5 Advocacy Mistakes to Avoid (and One Resolution to Keep) In 2025

A returning President is sworn in, a new Congress is underway and incoming legislators are shaking up state houses across the country. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and roll out your 2025 advocacy plan. 

But before you hit the gas, it’s important to ensure you’re not headed straight for a pothole. My team has run countless advocacy campaigns – as clients, agency strategists and now as technology partners at Speak4 – and we’ve seen how the wrong choices can cost organizations money, influence and time. 

Here are the mistakes to avoid in 2025:  

Mistake 1: Treating Social Media As A Joke.

There is a misguided idea that social media doesn’t represent a “real” opinion of what audiences are thinking. While social media is curated to an extent, the fact is this: decisions are being made on your newsfeeds, on mobile devices, in real time. 

The impact of social media simply cannot be overstated going into this legislative session. For example, consider X CEO and now Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chair Elon Musk nearly single-handedly taking down a $100 billion stopgap bill in December via a series of posts. A flurry of emerging platforms, such as Bluesky and Truth Social, now offer users a kind of newsfeed-from-concentrate: a tighter echo chamber of similar voices that brands would do well to monitor and engage upon. 

Finally, research on user behavior indicates that scrolling is going nowhere: people spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media per day, with the average American checking their phone 159 times per day. 

What It Means: You need to make sure your advocacy campaign incorporates a social media strategy in a real, thoughtful way – and that extends beyond organic posting. Ensure your grassroots advocacy tool has a social sharing function and can integrate seamlessly with social platforms to capture advocates’ attention where they already are.

On the topic of shareability: consider engaging like-minded social influencers to expand your campaign’s reach to their followings. Brands are expected to spend $9.29 billion on influencer-related marketing campaigns in 2025. Take a leaf from consumer brands’ playbook and give your audience a familiar face to connect to.

Mistake 2: Relying On Statistics and Facts Alone.

Congratulations. You’re passionate about your effort and you have the facts on your side.

Here’s another fact: stats alone aren’t enough to influence people to act.

Stories, however, are 22 times more likely to be remembered than facts. I’ll back up that stat with a story of our own: at Speak4’s recent team retreat, one current staffer in a state lawmaker’s office noted the importance of telling personal, human stories: “Any degree of personal touch that can sound the alarms a little more in our office would go a long way.” 

WHAT you say is important, but not more important than WHO says it and HOW. Decisionmakers are moved by personalized, quality engagements from their constituents that speak to the human impact of your effort – not just soulless facts and figures.

What It Means: Don’t plug and play your research findings into form letters and consider your work done. Invest in advocacy infrastructure that boosts the quality of your grassroots advocacy, such as personalized testimonial videos, surveys, calls to lawmakers’ offices and more to reach your targets’ hearts AND minds.

Mistake 3: Skimping On Quantity.

It’s easy to read about the importance of stories and think, “Great! All I need is one good story to move the needle with lawmakers.”

Not so. Lawmakers are inundated with messages. If your opponent gets in 100 letters to their office and your campaign sends five, that will be noted by the lawmaker’s staff, who track and report messages by volume and by pro vs. con on a given issue.

Being undeniable to decisionmakers means showing up in overwhelming numbers. Don’t neglect quantity.

What It Means: Prioritize performance marketing in your advocacy asks to drive quality AND quantity in your campaigns. Figure out what makes your audiences click – whether it’s countdown clocks, punchy copy or repeated asks to “send another letter” – and optimize for that while nurturing your real, high-quality leads (from point #2).  

Mistake 4: Over-Focusing On Just One Decisionmaker.

Knowing and prioritizing the key players in your policy fight is critical. But you miss the mark if you narrow your focus to only those decisionmakers. 

To influence one person, you have to influence their network: their staffers, their colleagues, their friends, their family and their favorite podcasters. Social proof is at its strongest up close. 

What It Means: Target the forest to reach the tree. Ensure your targeting is set to include everyone in your decisionmaker’s sphere of influence, then tailor your grassroots advocacy to reach those secondary influencers with customized messages that inspire them to act on your behalf.

Mistake 5: Thinking Short-Term. 

A short-term mindset in advocacy is like day trading. You might get lucky, but the odds that you stay lucky over the long term are against you.

A longer-term advocacy mindset – one that nurtures relationships with your advocates and lawmakers over the course of their lifetimes – is like consistently investing in your 401K. At the end of the day, you’re far more likely to yield a long-term benefit.

We’re living in an era of urgency. In the rush to be the first to reach lawmakers, don’t underestimate the gravitas of staying power. The next few years will be a marathon, not a sprint – so campaigns need to figure out how to maintain momentum for the long haul.

What It Means: Quick one-and-done letter sends aren’t going to cut it. Invest in grassroots advocacy infrastructure that allows you to be consistent and show up repeatedly – whether by allowing you to stay nimble in a changing policy environment or providing innovative ways to keep your advocates engaged with your effort.

Now that you are armed with what NOT to do, I offer you some positive reinforcement: 

Your 2025 Resolution: Don’t Protect Your Sacred Cow. 

Predictability is a virtue… but any virtue, when overdone, can lead to vice.

If you’ve stuck with the same strategies, tactics and (dare we say it) advocacy platforms since the genesis of your grassroots program, it’s time to get brutally honest:

Is your current advocacy setup serving you at the highest possible level?

If the answer is anything but a hard “yes,” the time to act is NOW. You can’t afford to waste the precious commodity of time sticking with the status quo if it’s not up to par.

The new political landscape is shaking up advocacy campaigns across the federal, state and local levels. Control what you can by steering clear of grassroots advocacy gaffes and ensuring you have an advocacy partner who can deliver. 

Onward!