Sustainability, Journalism & Media Regeneration Conference University of South Carolina  October 2011

1. 
Are Trees Social?
Nonprofit Environmental Groups
Use of Social Media
Sustainability, Journalism & Media Regeneration Conference
University of South Carolina  October 2011
Carol Terracina Hartman  M. Laeeq Khan  Michigan State
University

2. 
Terracina-Hartman C. & Khan M. L.
Outline
 Background: “A Game With no Rules”
 Issues
 Social Media Power
 Environmental communications
 Research hypotheses, Methods
 Preliminary Findings
 What Comes Next

3. Issues
 A year 2000 study by Hill & White, (p.
46, 2000), found that although practitioners valued
their website in terms of its usefulness in providing
information to their publics and it being helpful in
improving organization’s competitiveness and
image, however there was “skepticism about the
value of a Web site, inadequate evaluation
methods, inability to keep the site updated, and
quality control expectations”.
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

4. Issues
 Nonprofits often stumble their way through public
relations campaigns .
(Waters et al. 2008).
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

5. Key Definitions
"Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that builds
on the ideological and technical foundations of Web 2.0 and
that allow the creation and exchange of user-generation
content. [Kaplan and Haenlien (2010)
“Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public
or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a
list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3)
view and traverse their list of connections and those made by
others within the system.” [boyd & Ellison, 2007]
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

6. Powerful Social Media
http://www.nmk.co.uk/article/2008/6/2/winning-the-vote-on-the-web
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

7. Widespread SM adoption
 Individuals, profit oriented firms, governmental
organizations and advocacy groups are making their
presence felt on the Internet especially SNS.
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

8. Powerful Social Media
 Facebook is the 2nd most visited website!
(Alexa, 2009).
 Online social networking sites played a pivotal role
in advocacy and fundraising for the campaign
(White, 2010).
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

9. Tweets & reTweets
 “A closer look at re-tweets reveals that any re-
tweeted tweet is to reach an average of 1,000 users
no matter what the number of followers is of the
original tweet.”
Kwak et. al, (2010)
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

10. With power comes responsibility
 Caution is the key
 Not enough to build a profile on Facebook
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

11. Exercising social media power
 Continually act, spur people into action, inspire
 Managing dialogic communications
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

12. Environmental communication
 Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) uses
Twitter as a major tool for its social media outreach
(White, 2010).
 Claire Carlton, the social media manager for WWF’s
Climate Policy Campaign in 2009 further stated
that, “I see our web site as our home base, the blog
as our podium and Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and
LinkedIn as our mega phone…” (Catone, 2009).
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

13. Sustainability, Image, Profitability
 Greenpeace protest against Nestlé's sourcing of
Palm oil from unsustainably managed rainforests in
Indonesia
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

14. Successful Environmental Activism
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/kitkat/
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

15. Successful Social Media Campaign
 Recency of updates
 Integrated, coordinated campaign
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

16. Possible pitfalls
 Dealing with unforeseen situations
 Digital divide may exclude a section of the fan
following
 Generation gap may impede social media success as
older people may face difficulty in “mastering” the
Internet (Miller, 2010).
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

17. Hypotheses
 RQ1: For which types of campaigns do nonprofit
environmental groups use social media?
 RQ2: Will nonprofit environmental groups
increasingly rely on social media to network over
traditional communication methods for
recruiting, fundraising, communicating news, and
information purposes?
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

18. Hypotheses
 RQ3: Do nonprofit environmental groups choose to
use social media for a primary communication
method to create a public image as sustainable?
 R4: Users increasingly rely on social media for news
and communication; therefore would nonprofit
environmental groups desire to create an image as
a reliable and credible source by networking and
using the options available through social media?
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

19. Methods
 A pilot study
 An online survey
 Sierra Club
 The Nature Conservancy
 World Wildlife Fund
 Greenpeace
 Natural Resources Defense Council
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

20. Preliminary Results
 A tremendous gap between who makes the
decision to use social media for a specific task and
who actually conducts the task.
 True for 5 of the 7 offices interviewed in summer
2011
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

21. Gap – Decision making & Implementation
 Communications manager lays out a plan.
 Staffer, office manager, or an intern posts
updates, photos, notices on Facebook or videos on
YouTube.
 Another person watches associate office pages for
information to link to or comment on.
 Much of the social media work – 7 of 7 offices –
takes place off site – security, privacy – work at
home
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

22. Pilot – Other insights
 6 of 7 nonprofit groups found Facebook and
YouTube the most effective in terms of responses
and network potential and found Flickr and their
RSS feed provided a steady contact with the public.
 Twitter offered the least benefit for the effort.
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

23. What next? - Two layers of surveys
 Pilot study indicated that a survey might indeed be
addressed to all staff in the office of a nonprofit
environmental group involved with social media in
any way, not just the communications staff to fully
gather opinions and experiences from all involved.
 Two layers of surveys:
 1 for management
 1 for staff level
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

24. Challenges, Potential
 New line of research
 Users not trained with new social media tools
 Lack of clear user responsibilities
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

25. Challenges, Potential
 Difficulty in quantifying what is happening - Missing
the “who” in the “who, what, when, where, why
and how” of social media practices.
 Decisions and usage of social media among
nonprofit environmental groups is far more
complex than basic public relations tools and
therefore, is worthy of additional study.
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media

26. Thank you!
 Questions?
Are Trees Social: Nonprofit Environmental Groups Use of Social Media