Social Media Impact on Non-Profit Organizations - Essay Example

Over the last few years, the growth trends seen in the social media are simply remarkable. These trends have proved one thing, that social networkingindustry is not a fad anymore. In fact it is the future of marketing related activities and a heaven for marketers to market their products. It has been therefore used by marketers throughout the world for product activations, publicizing and to reach out to their targeted audience. The bigness of this industry can be shown by having a look at the statistics. According to estimates, social network constitute a total of 230 million members amassing total revenue of $965 million worth of revenue. These statistics clearly prove that modern businesses and intelligent marketers can spend less in social media to reach many. In fact, many smart marketers have abandoned marketing activities on conventional mediums like T.V and Radios in order to make sure that whatever they spend is efficient with respect to the cost and number of people that the medium reaches. This holds true not only for the profit making businesses but also for the charitable organizations. In fact, charitable organizations have a greater responsibility of using their funds efficiently so that the welfare in the society is maximized (MC Marketing Charts, 2010). Many businesses and non-profit organizations can take advantage of this tremendous growth in industry. They can use this media as a cheaper and better option to advertise their mission and to attract more donors for their cause. This will involve creative thinking and a lot of effort but once, these organizations understand the true potential of how Social Media can be used to their advantage. It is also believed that with the passage of time, as the industry matures, these sites are going to attract more and more traffic. This large turnover will encourage companies to advertise more on these websites. As a result, these websites will experience an even larger growth in their revenues. As a result, many big brands consider advertising on these sites as a better way to grab the attention of "target market" towards their products (Nielsen, 2009). This industry, in the recent times, moved from niches to become one of the most coveted sectors. This growth has also caused creative destruction for the other mediums of marketing like radios and televisions. The targeted market for the Non-Profit Organizations is mainly donors or affluent people who can help the organization in the achievement of their aims and can guide the firm towards success. One person who believed that social media and social networking websites can serve successfully as a medium of exchange for marketers was Joseph Walther. In this Social Information Processing Theory he stated that using computer-meditated-communication two parties can develop a relationship which is as close and strong as developed through face-to-face communication. This is because the sender has opportunity to select his target market or the person he wants to send his message to. Once the message is sent, the receiver can magnify the message and use the same channel to give feedback which enhances the communication process and draws favorable impression on the both parties. He believed that social media can effectively be used to create hyper personal relationships. In other words, social media fosters the relationship of trust and harmony between the sender and receiver of the message and hence it can be used by the non-profit and charitable organizations to first create trust and favorable impression and then use the advertising in such as way as to encourage these people to donate. This is not possible in conventional mediums of advertising and marketing. The communication approach used in these mediums is purely one way communication and thus it cannot build the same level of trust and harmony among the parties initiating the communication process as it is been built through the use social media by non-profit organizations. SIP theory believed that Social Media or Computer-Meditated-Communication (CMC) is the only alternative to face-to-face communication. The face-to-face communication and close hyper personal are imperative for non-profit organization because the element of trust needs to be created between the donor and donee. (Joinson, 2003) Similarly another theory used to support the social media was given by Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan believes that it is the medium that is being used determines how the message is being perceived and understood. He stated that all different mediums of the message have different impact on the receivers of the message and in those mediums where more effort is required by the receiver to fill in the missing details, there is more chance that the message will be deemed differently than what it is meant to be. For example, comics rely on the reader's ability to fill in the missing details than a movie. Therefore, the message will be more effective when given through a movie. His concept can also be applied to social media which was not there during his time. As we all know that social media is much more interacting and informative than other mediums of the message. In fact, the element of two-way communication in the message reduces the need to fill in the missing details from the receiver's point of view. If the receiver finds that something is missing in the information, he can contact the sender of the message immediately in order to get a clearer picture of what is being said. Similarly, from the bases of above discussion, we can easily conclude that non-profit organizations can communicate more effectively when using the social media, given its characteristics. Social media helps eliminate barriers to communication that were common in the convention mediums of the message. Hence, it is easier for non-profit organizations to communicate more directly with their targeted audience. They can give out a message much more clearly than by using the conventional mediums. For example, if a non-profit organization publishes an advertisement in the newspaper asking for donations, the main problem will be that given a small space, they won't be able to give every single detail to their targeted audience. This missing information will mean that a lot of information filling will have to be done by the receiver of the message. This will bring in certain ambiguities in the message and message will not be perceived as it should be. McLuhan believed that this is how the good marketers or people differentiate between the mediums of communication. The less information filling required the better the medium is. In this case, it will be much more efficient for not-for-profit organizations to put their time and effort on using this medium than other. For example, generally it is cheaper to advertise on social media than on conventional medium. Secondly, social media is likely to entice more of the targeted audience towards your message than the conventional mediums. And lastly