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Introduction to Advocacy
Are you curious about what advocacy is and why it holds such significance for communities? Whatever your reason for wanting to know more, whether it’s to expand your knowledge or because you want to initiate digital advocacy in your community for an issue or cause you care about, this article is your guide. Here, you’ll find answers to many questions you may have on the topic. Here’s an overview of what’s covered in this article:
- What is advocacy?
- How was advocacy carried out in the past?
- Why is advocacy important?
- What is digital advocacy?
- How many types of remote advocacy are there?
- Steps and stages of digital advocacy.
Let's dive in, starting with the first section:
What is Advocacy?
To understand the concept of advocacy, we’ll find several academic terms, but to put it simply:
- Process: A series of steps and procedures that complement each other.
-Organized: Each step depends on the other.
But why is it done? This organized process is carried out to defend a specific cause on behalf of someone, to advocate for an individual or issue and achieve a desired goal.
Examples:
- We see people facing poor living conditions; advocacy may aim to secure them a decent life with basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter.
- In another example, if someone commits a crime that sparks public attention, advocacy could be used to defend a specific cause related to that incident.
But is this definition of advocacy only a product of our modern times, or did it exist in the past? Pause for a moment and think, then continue reading to learn more in the next sections.
How Was Advocacy Carried Out in the Past?
If we look back at historical events, we’ll see that advocacy has had an impact for a long time. This is evident in the national movements that occurred in some Arab and European countries, where citizens themselves advocated for specific political or social demands. In some countries, even governments allowed citizens to conduct advocacy efforts on their own.
So now you understand the concept of advocacy in a simple, straightforward way. But does advocacy still work the same way in this technologically advanced era? Not exactly. Hence, a new form has emerged—digital advocacy, also known as online or electronic advocacy. Let’s take a closer look at this in the following sections.
What is Digital Advocacy?
Digital advocacy, also known as online advocacy, is the process of using digital channels, such as social media, to advocate for a cause. It involves individuals who wish to promote a particular issue through digital means.
Why is Digital Advocacy Important for Some Communities?
As we saw earlier, the goals of digital advocacy are similar to those of traditional advocacy, but there are additional advantages that come with its digital nature:
- Presence in any form of digital content: For instance, visual content like videos can greatly enhance advocacy efforts through digital tools.
- Ease of reaching a broader audience: Digital tools now allow for targeting specific geographical areas or audience segments likely to support the cause.
- Engaging supporters through algorithms: With today’s technology, reaching large numbers of people who can share and spread the campaign is easier than ever, boosting its impact.
- Increased engagement: You can interact continuously with supporters, ensuring ongoing advocacy in a simpler way.
- Importance in preserving supporter data: Digital advocacy allows for secure storage of supporter data, making it easy to reach them anytime, especially in specific regions.
Types of Online Advocacy
- Self-advocacy: This is when individuals advocate for themselves on a particular issue. For example, individuals with disabilities advocating for greater accessibility.
- Individual advocacy: This type focuses on empowering individuals or groups to obtain their rights or needs. For example, organizations working to provide food, shelter, or other essentials to those in need.
- Systemic advocacy: Unlike individual or self-advocacy, systemic advocacy is more extensive, aimed at impacting broader local, regional, or even global levels. For example, advocacy efforts related to global conflicts or humanitarian crises.
Other types of advocacy include victim advocacy, legal advocacy, and healthcare advocacy.
Learn more about the types of advocacy in this video
How is Digital Advocacy Done?
Digital advocacy isn’t carried out randomly; every plan has stages and steps that need to be executed in an organized manner to achieve its goal. The steps of digital advocacy are as follows:
1. Define your advocacy goal.
2. Use your digital tools effectively.
Related Online Petition Sites
- Change.org
- FasterCapital.com
Before concluding, we encourage you to check out our other articles on the website. We hope you find them valuable. Thank you for reading, and we invite you to leave a comment sharing your thoughts on this article or your personal perspective on digital advocacy.