This study uses the principles of complexity theory to interrogate how communicators for advocacy organizations facilitate discussions and plan for strategic long-term relationship building on social media. Through 25 semi-structured interviews with advocacy communicators, we offer a deeper understanding of how theory, pedagogy, and practice can all best consider the impact of concepts like fluid boundaries, nonlinearity, emergence, diversity, and interdependence in digital social advocacy communication. We conclude by discussing why and how communicators should focus not just on the present imperatives, but also the impact of the past and the needs of the future in relationship building in digital spaces, including a new theoretical subset of nonlinearity called eternal return. Complexity theory provides insight for how to think in an interdependent way about strategic use and theoretical development of social media, creating moments of current engagement and a space for future resources. Practical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

这项研究使用复杂性理论的原理来询问倡导组织的传播者如何促进讨论并计划在社交媒体上建立战略长期关系。通过对倡导传播者进行的25次半结构化访谈，我们对理论，教学法和实践如何更好地考虑数字社会拥护传播中的界限，非线性，出现，多样性和相互依赖性等概念的影响提供了更深入的了解。最后，我们讨论了为什么以及如何传播者不仅要关注当前的当务之急，而且还要关注过去的影响以及未来对数字空间中关系建立的需求，包括非线性的一个新的理论子集，称为永恒回报。复杂性理论为如何以相互依存的方式思考社交媒体的战略使用和理论发展提供了见识，从而创造了当前参与的时刻和未来资源的空间。讨论了实践和教学意义。