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Engaging with charities on social media: comparing interaction on Facebook and Twitter

Engaging with charities on social media: comparing interaction on Facebook and Twitter
Engaging with charities on social media: comparing interaction on Facebook and Twitter
Social media are commonly assumed to provide fruitful online communities for organisations, whereby the brand and supporter-base engage in productive, two-way conversations. For charities, this provides a unique opportunity to reach an audience for a relatively low cost, yet some remain hesitant to fully embrace these services without knowing exactly what they will receive in return. This paper reports on a study that seeks to determine the extent to which these conversations occur, and compares this phenomenon on Facebook and Twitter for a sample of UK-based charities. Focus was placed on analysing conversations as signs of developing relationships, which have previously been shown to be a key target for charities on social media. The results of this study find that while there is an expected proportion of the audience who prefer to listen rather than engage, there is strong evidence of a core group of supporters on each site who repeatedly engage. Interestingly, disparities between how this occurs on Facebook and Twitter emerge, with the results suggesting that Facebook receives more conversations in response to the charities’ own posts, whereas on Twitter there is a larger observable element of unsolicited messages of people talking about the charity, which in turn produces a differing opportunity for the charity to extract value from the network. It is also found that posts containing pictures receive the highest number of responses on each site. These were a lot less common on Twitter and could therefore offer an avenue for charities to increase the frequency of responses they achieve.
social media, charities, marketing, communication
978-3-319-18608-5
0302-9743
9089
15-29
Springer Cham
Phethean, Christopher
270f7f09-f94e-4d74-bfbf-2f2700d1572f
Tiropanis, Thanassis
d06654bd-5513-407b-9acd-6f9b9c5009d8
Harris, Lisa
cf587c06-2cf7-49e6-aef8-c9452cbff529
Tiropanis, Thanassis
Vakali, Athena
Sartori, Laura
Burnap, Pete
Phethean, Christopher
270f7f09-f94e-4d74-bfbf-2f2700d1572f
Tiropanis, Thanassis
d06654bd-5513-407b-9acd-6f9b9c5009d8
Harris, Lisa
cf587c06-2cf7-49e6-aef8-c9452cbff529
Tiropanis, Thanassis
Vakali, Athena
Sartori, Laura
Burnap, Pete

Phethean, Christopher, Tiropanis, Thanassis and Harris, Lisa (2015) Engaging with charities on social media: comparing interaction on Facebook and Twitter. Tiropanis, Thanassis, Vakali, Athena, Sartori, Laura and Burnap, Pete (eds.) In Internet Science: Second International Conference, INSCI 2015, Brussels, Belgium, May 27-29, 2015, Proceedings. Springer Cham. pp. 15-29 . (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-18609-2_2).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Social media are commonly assumed to provide fruitful online communities for organisations, whereby the brand and supporter-base engage in productive, two-way conversations. For charities, this provides a unique opportunity to reach an audience for a relatively low cost, yet some remain hesitant to fully embrace these services without knowing exactly what they will receive in return. This paper reports on a study that seeks to determine the extent to which these conversations occur, and compares this phenomenon on Facebook and Twitter for a sample of UK-based charities. Focus was placed on analysing conversations as signs of developing relationships, which have previously been shown to be a key target for charities on social media. The results of this study find that while there is an expected proportion of the audience who prefer to listen rather than engage, there is strong evidence of a core group of supporters on each site who repeatedly engage. Interestingly, disparities between how this occurs on Facebook and Twitter emerge, with the results suggesting that Facebook receives more conversations in response to the charities’ own posts, whereas on Twitter there is a larger observable element of unsolicited messages of people talking about the charity, which in turn produces a differing opportunity for the charity to extract value from the network. It is also found that posts containing pictures receive the highest number of responses on each site. These were a lot less common on Twitter and could therefore offer an avenue for charities to increase the frequency of responses they achieve.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 21 March 2015
Published date: 26 May 2015
Venue - Dates: conference; be; 2015-03-21, Brussels, Belgium, 2015-03-21
Keywords: social media, charities, marketing, communication
Organisations: Web & Internet Science, Southampton Business School

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 377414
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377414
ISBN: 978-3-319-18608-5
ISSN: 0302-9743
PURE UUID: 6b5924b6-8557-4451-982a-84edd3fca417
ORCID for Christopher Phethean: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7697-6585
ORCID for Thanassis Tiropanis: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6195-2852

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Jun 2015 15:42
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:31

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Contributors

Author: Thanassis Tiropanis ORCID iD
Author: Lisa Harris
Editor: Thanassis Tiropanis
Editor: Athena Vakali
Editor: Laura Sartori
Editor: Pete Burnap

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