TikTok’s recent endeavor to engage with U.S. legislation stands as a cautionary tale on the complexities of reaching, educating, and mobilizing voters effectively.

The platform, primarily known for its short-form, viral content, ventured into the political arena last week, aiming to activate its predominantly young user base in opposition to a bill to ban TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. Shortly after the White House expressed support for the bill, TikTok issued an urgent alert to users asking them to call their congressional representative.

Where TikTok Went Wrong

The last-ditch effort to shut down the Congressional switchboards ahead of the House committee vote illustrated a critical misstep in failing to educate advocates before mobilizing them. TikTok ultimately missed the mark on their recent activation, unleashing their vast user base to deliver a misinformed message that blew up congressional phone lines but was ultimately dismissed as uninformed and, frankly, annoying.

TikTok’s failure to persuade legislators through sheer volume proves how crucial proactive, sustained advocacy is to win on legislative issues in today’s political environment—particularly when dealing with complex, highly nuanced issues like balancing technological innovation and freedom of expression with national security and protection of personal privacy across borders.

Any strategy for political advocacy should be centered around a core understanding of what the message is, why it matters to your audience, and who should be mobilized to drive the greatest impact with legislative targets. Leveraging social media for fast action on some legislative issues can be effective but can also, as evidenced by last week’s vote in the House, end up doing more harm than good for organizations trying to build good political will in the halls of Congress (or state legislatures, for that matter). Creating a sustained public affairs campaign with advocates who truly understand and can communicate about the nuances of an issue drives broader awareness, creates buy-in, and rallies advocates around key messages for long-term wins.

How to Mobilize Effectively in the Digital Sphere

Here are four key learnings other organizations can take away from TikTok’s missteps and ensure efforts to mobilize advocates enhance, rather than impair, the democratic process.

1. Set clear intentions… proactively.

The lack of transparency behind TikTok’s activation efforts raised skepticism among users and lawmakers alike. The urgent alert issued by TikTok insinuated an outright, immediate shutdown of the platform that would “damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihood of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience.”

Many felt this inflamed messaging was misleading compared to the actual legislative impacts, which would require the China-based owner to sell its stake in the company. The ambiguity of the message undermined the credibility of the initiative, leading to questions about TikTok’s genuine commitment to facilitating political participation versus advancing corporate interests.

Communicating clear, authentic intentions around political action is imperative to creating sustained advocate engagement and avoiding that icky feeling of a bait and switch strategy. Advertising language should mirror these intentions to ensure your audiences have a clear understanding of the issue, its impact, and what you are asking of them and why. Emotional language that might work at a political rally can end up creating distrust among both policymakers and potential advocates when used in issue mobilizations, especially if the message doesn’t reflect the realities of the issue.

2. Arm your advocates with the tools to carry the message.

TikTok’s fast-action approach underscored the pitfalls of oversimplification. Political engagement is inherently complex, requiring nuanced understanding of issues, policies, and the legislative process. However, TikTok’s strategy primarily involved catchy, simplistic messages that diluted the intricacy of the issue and failed to set their advocates up for success.

A sustained advocacy campaign should be proactive, allowing time to build up issue knowledge and arming advocates with talking points that drive home the narrative, add perspective, and create buy-in around the issue so that, when they communicate with policymakers, they sound like they know what they’re talking about and their personal connection to the issue is clear. Driving calls into legislative offices can be an effective strategy, but it relies on the advocates' ability to articulate their informed viewpoint. In TikTok’s example, congressional members were cited as saying the calls ranged from pranksters to content creators who rely on the app as a source of income—and few of them actually understood the legislation at even a basic level.

3. Know your audience.

The initiative to mobilize TikTok users did not sufficiently address the diverse needs and concerns of its audience base. A one-size-fits-all approach to voter activation ignored the heterogenous nature of TikTok’s audience, including varying political ideologies, priorities, and knowledge levels.

Effective voter engagement strategies require tailoring and personalization to resonate with different demographics, something TikTok’s campaign seemed to overlook.

4. Engage industry stakeholders.

TikTok’s activation strategy focused primarily on mobilizing users and content creators but missed the opportunity to engage business stakeholders, economic leaders, and industry affiliates who could be impacted by the precedent set around the regulation of foreign-owned businesses. Not to mention, the millions of brands who rely on the platform as a core function of their advertising strategy.

Engaging third-party voices, community leaders, academics, business partners, and other key stakeholders to carry the message is an important part in clearly outlining who could be impacted by an issue. It is often not just the consumer who faces a fallout effect, but many other stakeholders in the marketplace who might offer a new perspective.

This also requires an in-depth understanding of your legislative targets, where they stand on issues, and who influences their opinion. Calls from constituents are often just one small piece of the puzzle, and engaging stakeholders across industry spaces to carry your message allows for quality activation that might be of more value to the legislative target.

TikTok’s recent activation is just the latest case study as to why proactive, informed, intentional voter engagement is required to win on legislative issues. A sustained public affairs approach, compared to a fast-action moment in time, creates the framework for long-term, informed advocacy that moves the needle.

TikTok Could Use a Tutorial on Legislative Advocacy