Do-Gooders Doing Better with Social Media

While ninety-three percent of charities are utilizing social media to great advantage, most for-profit businesses haven’t yet mastered the tools, says a report stating that while corporations have come a long way, they still have a lot to learn. Businesses, the report advises, would be wise to take a cue from their non-profit peers when it comes to maximizing social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Notably, an overwhelming majority of charities (93 percent) have a Facebook page.

Why are social media tools so effective in the non-profit realm? “There is an incentive there—in our instance, we are storytellers, we know that the story is how we engage with people, and for-profit businesses are just starting to realize that to get people emotionally invested in what people are trying to sell, it is easier to present a narrative that people can engage in,” says Tricia Barry, Communications Director at Farm Sanctuary, a national non-profit animal rescue and advocacy organization.

Non-profit causes, Barry explains, are “tailor-made for social networking and blogging; we are not at a loss for stories to tell. We tell the stories of the animals, and we can correlate their rescue stories with the advocacy work that we do.”

Another reason non-profits and social media tools are so well-matched is money, notes Carrie Mumah, staff writer with Washington, DC-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a health and animal advocacy organization.

“Social media is a relatively cheap way to spread the word about PCRM and educate more people about the benefits of a healthful vegan diet and of ethical, non-animal research,” Mumah explains.

Another advantage, she adds, is the ability to get immediate feedback from the public on the organization’s outreach efforts. “It’s a great way to learn more about our supporters and what they are most interested in,” Mumah says.   

Barry agrees that the two-way communication is a major benefit of social media, a dynamic called the “feedback loop.”

“We receive information from our members and people who are engaged with us, then we understand how they react to information that we are sending,” she tells demodirt.com. “Strategically, this enables us as an organization to assess what action people are more apt to take and why. Social networks provide insight that we couldn’t get any other way.”

Mumah agrees that the feedback loop is a key factor in the success of social networking and cause promotion.

“Facebook and Twitter have been great for spreading the word about our campaigns and programs and also for interacting with our members and supporters on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “Our supporters really seem to appreciate having such an immediate, easy way to comment on our work, take action in our campaigns, and share their views and experiences with us.”

Farm Sanctuary has more than 32,000 Facebook fans—20,000 of which, Barry notes, are active on a monthly basis, and over 8,000 Twitter followers. PCRM has more than 26,000 Facebook fans and more than 4,500 Twitter followers.

“We have become much more active on both Facebook and Twitter in the last year and have seen a huge increase in our fan bases on both sites,” Mumah says.

Facebook offers analytical tools that help users track interest, Barry adds.

“It provides analytical features like demographic information that informs our outreach, and we can gauge from post to post how engaged people become with each post,” she explains. “It also guides our blogging. Social networking provides a circular form of communication.”

YouTube is also a useful tool for both organizations, Barry and Mumah agree.

Despite all of its benefits, social media offers one challenge—it is difficult to keep up with its ever-changing dynamics.

“It is time-consuming and we have to be careful to balance it with our other communications outreach,” Mumah notes.

It is too easy to “go down the rabbit hole,” Barry says.

“Right now things are changing so quickly,” she maintains. “There are always new social networks popping up, and we can’t afford to be ubiquitous with every single social network out there. We have to be strategic to know that we are getting a good return on our time investment.”

Non-profits sometimes devote so much time to social networking, Barry contends, that they lose other opportunities for engagement.