Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations

Abstract

This study examines what drives organizational adoption and use of social media through a model built around four key factors - strategy, capacity, governance, and environment. Using Twitter, Facebook, and other data on 100 large US nonprofit organizations, the model is employed to examine the determinants of three key facets of social media utilization: 1) adoption, 2) frequency of use, and 3) dialogue. We find that organizational strategies, capacities, governance features, and external pressures all play a part in these social media adoption and utilization outcomes. Through its integrated, multi-disciplinary theoretical perspective, this study thus helps foster understanding of which types of organizations are able and willing to adopt and juggle multiple social media accounts, to use those accounts to communicate more frequently with their external publics, and to build relationships with those publics through the sending of dialogic messages.Comment: Seungahn Nah and Gregory D. Saxton. (in press). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, forthcomin

Use of digital advocacy by German nonprofit foundations on Facebook

“…Research into the nonprofit sector has focused on how nonprofits use the web, how they use social media to engage the public into dialogue (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009), adopt social media within the organisation (Nah & Saxton, 2013), or raise money for a cause. However, due to a strong focus of research on NGOs in the United States, it has yet to be examined whether the strategies and patterns found can also be proven for nonprofit organisations in other countries.…”

Facebook as a Dialogic Strategic Tool for European Local Governments

“…Organizations with a high number of visits to their Facebook profi les are more concerned about the use of the social network (Nah and Saxton, 2012). Similarly, the size of the online social network community encourages the development of content for it (Bortree and Seltz er, 2009;Sun and Wu, 2012).…”

Social Media in Micro and Small Third Sector Firms

“…At an academic level, whilst social media has emerged as a new important platform of business communication, there continues to be a lack of research regarding the adoption of these platforms within the non-profit sector 2 . Considering the tremendous impact of social media on public relations, it would therefore also seem reasonable to advocate that social media may also offer opportunities for third sector firms to interact with key public stakeholders, including donors.…”

“…Further to this, non-profits (also commonly referred to as third sector firms) often 'wait to see' how other organisations, particularly other non-profits, incorporate these new communication outlets into their budgets and daily operations before moving forward with their own social media strategy implementation 1 . Only a limited number of studies 2,3,4,5 have examined aspects of non-profits' social media use from a practitioner perspective. Given the growing emergence of social media, and its widespread impact, including the facilitation of social movements, further research into the area of social media for non-profit business purposes therefore appears both warranted and timelyparticularly for marketing practitioners, who are at the 'coal face' of social media deployment within the nonprofit sector.…”