Why is social media a particularly attractive alternative to traditional communications methods for NPOs?

Social Media and the communication arena via it are the latest means of communication that are becoming popular among the masses globally. The association of any corporate organization and socially centered organization with social media is being hailed with promising ventures mainly owing to the anxiousness and ambition of people trying something new. For Non-Governmental Organizations and Nonprofit Organizations Social Media is of inevitable importance owing to its enhanced usability and popularity. According to Greenberg (2009) NPOs particularly benefit from social media as compared to traditional communication methods mainly because communication via social media brings prospects for the organization costs getting lowered along with the lowering of cost of delivering services.

Also the idea of being a part of the emergence of new social patters is highly promising for the Non Profit Organizations as compared to association with the conventional traditional communication means. Merilainen (2011) describes that since the main aim of NPOs and NGOs is to make their point of views prevalent into the public and to political agendas communication is extremely essential for them. The main aim is to involve public opinion into their proposed changes and thoughts and gain favor from the masses. This purpose is served without the involvement of any finances via social media. The propagation via social media is also thought to get more responses since people can affirm their opinions and support free of cost and they do not have to physically get involved in the scenario. This flexibility of use promotes the involvement of public. The cost cutting that would incur as a result of letting go of traditional communication means would enable the finances to be used for other purposes. This is another great advantage of using modern social media communication means for NPOs.

Describe the different â?‚??“audiencesâ?‚? NPOs might try to reach using social media?

The different audiences that the NPOs might try to reach are the political and other influential circles which may provide them with the monetary aid they need in order to execute their aimed tasks. Social networks are forums where all kinds of individuals and organizations make the impression of their virtual entity. Entertainment personnel and politicians make use of the popularity and widespread reach of the Social Networks and social media. They are usually active on these communication mediums and can therefore be reached very easily via it. Common public is also one of the potential audiences that the NPOs would try to reach. The promoting of their causes would be done well if the support of the common masses is with them.

In regards to potential means of accessing NPO audiences via Social Networks and Social Media Lassila (2010) mentions that Social Network Services incorporate viral marketing as one of their main marketing strategies. It is via viral marketing only that Nonprofit Organizations are enabled to reach massive number of audiences. The author quotes the example of American Red Cross who incorporated the SNS viral marketing strategy and spread their messages to their audiences via their celebrity followers on twitter. Inside Facebook.com’s author Smith advises the NPO’s marketers that the trusted referrals within social media are the most powerful marketing message. Via viral marketing available in Social Media NGOs and NPOs can segment their target audience groups based on persons’ interests. This way the audience feels the messages of the NPOs to be more personalized and get inclined towards them. Via the viral messaging to all kinds of audiences on social media the NGOs can also tell about their donation possibilities (Regan, 2011). One advantage of this strategy is that personal presentations of the NPOs get enhanced as a result of it leading to peer-pressure and increased input of donations from among the network audiences.

Many NPOs, NGOs, and government agencies serve the poor and disadvantaged, many of whom have limited access to the internet. Identify some ways that social media might still be an important tool for these groups.

NGOs and NPOs mainly need to target the general public and the prospective funding individuals and organizations in order to persuade them to fund for their cause. The poor and the deserving who cannot afford to have direct access to Social Media need not worry and the funds can be transferred to them physically even if their contact via social media does not exist. Many social media backed websites for NPOs contain trackers and thermometers that track the donations made by their members. The members can be 100% sure of where their donation went and how (Ramirez, Lasica, 2010). This way the NPOs become more trustable and their popularity increases among the masses via their usage of Social Media.

Social Media’s incorporation by NPOs helping the poor and the needy may be beneficial for them since the monetary savings they would benefit from as a result of switching to social media as a communication means may result in an increase in the expenses being spent for the betterment of their cause for the poor (Araujo, 2012).

How has Netsquared leveraged the unique features of Second Life? What benefits does this approach offer to traditional ways of accomplishing the same thing?

Second Life is a virtual world that represents every individual and organization just as it exists in the real world. The 3D representation of every living entity gives a realistic approach to the virtual community that serves endless causes. Nothing being represented in second life is fake. For Non-Profit Organizations second life acts as a meeting platform where they can communicate with their peers in a virtual world. Meetings are coordinated among the NOGs that are part of the Nonprofit Commons group of Second Life regions. These NPOs are provided with free pace and more than hundred such organizations can have free storefronts at Second Life (Ovw17, 2012).

As mentioned above meetings, training sessions and informal discussion etcetera are organized at Second Life so as to organize and train the NPOs as to how to take advantage of the Social Media platform by using the virtual world for their goal completion. Traditional approaches of organizing the same features for MPOs in real world could have been a very costly affair. Besides that it would have been virtually impossible to gather NPOs and NGOs positioned at different locations at a single geographical location at the expense of the commuting time and expenses involved. Netsquared therefore did the very right thing of introducing and involving Second Life for this task. A recently held meeting at the Second Life featured the topic of Cloud incorporation for NPOs and NGOs. Such topics can be discussed and dealt with better at virtual domains rather than physical locations the organization of which may be very expensive (Chatnoir, 2012).

How might these organizations utilize social media metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts?

The following are two major metrics of Social Media that may render the knowledge to NPOs regarding their following and the popularity of their cause:

Readership based influenced metrics

Buzzmetrics (Joshi, A., Finin, T., Java, A., Kale, A., & Kolari, P. 2007)

Another indicator of measuring effectiveness via social media metric tools is to assess the participation of funders and peers in events, discussion and meetings. Realizing that all Social Media metrics are not equally reliable it is essential that the reliable ones be chalked out with their concurrency and effectiveness. If 100% of participants in an event sign up or agree to donate at a particular instance, the progress and effectiveness of the particular event can be marked as successful. Since it is easy to track up signups and responses on social media the effectiveness of the measures being taken can therefore be assessed truly via it as well (Beth, 2012). Collaborative support and feedback via crowd sourcing responses are also healthy metrics of assessing effectiveness of measures that organizations are taking up.

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