Workshop Social Media for Change

22.12.2025

In 2023, The Good Lobby held a training session on social media for change. The main outcomes of the workshop are as follows.

1) Social Media as an Advocacy and Policy Tool

Social media is no longer an optional communication channel for advocacy organisations. It plays a central role in shaping narratives, amplifying patient perspectives, and influencing the policy environment in which decisions are made. For patient organisations in particular, social media enables direct communication with policymakers, journalists, professionals, and the wider public, without relying solely on traditional media or institutional gatekeepers.

In the policy context, social media contributes to:

• Agenda-setting by highlighting underrepresented issues
• Normalising patient perspectives in policy debates
• Creating visibility around evidence, lived experience, and policy demands
• Supporting coordinated advocacy moments (e.g. consultations, votes, awareness days)

At the same time, its public and fast-paced nature requires careful, responsible, and intentional use.

2) Opportunities and Limitations

Social media offers significant advantages for advocacy work. It allows organisations to reach audiences across borders, engage individuals with limited mobility, and react quickly to political developments. It is relatively low-cost and well suited to small teams or volunteer-based organisations.

However, these benefits coexist with clear limitations. Advocacy messages compete with a high volume of content, making it difficult to sustain attention. Health-related topics are particularly vulnerable to oversimplification or misinformation, and not all target groups (including some decision-makers or marginalised communities) are equally present or active online.

Effective advocacy therefore requires acknowledging both the potential and the constraints of social media, and integrating it into a wider policy and communication strategy rather than treating it as a stand-alone solution.

3) Platform Selection in a Policy Context

Selecting the appropriate platform should always start from the intended audience and advocacy objective. Different platforms play different roles within the policy ecosystem.

For example:

• X/Twitter is widely used by EU institutions, policymakers, journalists, and advocacy organisations, making it suitable for policy positioning, reactions to legislative developments, and participation in public debates.
• LinkedIn supports professional visibility, organisational credibility, and engagement with stakeholders such as health professionals, institutions, and partner organisations.
• Instagram and Facebook are often more effective for community-building, awareness-raising, and explaining policy issues through human stories and accessible formats.

When working at European level, organisations should also be mindful of regional differences in platform use and aim for a balanced presence that reflects their strategic priorities and available resources.

4) Timing and Policy Relevance

Timing plays a significant role in determining whether advocacy messages are seen and engaged with. In a policy-oriented context, timing should align not only with user habits but also with the policy calendar.

In general, posts related to advocacy, consultations, reports, or policy positions perform best on working days, particularly between mid-morning and lunchtime. Publishing content during these periods increases the likelihood that it reaches professionals and decision-makers during their active working hours.

Equally important is aligning content with relevant moments, such as:

• European or international awareness days
• Publication of policy proposals or reports
• Parliamentary debates, votes, or consultations

Strategic timing strengthens the connection between online communication and offline policy processes.

5) Building Strategic Visibility and Relationships

Beyond publishing content, social media should be used to actively participate in policy conversations. Following, tagging, and engaging with institutions, policymakers, journalists, and partner organisations increases visibility and signals relevance.

Consistent interaction—such as responding to posts, sharing aligned messages, or contributing constructive perspectives—can help patient organisations become recognised actors within specific policy discussions. Over time, this contributes to credibility and opens opportunities for dialogue beyond social media.

6) Hashtags as Policy Navigation Tools

Hashtags function as practical tools for connecting advocacy messages to broader policy conversations. In a policy-oriented approach, they should be used deliberately to align content with ongoing debates, initiatives, or campaigns.

This may include:

• Event-specific hashtags to consolidate content and visibility
• EU or institutional hashtags linked to funding programmes or strategies
• Issue-based hashtags that connect multiple organisations around shared priorities

Using a limited number of relevant and well-established hashtags helps ensure that content is discoverable by stakeholders who actively follow those topics.

7) Developing Policy-Relevant Messages

Effective advocacy communication combines clarity, credibility, and emotional resonance. Each post should convey a clear idea, provide meaningful information, and indicate why the issue matters in a policy context.

In practice, this means:

• Translating complex policy or health issues into accessible language
• Highlighting the implications of policies for people’s daily lives
• Connecting lived experience with evidence and policy demands

Where appropriate, messages should guide the audience towards further action, such as reading a position paper, responding to a consultation, or supporting a campaign.

8) Accessibility and Explanation

Health and policy topics can appear technical or distant to non-specialist audiences. Using explanatory formats (e.g. “explained” posts, short summaries, visual breakdowns) lowers barriers to engagement and broadens the reach of advocacy messages.

Accessible communication does not mean reducing complexity to the point of distortion. Rather, it involves structuring information so that different audiences can engage at different levels of depth, depending on their interest and role.

9) Responsible Use of Data and Evidence

Credibility is central to policy influence. Data and statistics used in social media advocacy should always be drawn from reliable sources and clearly referenced. This is particularly important in health-related discussions, where misinformation can cause harm and undermine trust.

Visual representations of data should be selective and readable, focusing on key trends or comparisons rather than overwhelming audiences with detail. When sharing or adapting existing materials, proper attribution reinforces transparency and legitimacy.

10) Ethics, Empathy, and Sustainability

Empathy is a powerful element of patient advocacy, but it should be used thoughtfully. Highly emotional content can mobilise attention, yet overreliance on distressing narratives may lead to audience fatigue or disengagement.

A sustainable advocacy presence balances personal stories with solutions, evidence, and policy relevance. Ethical communication respects the dignity of patients, avoids sensationalism, and remains mindful of the long-term relationship with audiences and decision-makers

11) Concluding Reflections

When used strategically, social media strengthens the capacity of patient organisations to contribute meaningfully to policy debates. It amplifies voices that are often underrepresented, supports evidence-informed advocacy, and complements offline engagement with institutions and stakeholders.

To achieve this, social media activity should be intentional, audience-focused, and embedded within a broader advocacy strategy that prioritises credibility, inclusiveness, and impact.