Lobbying in public: interest group activity on social media

Social media has transformed political communication by making it easy to post and free to disseminate information. Interest groups can use social media platforms to direct messages to policymakers and to educate the public about their issues. By providing a platform that can be used by groups regardless of their size or resources, social media expands opportunities for lobbying activities and provides policymakers and the public with information on the interests of a wider and more representative range of groups. To what degree do interest group organizations take advantage of this and what does that advocacy look like? We investigate these questions using an original dataset of nearly 13 million Twitter and Facebook posts from interest groups active in national policymaking in the US. We find that in many ways patterns of lobbying on social media are consistent with how interest groups act in other settings, but that groups seems to view social media as primarily a medium for public education on their issues.