and probably the most important thing is that social media is based on the principle of two-way communication which reduces the need for the receiver of the message to fill in the missing information. As a result, non-profit businesses which require communicating a clear and purposeful message to their targeted publics can use this medium of communication with more success than other conventional mediums like T.Vs, Radios etc. (Donald, 2001) Another very important factor that helps the users of OSNs (Online Social Networking) is an easier reach to the targeted public. For example, whenever you advertise on Facebook or Myspace, it asks that which demographic segment of the online community you want to make your advertisement visible too. This way a non-profit organization can choose to make their message visible to the BabyBoomers, Gen Y or Gen X or any other demographic they choose. This way by choosing the correct targeted audience, non-profit organizations will be able to maximize the amount of donations and revenue collected. Facebook also allows you to choose your target audience from different regions. If you want to publish your ad for American population only, they will be the only one seeing your ad. This is particularly important for regional charitable organizations where the potential donors are local population. This prevents the use of shot-gun marketing approach which is also known as mass marketing. It is advantageous for two reasons. First, the company will save big buck by marketing only to a selected group of people and secondly, the message will be better understood by the local population than if a universal message have to be designed. Another very important reason why Social Media will generate high revenues is the fact that people spend more time on internet nowadays than they give to conventional mediums of communication. This increases the size of your consumer disposition funnel and more people are likely to donate to your organization than if the message is advertised through the old mediums of communication. In other words, Social Media can help extend the reach of your message which can bring in desirable results in terms of the donations and revenues generated (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Now we are going to analyze the usefulness of Social Media by looking at the statistics of a survey conducted in 2009, where the respondents from non-profit organization were asked to respond to certain question regarding their use of the technology and social media in particular. This survey is going to tell us how these organizations are using Social Media in order to reach out and make connection with the targeted public. Before analyzing the survey, we will look at some of the terms that were used in the survey. A house social network is a social network community built on the non-profit organization's own site. On the other hand, commercial social network is an online community operated by a large corporation such as Facebook, MySpace etc. (The Post, 2010). Almost 82% organizations had a presence on the commercial social network. This clearly shows the trust and belief that these organizations have that their presence on these networks will help them get noticed and will command greater revenue than if they sit in obscurity. Similarly, 30.6% of these non-profit organizations had a house social network. The significance of these results is that most companies find it easier to start out on a commercial network which is free and easier to start on with. As these organizations grow, they bring in changes and go towards a house social network containing the public which they want to target the most. The second question was about the purpose of their presence on these social networks. According to the results, around 80% were present on commercial social networks for marketing as compared to 50% of the companies were present on the house social network for the same purpose. The other important purposes for their presence on these networks were viral marketing, market research and delivering the organizational goals using these networks. Regarding how many people are employed by these organizations to work on the Social Media, many organizations stated that they do not have a full-time employee for the job. This shows the ease at which these mediums can operated without increasing the cost. This is one reason why Social Media is preferred over conventional media. Another important question that was asked was the number of subscribers that these companies have on their OSN. From the responses, it was concluded that Facebook surpassed the other network having an average of 5391 members, followed by MySpace which had around 1905 members. There were some surprising results in the survey as well. When asked about how OSN can help these companies to fundraise, most of respondents disagree with the notion. Around 61% of respondents had no fundraising from the social networking activities or through Social Media. On the other hand, 38% of the respondents have been able to raise funds lying between the ranges of $0-$10,000, showing the limited fundraising potential in the media. However, out of the total revenue collected, Facebook is the leader yet again earning around 39% of the total revenue that is being earned on Social Media by non-profit organizations (The Post, 2010). From what we can conclude from this survey is that every organization is using the social networking or OSN. Most of the organizations are using it for marketing purposes and very few have given it a thought using the Social Media as a means for fundraising and other ways to increase the revenue of the company. In order to change this mindset of the organization and non-profit organizations in particular, there is a need of sustained effort by the internet experts and OSN companies to guide people about the true potential of OSNs (Online Social Networks) and that it can take all kinds of businesses, whether they be proper business or Non- profit to new heights and can help them increase the revenues. With the advancement of new technology, many charitable organizations are using text messages as means to raise funds. Canadian charities were probably the first to monetize the opportunity and use this method of modern technology to raise funds. The initiative was started by Mobile Giving Foundation in Canada on 21st September 2007. The system is simple and works instantaneously to a request to donate funds. This request is forwarded when users send a small phrase or word to a number. For example, in order to donate to a children fund, the mobile users simple have send the "WISH" to 30333. One of the reasons why this method is gaining popularity is because of the ease to which people can use it to dispatch their donations. It is definitely an easier way to donate than to going to banks, have a bank draft made out and then this draft to the charitable organizations through post. The former process was lethargic and the advent of donating money through a text message has made life easier for many people. (Mastel, 2010). This method has been tremendously successful and has given enormous boost to the charities around the world. This method being the faster method has been successfully employed by Red Cross in the wake of Haiti Earthquake. According to approximates made by the company, it raised around $4 Million in the first 36 hours after the Earthquake struck Haiti. (HARVEY LIPMAN,2010) A survey conducted by Boston based marketing company Cone also reported some encouraging results in the context of Text Messaging to raise funds for the charitable organizations. According to the results, almost 13% American donated a text message for the helping Haiti earthquake victims, which was greater than any donations via text message made by Americans and it shown that donations via text messaging is in a growing phase. Similarly, 19% people agreed that they would be giving donations via text message than through the former lethargic process. 