When it comes to technology and tactics, political campaigns are often the laboratories for advocacy campaigns. What was tested in November’s election is often translated into grassroots strategies after the Congress is sworn in. So what are those lessons and how can you apply them to YOUR advocacy campaign? That was the subject of the most recent 2012 Advocacy Leaders Network (ALN) workshop entitled “Learning the Lessons of Campaign 2012 and Transforming Them to an Advocacy World.”

One of the panels titled, “Big Data and Micro-Targeting” gave some startup tips to those trying to use social media s a way to get people interested in their cause. Here are some pieces of advice to keep in mind when starting a social media approach for your cause:

• It’s All About Metrics. And what you measure must be related to your end goal. Remember the Kony2012 campaign? For a while you could not go online without hearing or seeing the phrase #Kony2012. It was a metric success as the video went viral and was all over blogs, Facebook and Twitter. But after a couple of weeks everyone forgot about the whole campaign. The organization behind Kony2012, Invisible Children, failed in achieving a goal of maintaining interest in their cause and from that standpoint was a strategic failure. Lesson to be learned is to show your audience, from the beginning, the purpose and the major goals of your organization.

• Keep it Authentic. For an advocacy organization having a clear message is key. Your message has to be authentic in order to work within the audience’s expectations. The audience can recognize if you put out a message that does not go with your brand. So if you lose that authenticity it will become nearly impossible to get it back and your audience will lose interest in your cause.

• Does Privacy Still Exist?   This is the harsh reality of today’s world of social media. As the panelists shared, for all intents and purposes, the days of online privacy are gone. Many websites now have databases that store vast amount of information. For instance, when you sign up for Facebook you are willingly giving away your personal information that they store in their database.  This can be a great tool for advocacy organizations if used properly. You can use social networking sites such as Facebook as a tool to find a particular demographic you want to target for your cause. But you need to do ethically. Your brand will suffer if your supporter (or worse, your detractors) understand that you sourced their info unethically.

Keeping these three lessons in mind, you are now ready to launch your updated social media campaign! Another good way to pick up on successful (or unsuccessful) tactics in action is to look at an organization that is similar to yours and see how they communicate through social media.  An analysis of similar campaigns in your space can save you a lot of effort. If you have other suggestions that have worked well for your organization, we would love to hear them! You can email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .