Making Social Media Work for Charities

Research Topic
How effective are online social networks in helping charities with their fundraising activities?

Introduction
90% of UK charities have taken full advantage of the on-line donation capabilities (Aldridge, 2007) afforded by the rise of the World Wide Web and are now desperately trying to tap into the power of online social network sites (Richards, 2007) as a source of fundraising.

Most charities need to operate a volume based business model. This means that they have to continuously communicate with and relate to thousands of geographically dispersed fundraisers and donators. With hundreds of millions of social network (SN) users easily accessible, at very little cost and having the ability to interactively engage with them, or talk with them as opposed to talking at them, as with traditional marketing techniques, SN’s should in theory represent an ideal marketing medium for charities.

However, the SN network market is embryonic, complex and highly dynamic. Consequently, organisations are struggling to work out how to navigate and exploit SN’s. There are examples of great successes but conversely, examples of where social media initiatives have backfired and a spectrum of examples in-between.

Therefore, the key questions this study seeks to answer include:

1. How are SN’s and the SN market evolving?
2. What are the SN demographics and what is motivating people to use them?
3. How effective are SN’s proving to be as part of a charity’s communications and fundraising strategy?
4. What problems and challenges do SN’s present as a digital marketing medium?
5. What are the most effective SN strategies to adopt and why?

Having researched these questions, the findings from this study will help charities and digital marketing agencies to formulate more effective social media programs.

Why get involved?

By being involved in this research project you stand to gain on many fronts.

There is an incredible amount of noise going on around New Media, Digital Media, Social Media, call it what you will. And the noise is coming from hundreds of sources, all serving to confuse those busy executives who are grappling with the latest and fast changing developments.

The prime aims of this program are to help those who are not just marketing directors to:

1.Understand what New Media actually is.
2.Formulate and operate highly effective New Media programs that are aligned to your overall marketing strategies.
3.Ensure that the potential pitfalls are understood and you know how not to fall into them.

By being involved you will a get a copy of a report which is the output from this study which will help you with the above three points.

Also, if you so wish, we will offer you two days of New Media free training or consultancy if you or your organisation is willing to agree to an hour interview.

How do you get involved?

Please post your experiences good and not so good if you have used Social Networks as a donor, a fundraiser, a charity or a digital marketing agency.

Also, if you are a charity or a digital marketing agency please agree to a brief interview either face to face, via webex (or similar) or phone.

Just respond via this blog site or contact Paul Fennemore on numbers to the right.