Charities School Business and Academia on Social Media
Research doesn’t easily wow me, but this particular study did.
I’m referring to the research presented by Dr. Nora Barnes from The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at last Friday’s SNCR conference in Cambridge, MA. Her study compared the adoption rates of social media from 2007 and 2008 between the 200 largest charities, the Fortune 500, the Inc 500, and the top US colleges and universities.
This study reveals that use of social networking, blogging and video blogging has increased dramatically. Video is up 38%, social networking 47% and blogging.
What’s really remarkable are the differences between sectors.
Charitable organizations are outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. In the study, a remarkable 89% percent of charities are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis.
Also, charities are far and away “out-blogging” everyone. 57% of charities have blogs. The Fortune 500 has the fewest number of blogs at 16%, followed by the Inc. 500 with 39%. Colleges and universities are blogging at 41%.
My initial reaction was to question how this could be happening when clearly top companies have many times the staff and money resources of non profits. Then I remembered that no matter the depth of your organization or the size of your budget, everyone can have an equal voice on the internet. What matters is the power of your brand.
Think about it. Nonprofits have been shut out of the “traditional media” sandbox for years because they didn’t have the money to play. With social media, they now have a way to effectively reach millions and millions of people and do it essentially for free! Plus, social media is all about connecting people, and a global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues, not to mention reaching into people’s wallets.
That helps explain why non profits are active on social media, but why are companies slow to adopt? The main explanation that comes to my mind is financial – the O M G, who/what department is going to have the time and money to respond to all these posts and comments? Even if they are eager to adopt social media, most companies simply are not that nimble -switching to new communications platforms is the corporate equivalent of docking the Queen Mary. And just jumping in seems irresponsible doesn’t it – not very Six Sigma.
All that said, Dr. Barnes shared with us that the 2009 research (which hasn’t yet been published) reveals that as many as 52% of the respondents who were without a blog in the 2008 survey said they planned to add one in the future, making blogs the most popular tool now and for the foreseeable future. The study suggested that podcasting and video will probably be added quickly as part of the blog growth.
A full copy of the new research report can be downloaded here:
http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/socialmediacharity.cfm
So surprising! Definitely wouldn’t have guessed that but you’re right – everyone can – and should – have a voice with the tools that are equally available to all. Sounds like an interesting conference!