Organizational Culture and Social Media

Introduction

Similar to individuals, organizations tend to have their own kind of qualities and personalities – more commonly referred to as organization cultures. Managers use their knowledge concerning how organizational culture is developed, communicated, and taken through change processes so that they can become effective in their work. This invokes the figurative meaning that organization is something which is cultivated. An organization acquires its identity through its culture, and it determines the manner in which things are expected to be done within the organization using rituals, meanings, beliefs, language, and norms. Also, organization culture is made up of the firm’s experiences, philosophy, expectations, and values which guide the behavior among its member staff. It is reflected in the way the firm interacts with the world. Social media is a key term that is occasionally used in reference to new kinds of media which involve engaging interactions. Social media came into place as one of the resulting effects of the growth of the internet. Just as people use social media for private gain, organizations use enterprise social media to work towards their goals. Indeed, social media brings about pervasive and substantial changes to the way communication is done among individuals, communities, and organizations.

Owing to the brief knowledge concerning organization culture and enterprise social media, this research presents a consultancy report which showcases the adoption of social media within the field of charities so as to determine how it has transformed the manner in which organizations within the sector interact with other stakeholders, that is their employees, partners, customers/clients, suppliers, and other parties. This will be necessary for developing a recommendation for a comprehensive social media strategy.

The Charities Sector and Social Media

The charities sector involve job opportunities where employees make a positive impact on communities and the people, and it proves to be a rewarding industry. In the UK, the voluntary and charities sector is often referred to as the ‘not-for-profit sector,’ or the ‘third sector.’ The UK Civil Society Almanac, in 2018, revealed that the charities sector significantly contributed nearly £15.3billion to the national economy in the fiscal year between 2015 and 2016. The sector employs an estimated 880,600 workers who are on payroll. England and Wales have 166,000 charities, and 80% of these are centralized in England. The main employers within this sector are social enterprises, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as large charities like the Alzheimer’s Society, Childline, Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Heart Foundation among others. The revolutionary effects of social media are evident in the charities sector today. According to a New Philanthropy Capital report, if people in the UK were informed better, they would exceed their potential by donating an extra £665m every year to charities to facilities their goals and achievements. This makes it more crystal clear than ever, the necessity of crafting the right impression to the public by charities using social media and this will mostly have a positive effect on their income. In addition, charities can leverage social media so that that they can have a better influence on people (Aberfield Communications, 2013).

Existing Use of Social Media Technologies

A variety of charity organizations use social media to enhance their services in the industry. This is on account of their growing need to gain more public concern for their activities and showcase the results of their work. The current digital world introduces the use of social media by organizations in the charity and voluntary sector. The environment within which charity organizations operate has changed significantly with the integration of the changing ways of communications with digital technologies in people’s lives (Lawrence, 2013). The resulting overall benefit, which is also widely documented, is the better functioning of a charity when using social media. Although, the adaptation of social media among charities has led to a variety of umbrella agencies, boards, and others to offer different kinds of digital technology advice to aid new firms to thrive in this sector (Plummer, 2019). Charities depend on support from the public. Therefore, it is necessary for them to identify new ways of reaching out to potential donors, volunteers and supporters and social media proves to be the most effective way to do so. The organizations can use social media to share success stores, boost donations, develop networks with different like-minded firms, recruit volunteers, showcase the effects of their operations, and encourage people to get enrolled to their campaigns (Lawrence, 2013).

Enterprise social media presents new challenges but also a variety of opportunities for charities. There is a growing number of small-sized social enterprises and charities whose establishments were made possible using digital social media technology (House of Lords, 2016). According to the Greater Manchester Center for Voluntary Organization, local and small charities that were initially thought of as “well-kept secrets” in the charity industry turned out to be less of a secret due to the growing move towards securing an online presence. One of the realities of charity firms operating in the current digital age is that most, but not all of them, have websites (House of Lords, 2016).

Apart from websites, charities use social media platforms to publicize their work on the community. Some of these platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, multimedia, messaging applications, and communities of interest. The social media platforms which are most popular among charities are Twitter and Facebook. According to a report by CharityTech (2019), 56% of the charity organizations reach their audience using Facebook, and 39% do so use Twitter. The average following that one charity organization receives on Facebook is 229,917 and for Twitter, 219,599. After Facebook and Twitter, the third most popular platform is Instagram where the charities amass a total of 88,999 followers by average. Also, charities rely on YouTube on which they can bag followers averaging 27,777 and LinkedIn with an average of 20,393 followers (Plummer, 2019).

