) across your organization's social media accounts. For a public policy issue that would benefit from grassroots support, there is no easier (not to mention free!) tactic than utilizing social media to raise advocacy awareness. 

2. Encourage supporters to share Action Alerts with like-minded friends and colleagues

Your advocates are the greatest source of influence. When sending an email Action Alert to your membership list or other supporters, include a compelling sentence that motivates your advocates to forward the email with their friends or colleagues who are likely to participate in the online advocacy initiative. Encouraging your supporters to spread the word is a simple and effective measure to gain new advocates. 

3. Cross-promote the online advocacy campaign 

Cross-promoting an online advocacy campaign can be as simple as forwarding the link of your online Action Center to an individual who works for an organization with similar policy goals. Often, if an advocacy group is working to achieve the same legislative outcome, staff will gladly include information to connect their supporters with your Action Center in their regular communications. If cross-promoting your advocacy campaign is a good fit for your goals, we do advise against "buying" other organization's contact lists or emailing supporters of other groups directly from your organization. These types of emails, although sent with the best intentions, do not necessarily comply with the CAN SPAM act

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