Charitable Marketing on Social Media

a B ck ou gr d n
Social media are often touted as a medium through which organisations can achieve various goals and improve their overall performance and relationship with supporters. In the current times of economic hardship that many UK charities are facing, the importance of the Web and social media in particular - for marketing, publicising their work and campaigns, and engaging their supporters through a low cost, personalised channel is undeniable. undeniable.

Chris Phethean
Thanassis Tiropanis Lisa Harris {cjp106, tt2, L.J.Harris} @soton.ac.uk
Previous studies have left a range of questions unanswered about how, and why, charities use social media:

Previous Study
Waters and Jamal [6] Lovejoy and Saxton [2] Obar et al. [3] Quinton an d Fennemore [

Research Methods
Content an alysis of tweets Content an alysis of tweets Survey (qu antiative and qualita tive)

Open Issues
Understand in was used in g why social media a certain w a the organis ation's nee y, and ds. Limited to T witter. Need to un de of each soc rstand different usage ia associated l media service, and targets Reasons wh y social media charities use specific services Case study le of how perc aves open the questio eived use m n atches actual use

Div ers e Aim s

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Interviews Interviews

Briones et a l. [1]

An innovative mixed methods study was designed to elicit answers to these outstanding questions. Social media was seen primarily as a relationship building tool, and was very rarely utilised for fundraising.

Targets on Social Media

Lik es
ted c oje h Pr eac R

Relationship Building Generating Referral Traffic Mobilisation

Click

-Thro ugh Rate

Fundraising
The findings from this study will help to address the unstructured and insufficient measures that are currently being used to assess social media performance. By tailoring metrics to the specific aims of each charity, presenting them in a structured framework, and considering aspects such as social capital and network effects, charities can be put on the road to understanding how to optimise their social media efforts.

Action

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[1] Briones, R.L. et al. Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships. Public Relations Review 37,1 (2011), 37-43. [2] Lovejoy, K and Saxton, G.D. Information, Community and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17,3 (2012), 337-353. [3] Obar, J.A. et al. Advocacy 2.0: An Analysis of How Advocacy Groups in the United States Perceive and Use Social Media as Tools for Facilitating Civic Engagement and Collective Action. SSRN eLibrary (2011). [4] Phethean, C. et al. Measuring The Performance of Social Media Marketing In The Charitable Domain. Web Science 2012, ACM (2012). [5] Quinton, S. and Fennemore, P. Missing a strategic marketing trick? The use of online social networks by UK charities. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing. (2012). [6] Waters, R.D. and Jamal, J.Y Tweet, tweet, tweet: A content analysis of nonprofit organizations' Twitter updates. Public Relations Review 37, 3 (2011), 321-324. .