Getting traction with trans rights advocacy on LinkedIn
I have a friend who has spun up an advocacy page for trans rights on LinkedIn and asked for my thoughts. Here are the first few things I would cover in a coffee chat.
Why are you advocating?
DE&I pros and allies will tell you: you’ve gotta know your why. Most advocates get into this space because of their passion and personal connection to marginalized communities; this gives you the drive to get started and push through any early obstacles you may encounter, and it also gives you something you can’t buy: an authentic connection and great instincts about what your community needs.
But passion doesn’t help you figure out where to focus (instead, it tells you: everyone needs help! every problem is important!) and most dangerously, it can’t tell you when to stop. To stay in this work for the long haul, you’ll need a way to set priorities and know when to take a step back.
Some great reasons to get into advocacy:
- I believe by telling my story I can make a difference
- I am ready to share about my perspective and experiences
- I have skills and time I’m prepared to invest, and I’m able to take on a certain amount of risk (risk of social media backlash, exposure to toxic groups, and/or spillover to my personal or professional life)
These reasons set you up to know what you’re taking on and what resources you’re prepared to put into it; they keep you focused on your own efforts and investments, things you can control, creating a stronger sense of internal motivation that will make your efforts more sustainable.
Less great reasons to begin advocating:
- I want to change the world! Fast!
- I’m so angry I can’t take it anymore
- “No one” is speaking for this marginalized group that I don’t belong to, so I will
The issue I see with the “less great” reasons is they create a sense of unachievable urgency and set you up to feel like you’ve failed, or to be filled with loneliness and resentment. Anger and spite are great motivators, but they can also make you someone who’s hard to connect with, which will make it harder for you to build a community. Telling your story is something you can do for years whether you see any results or not; it’s still your story & will always be true. Trying to change the world could leave you feeling exhausted and defeated within months.
Define your communities & keywords
With social media advocacy, it’s important to consider that each platform holds an existing landscape of topics and communities. Even if your focus is on educating the uninformed, you’ll still want to connect with the groups that are also speaking out on your topic. They’ll give you confidence and inspiration, and places to direct people when they ask you for more information.
The key communities you want to connect to can probably be found by looking at:
- Your advocacy topic (for trans rights, that would be other nonprofits, advocacy groups and influencers within the trans community)
- Your local region (depending on the topic, this could be as small as your city or as big as your country. For trans rights, there is a provincial element because that’s the political body that passes legislation affecting trans people; so, looking at key organizations and groups based in Alberta)
- Your audience: This is both the groups you’re speaking with — people who get it — and the ones you’re speaking to — the ones you want to win over. You need to connect with both.
I would do a quick research dive to identify a good 10–20 accounts I can follow in my advocacy space: organizations, nonprofits, influencers, key authorities like politicians, and advocacy groups. I’d look for active posters who post regularly and seem to be plugged into the community. Follow them, then look at who they’re following and reposting, and follow some of those accounts as well. You want to build up a nice balanced diet of relevant content coming through your feed that you can share, like and comment on. This gives you a break from always having to write original content, and it also shows your followers that you’re not alone in your space — others are saying the same things as you.
Here’s what I came up with in this space, in case it’s helpful:
Some recommended LinkedIn follows for the subject of trans rights in Alberta/Canada (with links!)
Organizations:
- — one of the orgs challenging the AB transgender legislation
- — Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQI+ nonprofit
- — Calgary nonprofit supporting trans and gender diverse youth. (Both Egale and Skipping Stone challenge the AB gov’s transgender legislation if passed)
- and their board vice-chair
- and their Executive Director,
Political figures:
- (and educator and champion for the 2SLGBTQI+ community)
- (runs a podcast called tackling myths about Alberta — episode 34 discusses legislation about trans kids in Alberta)
- (NDP MLA, Edmonton) — she’s not on LinkedIn, only Instagram, but I couldn’t leave her out.
Allies & Advocates:
- — Advocate & community builder
- — EDI trainer & executive director of Beakerhead
- — Trans Advocate
- — Transgender activist & artist
- — DEIB speaker, author of Beyond Pronouns
Question: Who would you add to this list?
Keywords
What I mean by “keywords” is pretty loose; you just need an informal sense of what your topics are (trans rights? broader 2SLGBTQI+ advocacy? Alberta legislation?) so you can focus on creating and engaging with content in those specific spaces. Most algorithms prefer you stick to just one or two topics, which for most of us means we have to pare it down a bit compared to our usual set of interests.