18% people stated that they would like to donate to their favorite charitable organizations via text messages in future. The survey results are clearly showing that the industry is indeed growing and in the coming time it will outnumber the donations made through other mediums. With the number of organizations growing in text messaging to raise funds, we can be optimistic about the future of the industry. (Nicole Wallace, 2010). Final Conclusion: A magic formula to overcome this predicament is yet to be found. It is imperative for Non-Profit Organizations to monetize the internet's most widely used sector. However, this sector cannot go ahead until a new and better model of OSN is discovered. Whatever the successful model turns out to be, the messaging will have to be effective, humble and candid. Another important feature that cannot be ignored is that this model will have to be based on the two way conversation and should not be based on the principle of a push model. According to this model, non-profit organizations are going to create event and send them to the event channel. Through this event channel, these events will be pushed towards the consumers and will tempt them to make charities to these organizations or spend in these events which will generate revenue for the charitable organizations. If a correct model is discovered, then the benefits that will come out of this model will be truly incredible. They will have the potential to transform the potency of advertising across all forms of media to connect with target audience and to overcome the current distrust that many donors have for the charitable organizations. References 1. MC MARKETING CHARTS. (2007). Social Networking's explosive growth. Retrieved on March 2010. 2. Ashley Boynes. (2008). Black and White Program. Retrieved on March 2010. 3. Nielsen Research. (2009). Social Networking's New Global Footprints. Retrieved on March 2010 http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/march/social_networks__ 4. Social Networking Website Reviews. (2009). Retrieved on March 2010. social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com 5. Joinson, Adam (2003). Understanding the psychology of Internet behavior. Palgrave Macmillan. 6. Walther, J. B (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research, 19, 52-90. 7. Walther, J. B., & Parks, M. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in. Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications 8. Theall, Donald F. (2001) the Virtual Marshall McLuhan. McGill-Queen's University Press: Montreal, Quebec 9. Federman, Mark. (2003). McLuhan for Managers: New Tools for New Thinking. Viking Canada 10. The Port. (2009). Survey on Social Network. Retrieved on March 2010. http://www.commonknow.com/html/white-papers/NonprofitSocialNetworkSurveyReport.pdf 11. Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael, (2010), Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media, Business Horizons, Vol. 53, Issue 1, p. 59-68. 12. Li, Charlene, Bernoff, Josh (2008). Groundswell, Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business 13. Acquisti, Alessandro and Gross, Ralph. (2009). data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,106 (27) 14. Adamic, Lada, Buyukkokten,Orkut, and Adar, Eytan. (2003). A social network caught in the Web. (Book) 15. Dunlap, J., & Lowenthal, P. (2009). Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2) 16. Harvey Lipman. (2010). Text Messaging Gives Charities Enormous Boost. AllBusiness: A D&B Company. http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social/philanthropy-fundraising/13766051-1.html 17. Nicole Wallace. (2010). How Charities Use Text Messaging. The Chronicle of Philanthropy. http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/How-Charities-Use-Text/21357/ 18. Stacey Mastel. (2009). Charity Funds Go Mobile. CJ Connect. http://www.cjconnect.ca/1/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=89:charity-funds-go-mobile&catid=4:tech-shop&Itemid=7 19. Wild Apricot. (2009). Get Your Sanity Back: Wild Apricot's Non-profit Technology Blog. Accessed December 9, 2009 at http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/default.aspx 20. Safko, L. & Brake, D.K. (2009). The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, & Strategies for Business Success. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. 21. Cravens, J. (2006). For Nonprofit Organizations: How to Handle Online Criticism. Retrieved November 6, 2009 at http://www.coyotecommunications.com/outreach/critics.html 22. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. (2006). Learning 2.0: 23 Things. Retrieved January 11, 2010 at http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/ 23. Gilbert, Eric and Karahalios, Karrie. (2009). Predicting Tie Strength With Social Media.Proceedings of CHI. Boston, MA. April 4-9 24. Haddon, Leslie and Kim, Shin Dong. (2007). Mobile phones and web-based social networking - Emerging practices in Korea with Cyworld.Journal Of The Communications Network,6,5-12 25. Lack, Caleb, Beck, Lisa, and Hoover, Danielle. (2009). Use of social networking by undergraduate psychology majors.First Monday,14(12). Hey there. This is a good start for the literature review so thanks. But I did have some comments and questions which I highlighted throughout the paper. Also, I needed 25 references - with 10 being from professional scholarly communication journals and there are only 15 references. Can you tell me which ones of the references listed is from a communication journal Also, there is no mention of text messaging as a tool for fundraising and awareness in non-profits in this literature review - and that was in the research questions to be covered. Since there is about 2 pages of text missing from the literature review (originally ordered 11 pages) if you can use those two pages to cover the text messaging aspect. If you have any questions please let me know. Lol, the word count was complete, but I did few extra pages to appease you! There wasn't two pages left, look at the word count!!!! But anyways, be happy No text on this page. Read More