Advocacy Through Advertising

Advocacy Through Advertising

Storytelling is a great way to advertise your cause on social media. It pushes visibility and awareness. For example, my church has a CDC that promotes an organization called the Deborah House. The Deborah House advocates for single mothers of color, the homeless and addresses the housing issue in west Michigan. They post stories of success and pictures of the children that are in these families that are also successful because of the program.

Whether it’s Face Book live, Instagram stories, Periscope, or Twitter, people want to put a face to the issue. We are also able to pull on people’s heartstrings when we tell stories and it is a great way to raise funds for our advocacy efforts. Facebook is a great way to promote events and reach the public. Pinterest is a great tool to target women. LinkedIn is a great tool to target professionals. We can use YouTube, we can blog, we can tweet links to articles and use hashtags to let people know what our interests are and to join the movement.  We ultimately direct people to our website by using these platforms.

For policymakers, engaging in social media keeps their constituents informed of upcoming visits, speeches and meetings. This is a great way for them to interact with the communities they serve. YouTube gives policymakers a chance to share speeches and make announcements. If your advocacy effort is about education, like mines is, you can tweet the secretary of education and post your story on the U.S. Department of Education Face Book page. We can also interact with education reporters and editors around the world. The focus of this is to reach mass public and educate them about your cause.

Reference

Kidwai, S., & Imperatore, C. (2011). How to Use Social Media as an Advocacy Tool. Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers, 86(6), 36–39. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ943158&site=eds-live&scope=site