Tactics In Practice: The Science Of Social Media Advocacy
This is the first edition of Faunalytics’ Tactics In Practice, a series of blogs where we’ll explore the science behind different animal advocacy tactics and how you can make the most of them for animals.
Get that share button ready, because this blog dives into social media advocacy!
How Do Advocates Use Social Media?
Looking beyond the animal movement, advocacy groups in general use social media to strengthen outreach efforts, facilitate organizational growth, learn how their messaging is working in real-time, and quickly mobilize for collective action — and, of course, to persuade people that their cause is ethically correct.
Within the farmed animal movement, one researcher defined three pathways of social media’s influence on agriculture and food sustainability. Although these pathways are specific to one area of advocacy, the ideas may also apply to the wider movement:
- Social media spreads information rapidly to a large audience. This can include spreading undercover investigations, plant-based product updates, and more. Importantly, social media also connects the many stakeholders involved in improving animal welfare (e.g., policymakers, industry leaders, and everyday citizens who can affect policies).
- Social media enables advocates to connect based on shared concerns (even if they don’t hold the same beliefs). For example, farmed animal advocates can use social media to connect with aligned environmental or food justice groups to organize events, discuss common challenges, and coordinate activism efforts.
- Monitor stakeholders’ activities and shape the conversation. Within the context of vegan advocacy, this may involve marketing new products to consumers or shaping food trends. More broadly, it may also involve learning more about our adversaries’ tactics, tracking the public’s reactions to major campaigns, and weighing in on controversial animal issues to frame how they’re discussed.
As part of our research, we spoke to three social media experts in the movement, who told us that their techniques are designed to influence individual people to become vegan (or otherwise take pro-animal actions), as well as encouraging a cultural shift in how we perceive animals. With this view, social media can be used as both a short-term and long-term intervention tool.
Is Social Media An Effective Tactic?
If you’re reading this, chances are that you’ve either encountered, or used, social media in your advocacy. One of its key advantages is obvious — it’s possibly one of the most affordable, and therefore accessible, interventions available. But is this reason enough to prioritize it over other forms of activism?
In our original study of the relative effectiveness of different advocacy techniques, we concluded that social media is a particularly visible form of animal advocacy. For example, just over half of U.S. respondents said they had seen a pro-animal social media post within the past five years or so, making it the fourth most encountered type of advocacy out of sixteen interventions that we studied.
However, only 39% of respondents who said they had reduced their meat consumption did so because of a social media post — making social media the ninth most effective intervention out of the sixteen. Likewise, compared to other interventions, relatively few participants reported that a social media post had motivated them to seek out more information on animal welfare, look more closely at welfare labels, or have sympathy for animals.
This indicates that social media’s reach can be higher than its impact. Likewise, other researchers argue that social media can only create “weak ties.” In other words, earning one million followers on a pro-animal account doesn’t mean you can rally them all to go to a protest or vote for a pro-animal candidate. However, social media may be the first step in a series of actions that leads someone to your cause — for example, it can make someone contemplate factory farming before they eventually decide to go vegan. Clicks aren’t everything, but they might be a start.
It’s also important to understand how social media impacts different demographic groups. For example, while few studies have considered how historically disadvantaged groups engage with social media advocacy, Faunalytics has found that Black and Hispanic and Latino/a/x people are more likely to have seen pro-animal social media posts and are more willing to share a pro-animal post than people of other racial and ethnic groups. Although we can’t confirm why, research has found that U.S. minority groups tend to use social media more often than white people. This suggests that social media may be particularly effective for activists working with BIPOC communities.
Another study found that women and older individuals are especially likely to click on social media advertisements related to animal advocacy. The same study found that animal messaging was twice as likely to generate clicks and newsletter sign-ups than health-based or environmental narratives.
Can social media impact real-world choices? Probably, yes! For example, a study on animal trafficking in Thailand showed that targeted ads reduced people’s intention to purchase ivory and tiger parts by 40%, while another study found that digital influencers may encourage non-vegans to buy vegan cosmetic products. And a study on Facebook found that a chatbot that sent daily messages about meat consumption was able to reduce meat consumption when environmental messaging was used.
Despite how it may seem, research suggests that pro-vegan messaging may be more common than anti-vegan messaging on social media. In our Twitter analysis, tweets with the word “vegan” were classified as positive 54% of the time, negative 21% of the time, and neutral 25% of the time. Meanwhile, flexible dietary terms like “reducetarian” and “Veganuary” were more often classified as positive than strict dietary terms like “vegan.” Similarly, an analysis of Veganuary’s online presence found that positive words were used 1.6 times more often than negative words to describe the campaign.
Some researchers have argued that social media also has a unique advantage: the ability to center animals. An Instagram post from the perspective of a farmed pig can potentially do more to give voice to her suffering than a petition or a protest — in this way, social media can set the narrative to be more inclusive to animal voices.
