Advocacy can be defined as a way of causing political action, using methods such as civic education and public campaigns to influence decision-makers. * Advocacy is driven by the purposes of social change, and these changes can be directed at government policies, laws, procedures, or sometimes even ourselves. For this reason, it can be said that advocacy is actually an act of persuading to support any issue. The conclusion I draw from this is that advocacy is a process, and it aims to reach a conclusion on an advocated issue. I believe advocacy is also about motivating the community. It starts with a small group of people who share their concerns about a particular problem and are willing to devote time and expertise to achieving desired change. It can have goals such as; transportation, improvement and development of community services, etc. such as the provision of public services such as education, improvement of laws on different subjects.
In other words, advocacy is about bringing attention to an important issue and guiding decision makers to a solution, mobilizing members of the wider community, and seeking solutions for change.
On the other hand, Lobbying is a group, organization or association that tries to influence legislators or other public officials for a specific purpose.* It can be said that lobbying is aimed at influencing policy makers, public officials or other decision makers. In other words, it is aimed at directly influencing decision makers.
To better understand the two and clarify the difference, I can give the following examples:
For example, it might be advocacy work for us to use social media to get information about a cause or problem, or to inform a government official about a policy community and its work and goals.
Sending an email inviting your members to contact the government or decision-makers directly to support any action may be considered as a lobbying activity.
*symbol is a quote: http://www.cod.rs/en/what-we-do/advocacy-and-lobbying/