mobile phone with whatsapp icon — Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

How to use WhatsApp for Campaigning

WhatsApp How to Guide from Blueprints for Change. Use WhatsApp for campaigning, community building, activating networks and crowdsourcing knowledge.

Contents

Introduction

Blueprints for Change how-to guides are put together by campaign innovators in order to help progressive organizers and groups up their game more quickly. The “blueprints” capture, communicate and inform innovative campaigning strategies and tactics.

WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messaging app worldwide, with over three billion monthly active users (March 2025). India, with 854 million users, has the highest number of users by country, followed by Brazil (148 million), Indonesia (112 million), the United States (98 million) and The Philippines (88 million).

The app is widely accessible in that it uses little mobile data and while it may not offer the digital security of alternatives like Signal, it still offers end-to-end encryption on all messages, chats and calls, making it more secure than Facebook Messenger, Slack or SMS.

Engagement rates on WhatsApp are unmatched by other messaging apps, and much higher than on email and SMS. Messages on WhatsApp have a 98% open rate – 5 times more than emails and SMS. Click-through rates range from 45-60% compared to 2-5% on email and SMS.

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