The Anti-Authoritarian Toolkit, by D-HUB
Volume 02 | Digital Comms

WhatsApp Groups

Build Deeper Connection and Engagement through Personal Messaging

The Play

Thanks to its broad reach and everyday use, WhatsApp can be your most powerful mobilization engine. This play is about building a structured and dynamic network of WhatsApp groups that turn supporters into messengers, activate communities, and help coordinate real-world actions.

In high-trust, personal spaces like WhatsApp, people are more likely to pay attention, respond, and share. That makes it the perfect platform to distribute persuasive content and keep your base energized—especially in countries where traditional media is compromised or where misinformation spreads fast.

With a smart plan and well-managed groups, WhatsApp can become your most intimate, agile, and impactful digital organizing tool.

Why it works

  • Create personal, high-trust spaces. Messages usually come from familiar contacts and are more likely to be read, believed, and shared.
  • Supporters become trusted messengers. With the right materials, each group member helps spread your message through their own networks.
  • A bridge connecting online and offline action. WhatsApp grups help coordinate real-world mobilization and amplify its impact.
  • Builds lasting communities. Well-managed groups foster loyalty, belonging, and sustained participation long after a campaign ends.

How it works

1. Define Your Audience. Sharpen Your Goals

WhatsApp groups can be used to organize your core base of volunteers and supporters, as well as those who show a certain affinity with your cause. Prioritize audiences who are that are close to you and can influence undecided voters through their personal networks. Personalize your approach for different groups, such as organizing grassroots volunteers by neighborhood for door-to-door work, and grouping digital influencers, designers, business leaders, and other experts by their competencies. This strategy ensures each group can effectively contribute to the proliferation of your messages based on their unique strengths and connections.

2. Build Your Team. Equip Them to Win

Once you have clarity on the audiences you want to engage with on WhatsApp, you will need to set up a team and provide them with the necessary tools and resources. Managing a WhatsApp operation can be more challenging and time-consuming than managing social media channels. Having at least one person taking on this task full-time is highly recommended if you aim for mass mobilization. Be flexible and ready to expand the team, potentially with the help of volunteers, as your base grows. Additionally, a specific phone number and device for this operation should be provided to avoid mixing it with personal phones.

3. Plan your content

Build an editorial plan, content calendar, and clear rules for moderation. Tailor content to different audiences using insights from opinion research and social listening. Craft emotional messages and vary your formats to keep people engaged—texts, images, short videos, audio, stickers, even casual polls. Content doesn't need to look polished; homemade and authentic often performs better. Humor and personal stories work especially well. Participation builds community—ask for ideas, testimonials, and stories.

4. Continuously attract new people to your groups

Keep growing your groups—momentum depends on it. Tapping into established networks is often the easiest way to start. Begin with contact databases from your team and close partners. Then explore other ways to grow your WhatsApp groups, such as:

  • From physical to digital: Transition people from offline spaces into organized digital groups.
  • Tap into existing communities: Engage active digital communities and invite them into your groups.
  • Use organic and paid posts: Share invite links on your channels, and through partners or influencers.
  • Leverage current members: Ask group participants to invite others, both in other groups and personal contacts.

These entry points can be adapted to the goals and audience of each group.

Tips

A. Care for the Space

Depending on your resources, you can choose WhatsApp groups where only admins send messages or allow all members to write anytime or during specific hours. The latter fosters deeper engagement and stronger community-building but requires more management.

If you allow all members to send messages, create a safe, functional space. Limit groups to 200 participants, establish clear moderation rules, and appoint moderators to maintain alignment with the group's mission while being kind and receptive.

Culture matters—respect and clarity build lasting engagement.

B. Prioritize Human Interaction Over Automation

Building a strong, engaged community around a political cause requires dynamic, platform-independent communication. While many tools claim to automate WhatsApp management, the only safe way is through Meta's official partners, authorized to use the app's API—an expensive option and unavailable for political purposes. As a result, you'll likely need a people-driven plan, which will become increasingly challenging as 1-on-1 conversations grow. However, the effort is worth it; your WhatsApp strategy will reward you with strong connections and loyal supporters. This people-driven approach may be demanding—but it's also your greatest strength.

