This has gotten some play but in case you missed it, a study, by Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes at the Center for Marketing Research, found that Charitable organizations are outpacing the business world in their use of social media. The work was based on a nationwide telephone survey last spring of nonprofits named by Forbes Magazine to their list of the 200 largest U.S. charities for 2006, with 76 participating.
Here are the headlines from the report:
"Charities are very likely to use online video, blogging, podcasting and social networking sites, according to the report, and are highly engaged with their audience in a variety of ways using Web 2.0 technologies."
"It is also interesting to note that charities are blogging at a higher rate than any group of businesses studied to date and at approximately the same rate as college admission departments," the authors said. Earlier research found that 8% of the Fortune 500, 19% of the Inc. 500, and 33% of U.S. university admissions departments currently having a public blog."
I think this is great but I would caution you on the audience. They looked at big nonprofits would already have in-house PR staffs and a PR budgets. They have the time, focus, and budget to explore web 2.0 marketing. I wonder now many small to midsize nonprofits who could benefit from the low cost tools that are available for use inside their organization as well as for out reach. These people are stretched for time and budgets. Someone needs to do a study of these smaller groups. .
I went a session of the SCNR, see Social Media and Non-Profits at the SNCR: Part Three. There I was pleased to see some midsize winners, along with the American Heart Association.
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