Many nonprofit organizations use social media due to its low cost and wide reach. These “social communities” are places where organizations can provide influential information about their cause, as well as create a community of followers who believe in their cause and co-create content through their followership. Nonprofits use social communities to increase awareness and cement brand loyalty.

Recent studies about nonprofit social media use found that Facebook and Twitter are the top social media channels used by nonprofits. Despite the widespread use of Facebook and Twitter, researchers find that nonprofits are not utilizing the positive aspects of social media as much as they might. For instance, nonprofits use social media more to push out communication rather than create a dialogue with the communities they are trying to serve.3 Many nonprofits are now pursuing a form of “social advocacy” by using social media to both inform and help their followers take action.

Lovejoy and Saxton found that there are three primary uses of social media for nonprofits: 1) information, 2) community, and 3) action.4 Many nonprofits harness the information they are sharing with their communities to advocate for them to take action in some way: donate money, share information with others, or give their time. Obar defined advocacy as “the act of championing, supporting or advocating a specific viewpoint or cause.

Discussion Questions 

1. What is more important for a non-profit: the zone of social community or the zone of social commerce?
2. How has this social advocacy channel in the zone of social community built momentum for the PfaP cause using altruistic impulse?
3. Examine all of the ways that PfaP uses social media. What area would you improve? Why and how? Which social media site would you follow? Why?
4. How has PfaP been effective for building community? What could they do to improve their sense of community around PfaP?
5. What type of social advocacy group would you start? Why and how?