Through social media activism, you have the potential to reach huge audiences and create real, lasting change. You don’t need a million followers to make an impact, but with these tips and tools, you can both engage your existing followers more deeply and reach new people with your message.

The two most important parts of social media strategy are curation (what you post) and optimization (how you post it).

Curation:

• Questions to ask yourself when creating a post:
  • Is this content useful? For instance, content that teaches the viewer a new skill, like making vegan pancakes, is useful to your audience.
  • Is it entertaining? People want to laugh, cry, and be inspired.
  • Is it consistent? This doesn’t mean you need to post the same kind of content over and over, but it’s helpful to have consistent messaging.

Optimization:

• Questions to ask yourself before sharing a post:
  • Is it timely? Utilize notable days or holidays that relate to your mission (i.e. Earth Day, World Vegan Day, or Cesar Chavez Day). Leveraging trending topics, hashtags, and current events can boost engagement. Post when your followers are online. For instance, if you’re a student and want to reach your peers, consider posting after school between 5-8 PM. Finally, ask yourself if it is appropriate to post this content given what’s happening in the world.
  • Is it platform-specific? Work with the platform you’re using. Content performs differently on each platform. For example, a vertical video might perform better on TikTok or Instagram while a link to an article might work better on Twitter. Take advantage of all the tools available on the platform you’re using, like Stories on Instagram. Consider the dimensions — vertical content takes up more of the screen on Instagram and TikTok than horizontal content, so viewers are more likely to see it while scrolling through.
  • Is it credible? Always fact check and proofread your content before you post it. Build trust with your audience so they know they can come to you for truthful and accurate information.

Social Media Strategy FAQ:

• Where should I start with the first few posts?
  • When you start a new account it’s helpful to draft around 10 posts that are consistent with each other. You can post the first one and save the rest for later. Post with a consistent schedule — that could be once a day, six times a day, or once a week. A consistent schedule tells your audience when they can expect to see new content from your account. You can then share the posts you drafted according to the schedule you choose.
• How can I increase engagement if it’s low?
  • Remember that social media platforms are largely run by machines and platforms frequently change their algorithms. Search for platform-specific algorithm hacks to educate yourself on what you can currently do to help increase engagement.
  • Look at the posts where you have high engagement and see what qualities it has that might be resonating with your audience. If none of your posts have high engagement, spend time using hashtags or create posts with people who have more followers than you and tag each other in those posts.
  • Build relationships with your followers by using tools like the question sticker in Instagram Stories. Share and comment on their submission to create a dialogue. Reply to peoples’ comments on your posts, which incentivizes them to keep engaging with your content. Engage with content made by others in your space. Their followers could see your comments and go to your page.
  • Ask people to share your post, which gives them an opportunity to spread awareness and advocate alongside you. You can ask for engagement verbally in a video or on the last slide in a photo carousel. Don’t ask in the caption for comments, likes, saves, or shares since the algorithm flags that as engagement baiting and will deprioritize the post.
• Should my post go on Instagram or TikTok? Or both?
  • Ask yourself if it has the right tone for a certain platform. TikTok is funny and quick. It’s driven by viral trends, hashtags, and inside jokes. Instagram is the best platform to show off beautiful photography and Instagram Stories and captions are great for telling narratives.
• Is it better to reach people with my message by starting a new account focused on activism or using my existing personal account?
  • That depends. What are your goals? Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying to build on social media? If you’re interested in having an account that’s dedicated to a cause, like farm animal advocacy, it might be worth creating a totally new social media account. If the goal is to deeply engage with the people you’re close to, stick with posting on your personal account. Both are valid goals.

Use your following to help farm animals, workers, farmers, communities, and the planet! Follow @FarmSanctuary and be sure to share our content with your friends. Make sure to follow other farm animal protection and food justice organizations, as well, in order to share the work they’re doing to help animals and advocate for a more just food system.

Hi there! My name is Bella, and I’ve been an active animal rights advocate for over three years now, not only in my daily life, but over social media as well. I started blogging once I transferred to veganism, and have been able to reach and meet so many amazing people. You may have interest in starting an account on Instagram—or other social media—about your animal activism, and I’m here to help! Below is a guide of do’s, don’ts, and simple steps to get you started.

• First off, decide your general account theme. Are you dedicating your account just to advocating for animals, or do you want to share plant-based snacks and ideas as well? Are you trying to raise money or awareness for a certain cause?

• After you’ve determined a theme, think of a catchy name that conveys the meaning of your account. Followers are more likely to click on accounts with names that make them curious to see more, especially if they are hunting for accounts related to your exact topic. Some examples might be “@thesoylatte,” “@abbysanimals,” “@plantpowered123,” or my own, “@earthyisabella.”
• Your bio! Bios are extremely important. Here, you have 150 characters to creatively summarize your account. First starting out, make sure to include some indication of your “mission statement,” or what your account is about. Quotes about animal rights are fun and attention-getters. You want this to contain the minimum amount of important information, yet still be pleasing to the eye. You may also want to include your age if you are looking to connect with other young adults/teens with the same passions that you have! I like to add a few emojis to throw some color in there.
• Once the look and information of your account is set up, start posting content! Keep your images as high-quality as possible, and stay away from heavy and random filters; you want your picture to be seen in all its worth! Photos with text on them can be nice and informational, but too much text can bore a reader and they will continue scrolling past your upload. The use of hashtags is very beneficial as well. It’s likely you’ll have no followers starting off—I did too—but by adding hashtags, my post got over 100 likes and many followers! Common ones may be #vegan, #vegetarian, #animalrights, #plantbased, #plantpower, #compassion, and more. When you start to type in a hashtag, click the first result that has the most relevance to your post. This means the hashtag is popular and more people will see it.

• Stay active! Even if you have no photos to post, you can always repost photos from places like @FarmSanctuary by tagging them in the picture and #repost. You will lose followers if you are inactive. Speaking of followers, make sure you follow accounts of your interest as well (especially small ones like yourself). By following these accounts similar to your own, you can also gain your following.
• The most important thing to remember is that this takes time. No one gains hundreds of followers overnight (unless you’re Kylie Jenner). Don’t get upset if you’re still under your goal in a month or two. Just keep posting and spreading activism, and you’ll get there all on our own. My posts on animal welfare are often statistics, showing that meat is not beneficial to us, or that fur kills a certain number of animals yearly.
• Include website links in your bio too! Share petitions on animal rights that people can click on and sign when they get to your account.

All in all, just have fun, spread your message to as many people as possible, and hopefully meet new friends from different places that you share the same mission with! You are making the biggest difference, no matter how big your account is. Thank you for advocating for farm animals, workers, farmers, communities, and the planet!