Who's done it well?

India: Indian National Congress' 2024 Campaign

A WhatsApp Counteroffensive

For years, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominated WhatsApp in India, using it as a core tool for mobilization and narrative control. But ahead of the 2024 elections, the Indian National Congress (INC) pushed back with a revamped digital strategy.

The INC established a digital war room to coordinate its social media and WhatsApp operations. The strategy focused on both content distribution and grassroots mobilization, leveraging WhatsApp as a direct engagement tool while ensuring synergy with other digital platforms.

A network of 2,800 WhatsApp groups was created, integrating 150,000 party workers who distributed three to four key audiovisual pieces daily, prioritizing virality and accessibility in multiple regional languages. The messaging strategy on WhatsApp was designed to be both broad and localized, aligning with voter concerns across different regions.

To expand its reach, the party collaborated with civil society networks and regional influencers, ensuring that content circulated beyond party circles and into wider communities. In sync with its WhatsApp efforts, the INC built a multimedia coordination strategy to maximize narrative impact. X (formerly Twitter) was used to shape the national discourse, Instagram and YouTube focused on outreach, while WhatsApp remained the primary channel for direct communication and mobilization.

This digital push was further reinforced by offline mobilization efforts, particularly Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra—a mass-movement march across India that not only energized party workers but also served as a platform to test and refine content strategies before the elections.

These efforts showed that digital mobilization—when paired with trusted messengers and real-world energy—can shift the electoral landscape.

"Building a strong digital network takes time, but even the best networks are meaningless without fresh, engaging content that resonates beyond the party's base. Our success came from combining strategic coordination, credible collaborations, and real-world mobilization, ensuring that digital messaging was not just widespread, but impactful."

Brazil: Lula´s 2022 Campaign

Powered by WhatsApp to Defeat Bolsonaro

WhatsApp is the most widely used communication platform in Brazil, with users spending nearly an hour a day on the app. In Lula's 2022 presidential campaign, it became a critical battleground—central to mobilization and outreach.

The campaign used open WhatsApp groups to organize supporters, share content, and reach undecided voters through the personal networks of those already backing Lula. The strategy activated a highly engaged base to influence the disengaged and undecided.

To make this work, the team built a massive network of open WhatsApp groups—structured but organic spaces where members could share materials, swap information, and coordinate actions. To keep engagement high, groups were capped at 200 members.

The content strategy had two main goals: to keep the base energized and to equip them with guidance and materials to persuade undecided voters. Content was clear, didactic, and purpose-driven—prioritizing authenticity over polish, with unbranded, relatable formats that fit naturally into everyday conversations. Group members were encouraged to share relevant Lula- or election-related content they found elsewhere. Admins paced posts carefully—two to four per day—to keep engagement high without overwhelming members, while active moderation helped maintain a friendly, constructive atmosphere.

To grow these groups, the campaign promoted onboarding through four main entry points.

  1. Organic posts on official websites and social media invited people to join.
  2. Campaign ads across multiple platforms directed users to the groups.
  3. A network of volunteer influencers called on their audiences to join, helping expand beyond traditional campaign circles.
  4. Group admins regularly shared invite links and encouraged members to forward them to friends and family.

Across all these channels, the WhatsApp groups were framed as a space where ordinary people could take an active role in the campaign.

As the election neared, interest in joining Lula's WhatsApp groups grew so rapidly that the campaign team couldn't keep up. So they shifted strategies—encouraging supporters to build a decentralized network of groups. Anyone could create their own campaign group, add friends and family who supported Lula, and register it through a form on the main campaign website. These grassroots groups were entirely run by their creators, but a campaign representative joined each one to share daily content, guidance, and actions aimed at reaching new voters.

This WhatsApp-driven strategy proved essential in strengthening Lula's base, countering disinformation, and creating an effective mobilization tool, demonstrating the platform's power in grassroots political organizing.

"Unlike traditional top-down messaging, our moderators were seen as caretakers rather than enforcers, ensuring group rules were respected while maintaining a human and approachable presence. Their role was crucial in sustaining participation and preventing toxic interactions that could derail the campaign's objectives."

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