Virality of Social Change Messages on Facebook: A Study of Advocacy and Relationship Building Strategies of LGBTQ Advocacy Organizations

ABSTRACT

The communicative affordances of Facebook transformed the way nonprofit organizations communicate with publics. However, the connection between advocacy and virality received limited scholarly scrutiny. This study extends our knowledge of advocacy by examining the relationships between advocacy strategies, tactics, and virality. For this study, Facebook posts of LGBTQ advocacy organizations from January 2016 to December 2018 were collected. Content analysis of 1,500 Facebook posts revealed advocacy and relationship building strategies of LGBTQ nonprofit organizations. MANOVA analyses signaled that advocacy strategies and tactics are significant predictors for virality. Furthermore, LGBTQ advocacy organizations predominately utilized affective and cohesive social presence strategies on Facebook to build relationships with publics.