In order to meet their organizational goals, charities use these social media platforms in different ways which are, when viewed closely, quite similar to each other (Plummer, 2019). Charities that use Facebook tend to post on a regular basis, and these posts mostly contain external links to their proprietary website contents such as blog posts, or links to other connected social media accounts on different platforms and content (which relates to the charities’ activities) created, published and posted by third parties. On a frequent basis, the charities post videos, human interest stories, and infographics that are accompanied by pictures of the events and people that were hosted by the charities. Others use the telling of positive stories to share the impact of their operations on the cause they are trying to solve. For example, an organization like Oxfam makes short videos which profile their volunteers concerning their work together with the charity (Oxfam International, n.d). Other charity organizations such as Save the Children exploit social media platforms to share news articles about negative issues as a way of raising awareness (The Drum Ink, 2011).

In 2018 alone, using social media to determine the growth of a charity, it was found that the charity known as Mind is growing at the fastest rate in Twitter than any other charity. Mind had an increased number of followers by 60,000 in the course of 2018. WWF is another charity which has grown fastest in Facebook with the highest number of added followers, and it was able to increase its likes by at most 138, 769 on its social media profile. Social media managers believe that the adoption of social media technologies is the means used by charities to communicate with their beneficiaries. Before the surge of social media, it was rather difficult to pass the message to supporters of charities directly, and most of the communication had to be facilitated using media (Plummer, 2019).

Applications and Potential Application in Sector

The Clare Foundation, one of the charity organizations, and an umbrella agency which also provides social media advisory services to other charities recommend on leveraging social media platforms by organizations in the voluntary or the third sector. This is because charities can use the help of social media to develop innovative ways in which they can reach their goals. There are different ways that charities can and have applied social media technologies in their operations and they are discussed as follows.

Digital Fundraising

Social media technologies bear the potential to steer digital fundraising activities for charities. This is evident where the social media exposes the charities to a larger audience which is easily accessible in the digital world. Apart from being large, the audience can be reached more widely, more quickly, and in a manner which is considered to be scalable. Access to this audience using online systems of donations is reported to be likely to increase revenues acquired by charities by up approximately 600%. A survey report done by Charity Finance Group, the Institute of Fundraising, and PwC (2013) posits that charities in the UK are being placed under pressure by the tough climate of the economy whereby the increasing demand for charity services is coupled with reduced funding from the public sector. The austerity causes some charity organizations to integrate social media technologies in their fundraising strategies

The social media platform where digital fundraising is applied the most is Facebook. Therefore in this section, Facebook will be used in illustrating how charities benefit from their social media digital fundraising campaigns. Facebook is the most preferred social media platform for digital fundraising because it humanizes the brand, facilitates obligations and encourages interaction with the community. Mobilization of digital fundraising is catalyzed by public recognition, the persuasive strategies that are adopted, authority and the ability to foster the feeling of efficacy among followers, and having fundraising campaigns receiving public endorsements through sharing.

If used correctly, interested parties and scholars believe that social media has profound results. For example, Comic Relief, a charity organization, was reported to raise over £37 million using Twitter and Facebook for digital fundraising in the year 2011 (Taylor, 2011). Zynga, an online gaming company, used games on Facebook to generate $1.5 million to provide aid to disaster-stricken Haiti within five days after the calamity (Whitson & Dorman, 2011). The most recent campaign by the Cancer Research UK, known as No Make-up Selfie, raised £8 million within six days and the Macmillan Cancer Support firm used the Ice Bucket Challenge memes to raise the revenue of up to £3 million (Townsend, 2014). However, digital fundraising is still growing, and there exist few professionals in the sector who can understand the way it works. In addition, guidance from researchers has, up to the present day, been scarce.

Awareness Raising

Social media technologies are deemed as the new tools which are powerful enough for charities to acquire attention and reinforce their cause. In a world where people are expected to use their smartphones for different kinds of services and run their lives in a digital manner, digital technology is relevant and accessible. Social media provides charities with the opportunity to communicate with the rest of the world concerning any issue they could be working on without the need for intermediaries. A decade ago, it was required that a charity organization was linked with someone in the newspaper publishing company, or have one of their representatives run a television interview, as well as a budget for advertising (House of Lords, 2016).

