This guide presents advocates with tools they can immediately use in their campaigns and communications. It is a collection of the best and most popular online services that can be used for advocacy with little to no technical support. There are services for publishing photographs and video, for setting up a campaign blog or for using mobiles to communicate in a group.

An amazing amount of functionality and tools are available simply by connecting to the Internet and opening up a web-browser you don't need to have alot of technical expertise to try some of these. Advocates can easily and quickly connect, gather information and distribute powerful messages by utilizing these tools, the majority of technology is out of sight.

Most of the tools are free to use and are great for short-term or immediate small-scale projects. Some of these tools allow you to keep in control of your content, but nearly all of the companies that own these tools reserve the right to use the content you are posting in some way. Because of this you should be careful what you are using these solutions for. They are not ideal for large-scale or long-term projects, nor for handling secure and sensitive information. See the tool listings for more information on the pros and cons of each tool.

These tools can be used by advocates in a variety of ways including: mobilising constituents en masse using mobile phone texting, remote storage of photo documentation of violations or abuses, and creating an online presence that allows you to keep stake-holders informed of progress on a campaign.

We have divided the tools up in to three categories:

Organising Tools: Voice and Text

Visualising Tools: Photos, Videos and Mapping

Amplifying Tools: Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking

Tools to Support Online Advocacy