Door-to-door canvassing, public forums and marches are all staples of grassroots advocacy efforts, but new digital applications and technologies are rapidly transforming the public affairs landscape.
The digital age has changed our lives in many ways – from how we communicate with friends and family to how we receive our news. Nearly 67 percent of Americans reported that they get at least some of their news on social media, with Facebook outperforming all other social media sites as a source of news. Additionally, 2017 marked the first time more than half of Americans ages 50 or older reported getting news from social channels, a sign that the digital wave is not isolated to younger generations.
Digital communication tools are also playing a greater role in how people engage in public affairs and grassroots advocacy, and are enabling an entirely new group of citizens to be more hands-on in political, social and economic matters.
The Public Affairs Council pinpoints four big trends for digital advocacy:
- Visual storytelling
- Social media for government relations and thought leadership
- Data-driven advocacy
- Online reputation management
Digital advocacy is moving towards a more people-focused field that utilizes data analytics to best determine how messages meet the right audience. A combination of factual evidence and real-life narratives is needed to push the needle on public affairs issues and to break through the one-note feel that results from social media advertising. Technology-driven companies have capitalized on these areas in recent years, and have created apps and digital tools that allow individuals to engage with the issues that matter to them in a more personalized, humanistic manner.
Constituent correspondence to the Senate increased by 548 percent between 2002 and 2010, with the advent of email making representatives more accessible to their constituents, and these levels have only grown with the development of new technology. Apps now exist that directly connect individuals with their representatives within a matter of minutes, using just their registered ZIP codes to provide them with the needed phone number or email address of their elected official. Many of these tools allow nonprofits, grassroots organizations and even companies to provide scripts to individuals that can be used as the basis for any constituent correspondence. Other app features allow individuals to tweet, post and share content on their social media feeds while tagging their elected officials, thereby granting them another way to directly engage in public affairs efforts.
Grassroots organizations aren’t the only stakeholders utilizing these tools. Companies are deploying vast corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies that provide customers with the tools needed to make a difference. Patagonia and REI encouraged consumers to call officials after the reduction of two national monuments, and Twitter promoted a hashtag alongside other companies in the midst of a vote on net neutrality. These tools streamline the way by which individuals engage in issues, giving people the option to voice their opinions by simply tweeting a hashtag or just clicking on a link – making advocacy work easier than ever. As these trends continue to emerge, it’s clear that businesses will continue to play a major role with issues that affect their industries and their customers.
Technology is creating additional channels by which we communicate and engage with the issues that matter the most to us, and is truly expanding the capabilities of grassroots efforts. Now it’s just a matter of having the right tools – and team – at your disposal to put this tech to work.