About diminishing digital reach of progressive powerhouse groups

Maybe it is time to change up thinking about how to build up organizational digital presence

A buzzy piece hit my inbox last Friday which generated high interest and good discussion among digital practitioners in the progressive and Democratic political space. I will not be surprised the buzz probably went beyond that bubble as well. The piece was a good one and it was from Kyle Tharp and Lucy Ritzmann. Kyle pushed it out through a his newsletter - FWIW - which is a good read for those who are interested in topics such as tracking digital spending, strategy, and trends in our elections [important topics for the times we live in].

Kyle and Lucy made smart observations about how the "online grassroots power" of a "a constellation of progressive advocacy groups, nonprofits, and labor unions that work on political issues like reproductive rights, climate, LGBT equality, gun violence prevention, and worker’s rights" could be "waning." They specifically pointed towards cratering engagement in Facebook with accompanying receipts (see the link in the comment) thread. I think where they made an important point was to suggest progressive advocacy groups shouldn't be looking to build social media megaphones by putting themselves at the mercy of platforms built by Big Tech.

I have been sitting on this for a while and have been reflecting on it as I have been in this intersection of digital organizing, communications, and fundraising in the progressive/Democratic space for a decade and half and have been watching this all play out with concern. I would suggest we are seeing the influence of progressive orgs not just waning in the world of social media but also when it comes to building effective email programs which gave prominence to number of these major progressive orgs starting around the first term of Obama Administration (there were couple of who were ahead of their times and started organizing on this front around the Iraq War - see MoveOn.org).

I'd submit right now we are seeing waning reach for progressive orgs across lot of their digital channels including email programs as well. There used to be a time when it was easy for big progressive orgs to generate online petition campaigns gathering 100-250k signatures - sometimes going way above 300k. You hardly see that any more as organizations have to scrap to get to 50k signatures if they are lucky. Lot of this is happening because of proverbial abuse of commons and flooding of our inboxes with junk emails from all kinds of places. Same dynamic is now playing out also in text program.

And, all of this is happening with the backdrop of increased fragmentation of social media landscape itself which includes Twitter turning into somewhat of a cesspool while lot of hardcore progressives and scattered over to multiple platforms. So what should folks be thinking about?

I do think Kyle and Lucy's suggestion about taking TikTok seriously is a good one. But, imho progressive and Democratic strategists should be looking at the overall picture and think through their strategies anchored around substance rather than looking simply at tactics.

I think there is a place in any organization's outreach and communications strategy for building out an email program. There is also place for engaging on social. But, before doing so I think the principals of orgs should be thinking deeply about their audiences and more importantly who will they want to build deep relationships with to engage with their underlying mission and advocacy goals.

This is where I think folks will disagree with me here a bit and I think that is alright. IMHO number of practitioners in the progressive and Democratic spaces in recent years evolved into being more of online marketers ultimately focused on bottomline of raising money. I get that pressure because ultimately online fundraising buttered the bread for lot of folks in these positions. That said, I think we are now at a point when one is working on an organization's overarching vision and how to communicate and organize around it - she or he should be thinking with substance first and figure how that substance will resonate deeply in what channel. It could be TikTok or it could be Threads or BlueSky or Substack or IG or a combination.

Most importantly - I folks need to start getting away from the pressure of building massive numbers in terms of followers, views etc and figure out what would be the best way to get quality of their messaging or advocacy getting through. I believe when you see your issue penetrating through media and political landscape - you will feel it around you. You will see the people you respect and admire in your online and offline communities talking about it - in the channel they care about.

This takes a lot of hard work. It takes persistence and discipline. And, I think it entails moving away from one-size fits all approach that may have worked few years ago.

Anyway, my 2 cents. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well.