The fourth session of our Creative Activist Masterclass series brought powerful insights from Amanda Alampi, Campaigns and Public Engagement Director at Human Rights Watch. With her extensive experience in digital advocacy, including work with Amnesty International and other major organizations, Alampi shared crucial strategies for navigating today's complex social media landscape.
In an era where social media can make or break movements, Alampi emphasized how today's digital landscape demands sophisticated approaches. While social platforms offer unprecedented reach, activists must navigate corporate algorithms, government surveillance, and widespread misinformation. All this requires campaigns to be flexible, nimble, and responsive in entirely new ways.
Despite these challenges, Alampi remains enthusiastic about social media's potential for creating change. "You can either join this rocket ship and really take advantage of virality and reach new and large audiences every single day, or you could be scared or stunted by the speed and scale.” She emphasized that virality isn't just about massive, worldwide trends – it's about creating small tipping points where dissent becomes the majority opinion.
These moments happen when enthusiasts and activists work together: the activists driving conversations and connecting different parts of the movement, while enthusiasts help spread the message through likes, shares, and simple engagements. It's this combination that creates the cascading effect needed for social change.
Alampi challenged the common dismissal of "slacktivism" – those small online actions like sharing posts or signing petitions. In many contexts, she noted, even these minimal engagements can be meaningful acts of resistance. "Social media today is a dangerous act in many places around the world," she emphasized. "We shouldn't belittle slacktivism and understand that liking something or signing a petition is an important part of the ecosystem of activism on social media today."
Strategic approaches to social media
Alampi introduced two powerful frameworks for developing social media strategies. The Circle Strategy begins with setting clear goals and intentions, then moves through determining your audience, choosing your platform, creating content, implementing, tracking and measuring progress, and adjusting based on results. This approach particularly resonates with campaigners and strategists who think in linear terms.
The alternative Hamburger Strategy [1] takes a more creative approach, starting with defining your audience (the “meat” of your strategy), selecting relevant content themes (the “cheese” that sticks), layering in voice and tone depending on your audience’s culture (the “sauce” that adds flavour), considering content formats (the “condiments” that add texture and variety), all that tailored to your respective platforms (the “bun” that holds everything together). This framework often appeals more to content creators and designers.
Tools for modern movement building
While discussing the practicalities of digital organizing, Alampi highlighted the wealth of tools available to today's activists. For secure communication and grassroots organizing, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal have become essential tools. These platforms enable activists to coordinate securely and build community, much like how Facebook groups were instrumental during the Arab Spring. Reddit and even Pinterest have emerged as unexpected but effective platforms for movement building, as demonstrated by successful campaigns from the Movement for Black Lives Matter and the Women's March.
For creative work, Alampi pointed to accessible tools that have democratized content creation. Platforms like Canva and VSCO make it possible for activists to produce professional-looking content without significant resources. These tools have revolutionized how movements can present themselves visually, making it free and easy to create compelling campaign materials.
In some countries, specialized tools like Phone-to-Action have transformed how activists engage with decision-makers. These premium services can turn every Instagram post or TikTok video into a direct line to elected officials, allowing followers to auto-dial members of Parliament or Congress with a single click.
Breaking out of bubbles
Alampi also shared her predictions for 2025, including the rise of messenger-based organizing, the growing importance of unpolished content, and the continuing challenge of misinformation.
In this context, she spoke about strategies for reaching beyond activist echo chambers. Breaking the bubble, she emphasized, must be an intentional act. The key isn't just focusing on what you post on your own channels, but rather on what partners and influencers are posting. "Think of your work in concentric circles," Alampi advised. "Find people that you have something that aligns with them and then reach new audiences through creating larger and larger concentric circles."
She shared a particularly powerful example of partnering with Teen Vogue to share protest safety tips during the Women's March era. What started as a viral graphic about protest safety tips evolved into a year-long partnership that reached entirely new audiences. Alampi stressed that often the most viral and useful content for reaching new audiences is educational information rather than direct advocacy asks. "Hide your advocacy inside like a Trojan horse," she suggested, and find the connection point that would make different groups want the information. While this approach requires more time, strategy, and careful packaging, Alampi argued it's a much more effective use of resources than solely focusing on your own social media channels.
Our Creative Activist Masterclass Series, supported by the US Embassy in Bulgaria, is a groundbreaking program designed to connect activists and civil society actors with some of the world's leading experts in strategic and creative communications, marketing, art, and social change.
[1] See more from Mark Smicklas at IntersectionConsulting.com