When one speaks of the social web, it is sadly common that the conversation quickly drifts towards public social networks such as Twitter or Facebook. Such is the huge numbers of people using these sites, it’s easy to assume that they are automatically the best place for you to give your attention. In the non-profit world, I’m far from convinced that it does any good.
Last year for instance, research revealed that so called slacktavism was rife on Facebook. The study found that the more public was the token of endorsement, the less likely those people were to offer more substantial support later on. If the initial act was a more private one, such as signing the petition for instance, then they were actually more likely to give time or money later on.
So, in other words, likes on Facebook typically resulted in lesser involvement with that cause. A similar conclusion has been reached by a recent study by sociologist Kevin Lewis of the University of California, San Diego, UNC Chapel Hill psychologist Kurt Gray and London School of Economics.
The research looked specifically at non profit activity on Facebook via the Causes.com app to gauge the success of the Save Darfur Coalition campaign that hoped to end genocide in Sudan. It emerged that of the 1 million or so people that joined the campaign on Facebook, a whopping 99.76% of them didn’t donate any money to the cause, resulting in fundraising of around $100,000 in total.
Whilst the average donation received was similar to offline campaigns ($29.06), the donation rate was pretty awful. What’s more, just as with the previous study, when people joined the campaign of their own volition, they were much more likely to donate than when prompted by friends.
“The study is an important counter-balance to unbridled enthusiasm for the powers of social media,” said UC San Diego’s Lewis. “There’s no inherent magic. Social media can activate interpersonal ties but won’t necessarily turn ordinary citizens into hyper-activists.”
In the case of the Save Darfur campaign, the Causes Facebook app appears to have been “more marketing than mobilization,” Lewis said. It seems to have failed to convert the initial act of joining into a more sustained set of behaviours. For the vast majority of the members, he said, “the commitment might have been only as deep as a click.”
Which as a finding is perhaps not all that surprising, especially given the general levels of cynicism around people and their behaviour whilst on Facebook. However, that shouldn’t cause non-profits to discount the power of social media, but rather to focus their attention on other areas.
There have, for instance, been a number of successful projects in the citizen science field that have recruited a large number of people to do valuable work on charitable or scientific projects. It is perhaps telling that the primary motivator for participation in these citizen science projects is an intrinsic passion for that particular topic. Few participants do so for peer publicity.
So by all means cast Facebook aside, but don’t please discount the social web as a means of achieving some outstanding results for some very good causes.
It's not just charities, everyone is looking in the wrong place. I mean Facebook sucks a big one doesn't it?
Don't get me wrong, $100,000 is $100,000, and the sheer scale of Facebook means things will deliver some results if you can reach enough people, but there do appear to be many more effective methods of engaging with stakeholders.
I'm in sales and the more some of us dig in there (on FB and some others), the more some of us are concluding that good old-fashioned methods around phone calls, networking, well-done email marketing, and building out referral centers of influence are still the big revenue drivers. And the more I study nonprofits (my particular chosen niche), the more I notice that the same seems to be true.
I love Social Media and content marketing as a way to bolster my brand should someone Google me after a contact, though. And i know it's driven some leads. But it ain't time to punt good old-fashioned courageous conversation with potential clients, donors, etc.
That certainly seems to be the case Brett, thanks for providing your insights from the front line.
That's awful isn't it? I mean Facebook sell ads based on their supposed ability to target ads incredibly well, yet those supposedly targeted ads produce god awful click through rates. Go figure.
I'm not a fan either it has to be said.
The benefits of social media for nonprofit organizations extend far beyond dollars raised. Users who like a Facebook page may, for example, be telling friends about it, or attending events, or helping to raise awareness of the specific issues that the nonprofit works to address.
Hi Alexandra. If only that were true. At the start of the post I linked to a previous post, and in that I wrote about research showing that people who like a nonprofit on Facebook, were 'less' likely to actually help that charity (financially or otherwise) than other people.
Do you have personal experience of using Facebook et al for non-profit work?
Thanks a lot for sharing this, Adi. Social media, when done correctly, also allows your online brand to grow and not just your rankings. Website branding is just as important as website rankings and with branding comes much deeper market penetration in front of your audience.