All in all, while social media should not be the only method used by advocates, its low cost, high reach, and potential impact suggest it can be an effective tool to help animals.
Improving Your Social Media Advocacy
So it turns out social media advocacy has plenty of advantages! That’s great, but these advocacy tools are only effective when used well. That’s where our advice comes in – we encourage you to read through all of our evidence-based recommendations, our findings might surprise you!
Don’t Preach to the Choir
One danger of social media is the “preaching to the choir” effect — in other words, that the people who see animal content on social media are already vegan. For example, our 2015 analysis of the Save Movement’s social media impact found that almost 75% of survey participants were already following a veg*n diet.
However, social media sites have been shifting to include more sharing functions (like Instagram’s story-share feature) or algorithm-driven content (like TikTok’s For You page). The social media experts we spoke to highlighted the algorithms in particular as key to their strategy – basically, the algorithms share posts with people with similar interests, allowing a post to stretch far beyond one’s follower count. For example, a behind-the-scenes look at recent posts by a social media account with nearly 27 thousand followers showed that more than 99% of its reach was to non-followers.
With these systems, it’s easy to imagine, say, a health-conscious person scrolling into a series of #vegan recipes or a dog lover stumbling into Esther the Pig. We don’t have data to prove this (due to the “black box” nature of these social media algorithms), but it’s likely that the non-followers are less likely to be vegan than followers, and thus, a prime target audience. Another, more expensive, way to avoid preaching to the choir involves using targeted ads to maximize the chances you reach non-vegans.
Understanding your audience is tricky, as social media corporations keep many of these details hidden from users. Still, advocates should use informal polls, comment reviews, demographic data, and other techniques to help them understand who your audience is. After understanding their audience a bit better, advocates can use a method – algorithms, share features, targeted ads – to maximize their chances of reaching non-vegans.
Tailor Your Content To Your Target Audience
Once you understand your audience, it’s important to create content that speaks to those you’re trying to reach. Vegans and vegetarians can benefit from social media groups that ease the social barriers of a vegan lifestyle — this helps with retention. Flexitarians benefit from posts of farmed animal welfare and will eat 1.3 to 2.3 fewer servings of meat a week after seeing such posts.
Omnivores may respond best to information about farmed animal welfare and investigative videos — however, evidence shows that social media alone is unlikely to make an omnivore reduce their individual consumption, they may be inclined to share or otherwise engage with pro-animal content. And, as discussed above, a social media post may be the first step an omnivore takes in a pro-vegan path.
The region matters too. One study of media messaging found that people in the U.K. and U.S. may be more swayed to reduce their meat intake for personal reasons (e.g., health), while people in China and Brazil were prone to messages that tapped into their sense of responsibility to help their communities.
Test Your Posts
Just because social media algorithms are black boxes doesn’t mean we have to forgo an evidence-based approach. Many social media platforms offer either free or inexpensive A/B testing options (where you run two posts simultaneously and find out which one performs better). For example, you can test the effects of using a photo of animals who look happy vs. those who appear to be in pain, or the use of the word “plant-based” vs. “vegan.” Facebook/Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn each offer an A/B testing option.
However, keep in mind that most mainstream A/B testing advice centers on a different “ask” than that of advocacy: to buy a product, not to change thinking or behavior. Therefore, try to make your “ask” as representative of the movement as possible, something like “click here to learn more about factory farming” or “here’s how to add more plants into your diet”.
As always, you can come to us for help testing your social media impact. If you do conduct an interesting social media test that you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about it!
Pay Attention to Tone and Emotion
There is plenty of research showing how to make online content go viral. If you are looking for the basics of expanding your reach, there are resources available, but the research is clear that posting consistently, using snappy and brief phrases, posting emotional content, and asking for engagement are clear winners.
But be careful in overdoing the emotional aspect as it could veer into negativity towards non-vegans, which turns them away from the cause. For example, jurors in the Smithfield pig “theft” case were sympathetic to the animal welfare aspect of the cause and may have been open to advocates’ messaging. However, they were dismayed by hostile online comments from vegans, which may have lowered their openness to the cause.
Choose Your Photos Wisely
In general, social media posts nearly always do better when accompanied by a photo or video, but any old photo won’t do! Advocates need to choose them carefully.
A 2015 study from Mercy for Animals suggests ways to improve Facebook posts about farmed animals. In particular, images of baby animals, memes, and photos of vegan food, and showing a combination of farmed and companion animals were shown to reach far and wide.
