In chatting with organizations that are considering online advocacy software we often come across this problem:
“Our members are seniors and I’m not sure that they will go for an online solution.”
These organizations often decide to stick to old-fashioned methods to engage their audience or (even worse) decide not to engage them at all. However, over the past decade, seniors are increasingly getting connected on the internet, and as we discussed in a previous blog post, online engagement can improve real world advocacy. Can we effectively reach and engage seniors online?
According to a Pew Research Center study, Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults, smartphone adoption has quadrupled among seniors in the last five years. Nearly 3/4s of all senior internet users reported daily internet usage and once seniors are online, they engage at high levels with digital content.
This study proves that an online advocacy strategy is increasingly effective when engaging seniors. Specifically, online advocacy systems that can utilize smartphones and hook into social media platforms are reaching seniors more every day. According to the study, 70% of seniors that use social media are highly active and engaged with the platform, logging in on a daily basis.
The Georgia Council on Aging, one of our clients, is a small advocacy organization focused on issues that affect senior citizens and over the past few years they have had great success in engaging and mobilizing their mostly senior audience of advocates. David Coffman, Social Service Coordinator at GCOA has seen a rise in engagement from seniors:
“I think there is always concern about the digital divide keeping older Georgians from participating in online engagement, but we are seeing the divide close as baby boomers age and technology becomes more accepted.”
We’ve watched countless advocacy campaigns and action alerts get pushed out to their audience get high response rates, so much so that it inspired us to create a presentation to illustrate how they do it. GCOA has been able to use our mobile-friendly advocacy tools to make participation in action alerts easy for their advocates.
“It is important to keep our engagement strategies easy and safe so that anyone, not just older Georgians, can feel comfortable engaging with their legislators and other policy makers.” – David Coffman, GCOA
Online advocacy can help engage senior citizens more than ever before, and you need to ensure that you have the tools in place to make sure you are reaching them effectively. To learn more about an online advocacy system that can engage advocates on their phone click here.