Alan Elias, of eBay’s Government Relations Team, recently presented on how eBay is leveraging social media for advocacy at the Public Affairs Council’s annual Advocacy Conference. The conference brings together public affairs professionals from a variety of organizations and industries to learn best practices from the profession’s top experts.  Alan provided a broad overview of the eBay Main Street global action network that keeps people informed and engaged on public policy issues that affect ecommerce.  He discussed the digital and seller advocacy components of this program and how they work in coordination to amplify the voices of small business owners and entrepreneurs and connects them with policymakers at the state and national levels.

To maximize the use of social media for advocacy, he stressed the importance of having in place a broader digital advocacy philosophy to serve not only as a guide, but to ensure organizations are developing and fully utilizing their advocates.  Alan covered how eBay has a community mindset when it comes to our advocacy program and how we elevate our Small Business Advocacy Network members through social media.  He also highlighted how we offer different forms of content, so our followers have the option to read, watch, and/or listen to gain insights; the advantages of incorporating data into social media posts; and using social media to maximize calls to action.

eBay would like to thank the Public Affairs Council for the invitation to speak at this year’s Advocacy Conference and for the opportunity to highlight the dedication and hard work of our advocacy community.