The species also matters. In general, the more similar to humans, the better an animal will perform on social media. In our study, an egg-laying hen was more convincing than a fish in persuading people to sign a petition. An Instagram analysis found that mammals outperform birds who in turn outperform mollusks and invertebrates. Likewise, our study with Animal Save found that pigs were the most impactful choice for social media posts, followed by cows and then chickens (another study pegged the order as pigs, chickens, cows, fishes). In short, when in doubt, post a pig!
Another study found that images of a single farmed animal with a name (as opposed to a group of unnamed animals) were better at getting people to donate or sign a petition – advocates should consider giving one animal the limelight to allow audiences to develop more empathy for them. Other research finds that individual animals, pictures of many animals (like drone footage), and pictures of mothers and babies may be most compelling.
A surprising trick may be to use low-quality photos, which, counterintuitively, may make animal photos seem more authentic. However, one social media expert we talked to suggested that high-quality photos can help increase credibility. When posting a photo, advocates should consider what’s more important: Should it appear authentic, or should it be accepted as credible?
Advocates should also avoid AI-generated images, especially of animals, as these may harm the movement’s credibility. If you need to find animal-related photos, check out our list of free image resources including We Animals Media, Sinergia’s photo database, and more.
Use Social Media To Listen
Most people associate social media advocacy with creating content like tweets, reels, images, and posts. And while that’s critical, social media has another huge advantage: the ability to listen to trends from people outside the movement.
Advocates can monitor messages from our adversaries to inform and coordinate our responses. This can involve following meat companies, searching for pro-meat hashtags like “Februdairy” or “carnivore diet,” subscribing to pro-meat newsletters, actively monitoring meat industry misinformation, and more. Being aware of the social media presence of the meat industry (and other anti-animal groups) shows us how they intend to portray themselves, and allows us to think critically about rebuttals, strategies, roadblocks, and other paths to success.
Keep Up With Cutting-Edge Platforms
Social media networks are constantly changing. It’s critical to remain up-to-date with the biggest social media platforms, especially since animal advocates are proportionally underrepresented on newer platforms like TikTok and overrepresented on older platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter/X. TikTok, the fastest growing platform in the U.S., is particularly ripe for advocacy since 58% of U.S. teens use it daily. Any advocate interested in engaging with future generations should take TikTok seriously.
Also, be aware of the preferred social media platform of your audience. For example, people in middle-income countries tend to prefer WhatsApp and Facebook, highly-educated people are more likely to use LinkedIn, and older individuals might be best reached on YouTube and Facebook.
You should also stay up-to-date on the changing landscape of social media itself. Advocates warn that it’s best not to put all your (vegan) eggs into one basket, as one platform may change, become unpopular, or potentially even block your account. Given the content we post, especially animal cruelty, blocks and bans may be more common for advocates than non-advocates. Diversify your social media reach to ensure you won’t lose your impact.
The Takeaway
Although it’s just one of many techniques you can use to help animals, social media advocacy is undeniably here to stay — and therefore, advocates need to know how to use it to their advantage. Keep in mind, mastering social media involves far more than the strategies mentioned in this blog. You still need to create an online persona, provide accurate information to your audience, learn how to use the platforms, stay up to date on trends, and more. But if you build those skills, and apply the advice from this resource, you’re on your way to helping animals, one post at a time!
If you’d like more advice or need help finding insights to support your social media campaigns, we encourage you to contact the Faunalytics team or visit our Office Hours.
Faunalytics is deeply appreciative of the thoughtful contributions from John Oberg (John Oberg Social), Eva von Jagow (We Animals Media), and Nico Westermann (strategy consultant).
Sources / Read More
Effectiveness of Social Media for Animal Advocacy
- Polanco, A., Parry, J., & Anderson, J. (2022). Planting Seeds: The Impact Of Diet & Different Animal Advocacy Tactics. Faunalytics.
- Bryant, C., Platt, B., Vultaggio, A., & Dillard, C. (2021). Testing Social Media Ads for Animal Advocacy. Bryant Research, Mercy For Animals.
- Villanueva, Gonzalo, ‘Animals Are Their Best Advocates’: Interspecies Relations, Embodied Actions, and Entangled Activism, Animal Studies Journal, 8(1), 2019, 190-217.
- Rodak, O. Hashtag hijacking and crowdsourcing transparency: social media affordances and the governance of farm animal protection. Agric Hum Values 37, 281–294 (2020).
- Asher, K., Green, C., Ganesan, R., & Peake, C. (2015). Creating Change Online: A Study of The Save Movement’s Social Media Presence.
- Happer, C., Wellesley, L. Meat consumption, behaviour and the media environment: a focus group analysis across four countries. Food Sec. 11, 123–139 (2019).
- dos Santos, R.C., de Brito Silva, M.J., da Costa, M. et al. Go vegan! digital influence and social media use in the purchase intention of vegan products in the cosmetics industry. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 13, 49 (2023).
