issue+overview


 * __Issue Overview__**

New media technologies, including internet social media platforms, are increasingly fragmenting audiences. As such, we are steadily moving away from the idea of the mass audiences to a more focused audience that is based on common interests and attracts likeminded people with common goals and beliefs. The internet, which boasts unlimited information on a plethora of topics, functions not as a tool of mass instruction, but as a tool for tailoring information and creating communities of knowledge around common interests. These new global communities of knowledge are marked most by the increase of dialogue that allows all participants to contribute on a common ground.

While many have been able to create successful businesses using the dialogical model, there remains a noteworthy group that has yet to tap into the full potential of online social media, nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit organizations should be perfect candidates for social media because they are relationship-driven organizations and because social media is less expensive and more effective than conventional media. However, nonprofit organizations have lacked foresight and expertise in the area, making many attempts at utilizing the media unsuccessful and short lived.

Studies into the communication practices of nonprofit organizations have been growing in communication studies. The trend has been fueled by the growth of the voluntary sector in many industrialized nations as governments reduce spending and redefine the role and responsibilities of the state. Greenberg and Walters (2004) assert that charities and nonprofits have increasingly had to be responsible for social redistribution and cohesion as governments step back from being the provider and move more into a facilitator role. However, fulfilling these expectations is difficult for charities and nonprofits as they suffer from revenue and organizational challenges stemming from the void left from the state’s retreat. While the voluntary sector faces a myriad of solutions to their plight, many have focused on the need to improve communications to achieve success ( Greenberg // et al. // (2004), Walks (2009) and Zimmerman (1998)). Since the voluntary sector is dependent on funding and participation from the public especially, communication is important and this done through many forms of media.

Shepherds of Good Hope is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the homeless in the Ottawa community. Their vision is, “embracing a complete cultural shift – one of creating healing environments for clients and residents through advanced training programs for staff and by employing creative, leading-edge programs specialized to the needs of the individuals in our care.” They, like many nonprofit organizations, have struggled with dwindling involvement and a volunteer/donor base that consists almost exclusively of elderly females. While their volunteer/donor base is declining, their work load has increased due to government retrenchment and economic downturn. Therefore, the Shepherds of Good Hope will need to acquire a larger, more sustainable, donor database; that consists of younger populations.

In order to acquire the new youthful donor database, the Shepherds of Good Hope have developed a ‘friendraising’ initiative that focuses on developing a social media platform to reach out to a younger demographic. The Shepherds of Good Hope’s campaign revolves around a ‘how-to’ guide for social media that was created for them by a marketing agency. While the guide outlines many different social media sites and how nonprofit organizations can make use of these sites, it lacks a firm understanding of why nonprofit organizations should utilize social media. With little expenses, expertise and manpower, Shepherds of Good Hope should first understand if they should devote time and money to social media before they embark on their campaign. Therefore, it is important to first understand whether research supports nonprofit organizations using social media to reach altruistic ends.

The studies that will be discussed are //NPO 2.0? Exploring the Web Presence of Nonprofit Environmental Organizations in// //Canada// (Josh Greenberg and Maggie MacAulay, 2009), //Charitable Technologies: Opportunities for// //Collaborative Computing in Nonprofit Fundraising// (Jeremy //et al.// 2008), and //Cybergate: A Design Framework and System For Text Analysis of Computer Mediated Communication// by, Ahmed Abbasi, Hsinchun Chen. Although just a sample, we believe that these studies accurately represent academics perceptions on social media usage for nonprofit organizations.

In their study on nonprofit organizations and social media, Greenberg and MacAulay (2009) found that although there are cases of effective web-based communication by nonprofit organizations, most are not leveraging the potential these technologies can provide in terms of engagement, relationship building and conversation. They believe that nonprofit organizations which traditionally have operated silently with selective dissemination are now being pressured to adopt open conversation and operations in order to gain public trust. Furthermore, technology, more so the internet has become quite important to these organizations as it is the best way to reach a great amount of people at a low cost. Until recently there has been a shift in the way the internet is used by organizations from broadcast principles to dialogical principles.

The study examines the benefits and drawbacks of using such technologies and to what extent these organizations are doing so. The websites are organized across three areas: information disclosure, dissemination and member engagement. They found that nonprofit organizations used websites as status symbols or image building tools more than as relationship-building tools. There should be a minimization of marketplace language on the homepage, such as donations and e-commerce, in order to emphasize charity activities. Nonprofit organizations should try to reach audience in spaces where they live, work and study, meaning through technological devices such as blackberries, laptops and podcasts. Lastly, nonprofit organizations are underutilizing technologies and continue to use a broadcast paradigm without bringing people into a discussion.

The second article by Goecks //et al.// (2008) analyses the role of computational technology in the domain of non-profit fundraising. The key findings of this survey are that internet technology plays six important roles in support of nonprofit fundraising. The six important roles are; communicating information, helping potential donors discover nonprofits, enabling directed giving, enabling donations, encouraging advocacy, and helping nonprofits learn about technology.

The article by Goecks //et al// (2008) does not mention any specific social media platforms, instead, they comment on the applicability of internet technology to nonprofit objectives in general. The positive findings of their survey suggest it is feasible for nonprofit organizations to attain success online.

Further studies by Abbasi //et al.//, Hsinchun Chen, point to the internet’s possibilities for nonprofit organizations. One such possibility is the fact that web discourse is rich in opinion and emotion related information. While Abbasi //et al.// do not directly link their findings to nonprofit organizations, a link can be made between how nonprofit organizations rely on human connections and human interest issues, and the fact that discourse that is rich in opinion and emotion would be beneficial. Secondly, Abbasi //et al.// discuss how computer mediated communication (CMC) is much more interactive than traditional non-CMC documents. Nonprofit organizations rely on participation and another venue for doing that is also valuable. The research suggests that nonprofit organizations should have an online presence and that having this presence could in fact further the cause. For the purpose of this research, an online presence will be defined not as being present online, but as having a solidly developed network online, that is dependable and significant. As such, solely having a web page, or a Facebook profile would make you present in these venues, but it is not until you develop a following and stay relevant that you have a presence. However, the optimal presence itself has yet to be defined. For example, The SGH is currently present on Facebook and YouTube, and they have an organization website. While having those platforms is the first step to achieving an online presence, SGH does not have what we have ascertained to be an online presence because of how they have implemented and continue to utilize their social media. SGH have simply not taken advantage of Web 2.0 capabilities of collaboration, creation and interaction.

Similarly to Greenberg //et al.’s//, three effective web components, according to Waters et. Al (2009), the following items should be present for a successful online strategy: disclosure, information dissemination and interactivity. ** Disclosure ** refers to a description of the organization's programs and services, ** information dissemination i s** links to news items, photographs, video and audio files, etc., and ** interactivity implies **methods to contact, donate, and volunteer for the organization, including use of message boards, provision of an organizational calendar of events, or possibly the presence of an e-commerce store. When these three items are present online, a nonprofit organization would be using media to create a dialogue. At the moment SGH have neither embraced the internet’s possibility for information disseminated nor interactivity. Furthermore, by simply using the internet for disclosure, SGH has remained in a broadcasting method which does not utilize the internet to its full potential.

Now that an issue has been established, the necessity lies in qualitative study in order to deduce which social media and social media practices will most benefit the Shepherds of Good Hope.