Social Media and Non-Profits

Social media including twitter, podcasts, facebook, youtube, and blogs are taking over the business industry.  One of the main ways to reach an audience now is through media networking, and with the number of users growing daily, social media is rapidly increasing.  Non-profit organizations however have been slower to jump on the social media band wagon, according to an article in the Philanthropy Journal titled Social media not yet routine at foundations, “68 percent are using YouTube at least occasionally, 53 percent are using blogs at least occasionally, 39 percent are using Podcasts at least occasionally, and only 18 percent are using Twitter at least occasionally, while 60 percent have never used Twitter.” 

Throughout this semester of Public Relations Research,  I have focused much of my blog on the importance of research within a non-profit organization.  Here in this article, the researchers used a survey to determine the amount of foundations that are up to date with the latest social media trends.  And unfortunately the research found that nearly half of the foundations they surveyed have yet to utilize social media.  Non-profits rely heavily on their donations, without them they would not be successful, so why are they not utilizing every outlet that will get them recognized? 

In my opinion, I believe that non-profit foundations are focusing their attention on their typical target audience.  They are more focused with previous donors rather than branching out to potential new members.  But by doing this they are missing out on a whole new audience, which is audience on social media sites.  This audience is so large, according to marketing pilgrim 80% of Americans use social media at least once a month.  By utilizing social media sites in a proper manner, non-profits could be gaining much more consumer awareness, which in the end will bring in more donations.

By using survey research, the researchers were able to discover exactly how many foundations were utilizing social media.  With the results being so low, hopefully non-profits will get the hint that something needs to be done.  They are missing out on a large group of consumers, and that could all be changed with the simple task of using social media.  The surveys that were taken in my opinion will open the eyes of non-profits all over the country; they will hopefully use this information and start expanding their target audience.