You could also develop a sense of the hashtags you’d like to use. I don’t find this is super important for social media — it helps people find you in the beginning when you’re small, but most people don’t actually find content by searching for hashtags, they find it because it was shared or engaged with by someone they follow. You can also use hashtags to find content on your topic, to engage with on days when you want to be active on social media but don’t want to write. I would use a few big/broad hashtags early on, but not worry too much about it or go out of my way to pack them into my posts.
Consider your content strategies
No one can tell you what to write. You will find influencers who claim to have some kind of formula for creating viral content, but I don’t really think anyone knows, and the algorithms keep changing anyway. There’s no trick to it (other than always including a photo, ideally a selfie — can feel uncomfortable for the camera-shy but the algorithm LOVES a human photo). What gets consistently rewarded (i.e. boosted) is consistently good content, which means: content people read, content people interact with, content they share with their friends.
When advocating for marginalized groups, an overlooked strategy is to share simple, personal stories that highlight your lived experience and how it’s different (or the same) compared to others’. I firmly believe the most radical thing you can do as a marginalized person on social media is just be yourself — bonus points if you can show yourself being happy. Those personal stories and highlights from your daily life bring things home to your followers in a way no informative lecture ever could.
A note on sharing traumatic and vulnerable stories: You don’t have to do this & you should approach it with caution. Sharing these stories can be so helpful as long as you’re comfortable and prepared to get reshared or challenged, but I don’t think it’s wise to go trauma-dumping or to feel you have to bare your soul for likes. Share judiciously & within your boundaries.
Some content ideas
Personal storytelling — these should be things you could write about in 5 minutes with no research, because they are so personal and so obvious to you:
- What are some aspects of your experience as a trans person that are completely normal to you but others probably have no idea about? Ideas could include “what it’s like to do X (seek medical care, plan an outing for the day, choose my outfit, go to a public space)” — literally just walking someone through your thought process and the factors you have to consider.
- Also listicles: “Things I have to think about before a job interview that you probably don’t”; “My coming-out experiences and how they went;” “Things I want as a trans person (and things I don’t)” etc.
- Q&A/Ask Me Anything: You can write answers to questions you commonly get asked (or questions you think people WOULD ask if they were brave enough) and share a bit about your perspective. This is a nice one to keep in the back of your mind as you go through your day.
- Reflections on your personal journey — where are you today? How has that changed from when you first realized you were trans, or when you first started talking openly about being trans? What are you thinking about, working on, hoping for, reacting to? Remember — you have people who care about you on social media. Sometimes we just want to know what’s on your mind & how you’re doing!
- Stats + a story: Many advocates love to share stats because they can be so powerful. But: most people need a little help connecting with a statistic. One technique is to give your statistic a human element by adding a sense of scale. For example, if you have a % statistic, turn that into a number of people (at your company, or in your province, etc) and then name a space that holds that many people (“~7000 trans people live in Alberta — that’s enough people to fill the Edmonton EXPO Centre!”).
- You can also add a personal anecdote to a statistic: “58% of trans and non-binary youth do not feel comfortable talking with their health practitioner about their trans/gender affirming health care needs — here’s my story about seeking medical care.”
Commentary and reactions — this is just responding to other pieces of content on social media, sharing your perspective on the topic as a trans person, either as a reshare or a reply. Can be news stories, statements from politicians, any relevant social media post, or celebration/recognition pieces on days of recognition within the trans community. These can be cases where a trans perspective is relevant but hasn’t been included, so you’re adding something to the discourse, or just cases where you agree, have a small point to add, or just want to share a relevant anecdote that the original content made you think of.
General replies, likes, & comments
These are great for visibility, so on a day when you’re feeling tired or burnt out, you can still scroll through your feed (with all that engaging content from all those accounts you followed) and “like” or reply & agree with some relevant content in your space. It will push the content into other people’s feeds, and folks will often appreciate seeing which accounts or ideas get your seal of approval. Allies can be nervous about supporting something/someone that could turn out to be problematic, so we like to see content that’s endorsed by someone within the community. It’s an important role you can play!
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
I hope this gives you some things to think about. I would love to connect for a conversation to get more into the details or cover anything I missed! I would also really love to know if this was helpful or if I missed the mark on anything — PLEASE let me know.
