Abstract
This project asks whether existing patterns of lobbying are replicated online. We theorize that business and professional groups will be less likely to engage in social media use and will be more likely to use social media platforms as a form of inside lobbying, building and reinforcing relationships with policymakers. In contrast, we expect that citizens’ advocacy groups will be most likely to engage in an online form of outside lobbying, using social media to inform the public and build grassroots support for their policy agendas. Using an original dataset of Twitter and Facebook posts from interest groups, we find that outside lobbying messages are more frequent than inside lobbying messages on social media across all groups. Citizens’ groups are significantly more likely to engage in social media use overall, and they are more likely to use it for both inside and outside lobbying messages than other types of groups.