- Digital Deterrence Campaign report. (2022). USAID Reducing Demand for Wildlife.
- Wu, Y., Xie, L., Huang, S., Li, P., Yuan, Z., & Liu, W. (2018). Using social media to strengthen public awareness of wildlife conservation. Ocean & Coastal Management, 153, 76–83.
- Melvin, R., & Peacock, J. R. (2020, June 22). Which Farm Animal Photos are Most Likely to Inspire People to Eat Vegan: A Reanalysis.
How Animal Advocates Use Social Media
- Vegan Hacktivists. Tech and Data in the Movement. (2023).
- Senja Laakso, Mari Niva, Veikko Eranti & Fanny Aapio (2022) Reconfiguring everyday eating: Vegan Challenge discussions in social media, Food, Culture & Society, 25:2, 268-289
- Rice M, Hemsworth LM, Hemsworth PH, Coleman GJ. The Impact of a Negative Media Event on Public Attitudes Towards Animal Welfare in the Red Meat Industry. Animals. 2020; 10(4):619.
- Aji, A. P. (2019). The role of social media in shaping the animal protection movement in Indonesia. Jurnal Studi Komunikasi, 3(3), 389-401.
- Horn, L., Budulan, M.-A., & Loghin, M. (2022). Reasons for Veganism and the Influence of Social Media. Research Notebooks of the Master’s Degree in Electronic Business, 2(1).
Profiles Of Advocacy on Specific Social Media Platforms
Twitter:
- Montalbano, M., & Anderson, J. (2021). Twitter Trends: #CageFree, #Vegan, #AnimalRights, and More! Faunalytics.
- Rodak, O. Hashtag hijacking and crowdsourcing transparency: social media affordances and the governance of farm animal protection. Agric Hum Values 37, 281–294 (2020).
- Drescher, L. S., Grebitus, C., & Roosen, J. (2023). Exploring Food Consumption Trends on Twitter with Social Media Analytics: The Example of #Veganuary. EuroChoices, 22(2), 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-692x.12403
Facebook:
- Mercy For Animals (2015). How to Dominate Facebook For Animals.
- The Humane League, The Humane League, 2011 Worldwide | United States (National)
- Wolstenholme E, Poortinga W and Whitmarsh L (2020) Two Birds, One Stone: The Effectiveness of Health and Environmental Messages to Reduce Meat Consumption and Encourage Pro-environmental Behavioral Spillover. Front. Psychol. 11:577111. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577111
Instagram:
Social Media Use in Other Movements Or In General
- Social Media Users Per Month (Millions) – Wikimedia Commons. (2021, February 1). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screenshot_from_2021-02-01_10-44-15.png
- Jonathan A. Obar, Paul Zube, Clifford Lampe; Advocacy 2.0: An Analysis of How Advocacy Groups in the United States Perceive and Use Social Media as Tools for Facilitating Civic Engagement and Collective Action. Journal of Information Policy 1 January 2012; 2 1–25. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/jinfopoli.2.2012.0001
- Auger, G. A. (2013). Fostering democracy through social media: Evaluating diametrically opposed nonprofit advocacy organizations’ use of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Public Relations Review, 39(4), 369–376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.07.013
- Beshay. (2024, January 31). How Americans use social Media | Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/
- Using social media as a tool to complement advocacy efforts By J. Taylor Scott, J’Vonnah Maryman in GJCPP Volume 7 Issue 1 2016. (n.d.). https://www.gjcpp.org/en/article.php?issue=21&article=121
Miscellaneous
- Anderson, J., & Milyavskaya, M. (2022). Going Vegan or Vegetarian: Barriers and Strategies on the Path to Success. Faunalytics.
- Rowles, F., Marceau, J., Anderson, J., & Ólafsson, B. (2023). Jurors’ Reflections On The Smithfield Piglet Rescue Trial. Faunalytics.
- Anderson, J., & Lenton, A. (2019). Impact Of Corporate Commitments On Public Attitudes. Faunalytics.
- Cohen, R., & Halali, E. (2024). Giving farm animals a name and a face: Eliciting animal advocacy among omnivores using the identifiable victim effect. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 93, 102193.
- Bryant, C.J., Prosser, A.M., & Barnett, J. (2022). Going veggie: Identifying and overcoming the social and psychological barriers to veganism. Appetite, 169: 105812.
- Moloney, G. K., Tuke, J., Dal Grande, E., Nielsen, T., & Chaber, A.-L. (2021). Is YouTube promoting the exotic pet trade? Analysis of the global public perception of popular YouTube videos featuring threatened exotic animals. PLOS ONE, 16(4).
- Wulderk, Z., & Anderson, J. (2023). Different Strokes For Different Folks: Comparing U.S. Groups’ Openness to Pro-Animal Actions. Faunalytics.
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