Social media platforms create awareness of a charity’s activities during the early stages instead of driving them to donate immediately (Plummer, 2019). In order to successfully create awareness, charity organizations need to have a good strategy for potential stakeholder. Social media presents some of the advanced techniques which can be used by charity organizations in the conversion of interest and awareness to donations and participation. Different social media campaigns exist so far to illustrate how charities create awareness.

For instance, the National Hospital Service in the UK developed a brand known as NHS Local which was designed to promote and signpost services all over the Midlands. The campaign causes the NHS to grow into becoming a forward-thinking and more digital-savvy organization (JC Social Media, 2019). Some of the activities done by the NHS in its awareness approaches include data collection campaigns, the direction of users to different websites for particular information, signposting collaborative accounts and resources and having a content strategy that grows a fan base and followers. The immediate outcomes of the awareness approach included increased web traffic, the collection of patient data which is valuable, the tripling of Twitter followers to more than 5000 in a single year, and the gaining of mentions and retweets by influencers who are relevant (JC Social Media, 2019).

Business Drivers Involved in the Use of Social Media Technologies

Business drivers are conditions, processes, resources, rationale, or components which are vital for the thriving of a business – in this context, the business is a charity organization. The business drivers have a large impact on the performance of charities. The following are some of the key business drivers for the use of social media technologies by charity organizations. One of the rationales which the charity organizations capitalize on is the people’s tendency to volunteer – volunteerism. A variety of researches exist which increasingly show that there is a directly proportional relationship between volunteerism and charity giving (Einolf & Chambre, 2011). In the UK, the National Survey of Volunteering and the Citizenship Survey Series suggested that there is a positive association between volunteering and charitable giving. This can be interpreted as; with more people exhibiting volunteerism tendencies, the more they are likely to contribute towards charity work (Hill, 2012). For instance, in 2009, the Citizenship Survey showed that 83% of the people who participated in volunteering activities on a regular basis (Hill, 2012). In order for volunteerism to develop among people, it is important to consider some of the demographic characteristics of the environment where charity organizations operate. For instance, volunteerism is dependent on demographic suspects, such as gender, educational attainment, and income. Other factors, that are considered to be of deeper essence in driving volunteerism include the level of social and human resources, trusts and associational networks, confidence in the government, church group participation, social links with non-profit making organizations, the distinctive ethos of givers and volunteers, moral obligation, religion, cold rationality, and how the need for contribution is perceived (Hill, 2012).

Benefits and Opportunities of Business Drivers

Income

Income is a business driver for volunteerism and eventually charity giving. Volunteer managers identify potential volunteers using observable characteristics like voluntary association and merging them with other secondary characteristics such as income. The more the number of people with higher income, good pro-social values and having productive ties with voluntary associations within a region results in the sprouting and thriving of different kinds of charity organizations in that region. In addition to having pro-social values combined with high income, people who become volunteers will mobilize every relevant resource in response to the occurrence of salient social problems and emergencies. Income among volunteers is a beneficial business driver in the sense that more of them will be engaged in both social and organizational activities. For instance, volunteers will actively engage in corporate social responsibilities of an organization (Einolf & Chambre, 2011). Furthermore, it is expected that people with higher income have the resources to access and even own some of the advanced forms of electronic communication technology. This makes them more likely to be active users of social media. Therefore, digital fundraisers in charities use this business driver to convert the potential of high-income earners in social media into the boosting the awareness and fundraising activities for the perpetuity of charity organizations (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2007).

Distinctive Ethos of givers and volunteers

The ethos refers to the spiritual characteristics of an era, community, or a culture which is manifested by its aspirations and attitudes. The ethos of givers and volunteers is manifested by their spirit of philanthropy and generosity (Selbee & Reed, 2002). For instance, the older people get, the more likely they are to be philanthropic. Therefore, if a certain region is endowed with a larger population ranging from middle adulthood to adulthood ages, there is a likelihood that more people in that region will engage in charity activities. In addition, some studies relate self-employment and generosity by suggesting the existence of a negative relationship between both variables (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2007). This is interpreted as; the more people are self-employed, the less the chances are that they are generous and this leads them to give less time and effort participating in charity activities. Digital Fundraisers for charities can use this information to set up charity organizations and use social media which targets the kind of people who are rather less self-employed and older in age. Correlatively, digital fundraisers for charities can use the information regarding the distinctive ethos of givers and volunteers as an opportunity in the identification of the social media profiles of donors, so that they can develop fundraising campaigns which target those who are more philanthropic and exhibit the traits of generosity (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2007).

