The Use of Social Media in Public Relations at Non-Governmental Organisations in South Africa (original) (raw)
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Journal of Business & Retail Management Research, 2018
In South Africa, social media has become a popular public relations research topic in nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). This is because NGOs are increasingly integrating social media into their public relations strategies in an effort to engage with the variety of stakeholders by using communication platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that social life takes place, people communicate and share information. This study reviews the current uses, benefits, and limitations of social media in public relations among NGOs and analyses how South African public relations practitioners are experiencing these uses, benefits and limitations of social media in NGOs. Based on theoretical guidelines for social media public relations communication the empirical study employs a qualitative research using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with public relations practitioners in NGOs. The results provide a holistic view of their experience in social media. The key benefits of using social media were identified as theincreasing public relations interactions with audience, improving the accessibility of public relations communication, increasing the speed for feedback and input, social/peer and emotional support, potential to influence the public, improving the long-term cost effective relationship of public relations communication, reaching youth and other audiences on specific issues. The limitations were identified as quality concerns, confidentiality and private information leaking to the public, and the reliability of information.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICES WITHIN NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS IN NIGERIA
Public Relations , 2024
This qualitative study explores the impact of social media on public relations (PR) practices within non-profit organisations (NPOs) in Nigeria. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 9 PR professionals from diverse NPOs, the research investigates how social media is strategically utilised to enhance stakeholder communication, foster community engagement, and support fundraising efforts. Findings reveal that social media platforms serve as vital tools for real-time interaction with stakeholders, facilitating broader reach and increased visibility for organisational initiatives. Challenges identified include resource limitations, skills gaps, and the need for robust content management strategies. The study provides rich insights into the effective integration of social media into PR strategies within the Nigerian non-profit sector, highlighting best practices and practical recommendations for optimising digital communication strategies. This research contributes valuable qualitative evidence to the discourse on digital PR practices in NPOs, emphasising the transformative potential of social media in amplifying organisational impact and community outreach.
SA Journal of Information Management
Background: Organisations widely adopt social media to communicate with stakeholders, yet research into content marketing in the South African non-profit sector is sparse. It is concerned with consistently producing valuable and relevant content for social media. As it is generally associated with the field of marketing, limited research exists from a communication perspective. This perceived gap in taking a communication stance prompted this investigation into the ways in which these organisations attend to social media content aspects. Objectives: The research objective was to acquire a broad understanding of content marketing on social media, unique to South African non-profit organisations. Key areas that were uncovered and statistically verified in an earlier quantitative study and how these are attended to in real life were explored. Method: A qualitative approach was used to obtain in-depth insights into the use of content marketing. Semi-structured interviews were used as data collection method to explore non-profit sector's approaches to social media communication, and to determine whether their efforts could be regarded as being integrated. Results: The findings yielded valuable insights into the ways that non-profit sectors in South Africa practise social media communication. The benefits of using social media for communication is acknowledged, yet vital aspects such as sourcing content, considering stakeholders' needs and demographics communication, using available planning tools and recognising employees as internal ambassadors are not considered. Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight several key areas and topics that organisations should consider an integrated social media communication approach as alternative for content marketing in the non-profit sector.
Social Media in the Context of Development: A Case Study of Dutch NGOs
This paper presents views of six Dutch development NGOs on possibilities and threats of social media for their work. A systematic analysis of the literature and the systematic analysis of the interviews yield an interesting theoretical framework in which social media characteristics are cross-referenced with NGO organisational characteristics. The resulting preliminary framework of emerging themes suggests that potential disadvantages associated with social media use may impede the organisational use. Furthermore it is suggested that potential organisational uses of social media may motivate use and adaptation of the social media use to a development context. It is also suggested that disadvantages attributed to social media may influence the use or non-use of social media for particular developmental activities.
Kenyans have increasingly spent more time on social media and blog sites over the years. Many companies have also taken notice and are beginning to plug themselves into these outlets globally. The world’s leading on-line competitive service, social media have replaced pornography as the number one use of the Internet. Because of the escalating fame of these new technologies, it is important to examine the impact they have on the public relations practice. Social media is giving rise to a new style of communications that is characterized by conversation and society. It is significant to understand these new channels of communication in order to effectively utilize them as a means of communication with the public as well as to know what implications they bare on public relations practice.
The Use of Social Media for Internal Communication within South African Local Government
Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Contemporary organisations have embraced a wide variety of social media platforms. Social media provide companies, institutions and government departments with the quickest way to communicate with employees. The platforms allow for instantaneous, two-way and cost-effective communication. This paper uses Grunig’s two-way symmetrical as a lens to understand the challenges associated with the use of social media for internal communication within local government in South Africa. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires, while qualitative data was gathered using interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Four categories of challenges emerged from the data analysed: lack of social media policies, compliance and adherence with the policy, and lack of organisational support. The absence of social media policy proved to be a significant factor that leads to the ineffective use of social media for internal communication. Municipalities with social media pol...
Yoni Paa Quecy Howard, 2022
This study investigates into how Millicom Ghana (Tigo) employs social media as a public relation tool in managing its organizational issues in Ghana. The study was conducted under the framework of qualitative research, while a case study design was used as the research strategy. Millicom (Tigo) Ghana was purposively sampled out of nine (9) Telecommunication companies in Ghana. Interviews and Distanced Virtual Ethnography were used as the instruments for data collection while the analysis was done by way of content and textual analysis. The issues management and relationship management theories formed the theoretical basis of the study. Findings showed that social media utilisation aided very much the public relations roles played in Tigo Ghana's management of issues. The dialogic social media utilisation facilitated information giving/requesting between Tigo Ghana and its stakeholders. It was also found that the most recurring issue/theme on social media was information giving/seeking, and is in consonance with the corporate communication strategy. However, stakeholders also identified more with the corporate social responsibility communication strategy. These findings demonstrate that there was strong desire for stakeholders/customers to consume or give information on diverse issues. Both Tigo Ghana and its stakeholders/customers are able to build and maintain relationships. The use of social media this way reduced friction between Tigo and its customers/stakeholders. The study therefore recommended that organisations should prioritise their corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategy as it has been found to aid in stakeholder engagement.
Impressions of social media use by Dutch aid & development organisations
An online survey was conducted under Dutch international development organisations active with social media. The results of this survey were analysed revealed interesting patterns of work-related use of various social media tools and target audience and reasons for using social media. Also the use of private accounts for work-related communication was analysed. The results show that most organisations mainly use social media for informing and more one-way communication rather than interaction.
Digital Civil Society: How Nigerian NGOs Utilize Social Media Platforms
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2017
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have the potential to contribute to a vibrant civil society and build social capital within countries, but the potential for social media to support these connections is unclear, particularly in the developing world. Building social capital requires constructing relationships between people, and social media will be most likely to accomplish this when it is used in an interactive way. Previous research has considered the issue of interactivity and social media usage in Western countries like the USA, but no research has focused on these issues within the developing world. Our paper explores the degree to which Nigerian NGOs are utilizing social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, in ways that are more interactive in nature, and thus in ways that are more likely to build robust and reciprocal relations. Utilizing a new coding scheme created by the authors and data on the use of Facebook and Twitter by 1988 Nigerian NGOs and the level of interactivity of tweets from 151 of these NGOs, we find that while few NGOs in Nigeria appear to utilize social media, those that do are more interactive in their usage than expected.