Social media 'should not just be for fundraising'1

IT | Kirsty Weakley | 19 Jun 2012

Charities should be using social media to deliver services, according to research carried out by social enterprise Connect Assist.

According to a survey carried out by the contact centre solutions organisation, 80 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds and 73 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds use Facebook, Twitter and the internet to get financial, social or emotional advice.

Connect Assist chief executive, Patrick Nash (pictured) said: “These findings highlight just how engrained social media has become in our daily lives and how it is now seen as a critical source of information and support. Yet the charity sector is worryingly behind the curve.

“To date the only way that charities have embraced social media is as a fundraising tool.”

The survey also reveals the divide between the generations with 18 to 34-year-olds saying that if a charity can only offer one communication channel it should be via social media, while the over 65s preferred face-to-face methods.

Connect Assist commissioned ICM Research to carry out the survey of 1,000 over the phone.

Last month Missing People carried out a 24-hour tweetathon, tweeting the details of missing children to try and find them. A spokesman told civilsociety.co.uk that it was too soon to tell if any child had been found yet, but that the charity was collating data.

Who's Who: Patrick Nash

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SMK
Communications Officer
Sheila McKechnie Foundation
19 Jun 2012

Alongside fundraising and service delivery, social media as a tool for campaigning is also important. Social media has fast become a valuable tool in engaging vast numbers of people and, unlike traditional means of communication, it taps into previously inaccessible audiences. The London Cycling Campaign, for example, utilises Twitter as a discussion space for cyclists around London. They otherwise may not be connected. Social media can be a fast-pace, fresh and effective way to promote and build campaigns.

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