Impact Analysis of Business Drivers of Social Media

In order to analyze the impact of business drivers for social media on the charity sector, it is imperative to comprehend what charity organizations receive in terms of revenue and the degree of change they bring to the people whom they help. In some cases, it is difficult to observe the impact of charities. However, there is a growing need to illustrate their work and impact to their supporters, beneficiaries, and funders. Illustration of their work using social media enables them to install improvements in their current work (Philanthropy impact, 2003). Therefore, one impact of the business drivers of social is donors get the chance of assessing the impact of their donations as a way of knowing whether or not their funds are being used well by the charities and to observe the difference brought about by their support. After this, the donors decide whether they will continue to fund the particular charity organizations. The impact of the business drivers of the use of social media in charities is that they keep more donors excited and engaged through their giving (Philanthropy impact, 2003).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusions

Organizations in the charity sector adopt social media as a way of enhancing their services. It is also more evident that social media has transformed the way in which charity organizations communicate with their stakeholders. 166,000 charity organizations in the UK have uncovered the discrete potential of social media platforms and their convenience in facilitating digital fundraising and awareness raising activities. The commonly used social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The business drivers for the use of social media are many, and they range from the primary and secondary characteristics of individuals within the environment which a charity operates and the target market they would like to reach. Some of the primary characteristics of the target audience are like income, and an example of the secondary characteristics include the distinctive ethos of the givers and volunteers. The impact analysis of the business drivers for the use of social media in the charity sector reveals that donors can keep track of how organizations use their findings in engaging in the rightful charity work and this will prompt them to further invest in charity work. In addition, charity organizations can acquire more support for their activities.

Recommendations

In order to successfully adopt social media use, charity organizations ought to develop a social media strategy. One challenge to the ongoing rush for social media organizations to join the bandwagon for social media is the likelihood of ignoring the need for a social media strategy and necessary planning in order to reach success. Some of the steps which charities can use in the implementation of social media in their efforts are discussed as follows (Campbell, 2018).

Establishment of a social media committee

Social media activities cannot be done by anyone and everyone within a charity organization. Therefore, a social media committee can be developed which consists of a carefully selected few individuals in an organization who exhibit the tendency of; a) communicating with stakeholders of the organization; b) are tech-savvy, such that they like technology; c) show some innovation and traits of creativity; d) are well-updated on the latest news and growing trends in the charity sector, and; e) are enthusiastic and well-connected (Campbell, 2018).

Developing a Plan

Charity organizations can define their objectives and goals so as to develop metrics for the effectiveness of their social media strategy. Some of the metrics include increased participation in the charity’s events, increased traffic on the website, new volunteer subscriptions, and increased sign-ups via email.

Organization

This involves the creation of a measurement spreadsheet for social media. This will require the choice of a beginning date and recording of any data that needs to be tracked with regard to the metrics.

Creation of Policies

The social media committee in collaboration with other relevant parties such as the Human resources officials can set up policies for the use of social media. For instance, depending on the type of charity organization, policies can be developed to plan for communication in times of crisis (Campbell, 2018).

Choice of social media platform

Most organizations tend to begin with this step, paying less attention to the previous steps. Prior planning will guide in determining the correct social media channel to use. This is because the charity organization will have sufficient knowledge concerning its audience and their exact locations. Creation of a social media platform will allow charities to listen to what their supporters have to say concerning their work on social media, and this is useful in raising awareness (Campbell, 2018).

Creation of Great Content

Having good knowledge of the target audience and selection of the appropriate social media platforms, the charities can proceed to develop outstanding content which will not only illustrate the results of their efforts to donors but also win them new support (Campbell, 2018).

References

Bekkers, R. & Wiepking, P., 2007. Generosity and Philanthropy. s.l., s.n.

Einolf, C. & Chambre, S., 2011. Who volunteers? Constructing a hybrid theory. Wiley Online Library, 16(4).

Hill, M., 2012. The relationship between volunteering and charitable giving: a review of evidence. s.l., Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropism.

House of Lords, 2016. Stronger Charities for a stronger society, s.l.: Authority of the House of Lords.

Selbee, L. K. & Reed, P. B., 2002. Is There a Distinctive Pattern of Values Associated with Giving and Volunteering? The Canadian Case. Montreal, Canada, 32nd ARNOVA conference.

Whitson, J. R. & Dorman, C., 2011. Social gaming for change: Facebook unleashed. First Monday, 16(10).