What Is Social Media A Time-Waster For Nonprofits?

Social Media Commentary and Analysis In this position paper I will argue that using digital marketing is beneficial for marketing a non-profit organisations. In the opening section of this argument I will draw from (Alharbie 2015) to show the role social media plays in the non-profit marketing and how it has created an effective platform of communication and outreach between supporters and non-profit organisations. Secondly I will discuss how although social media marketing might be costly for non-profit organisations, organisations can still benefit from social media outreach without breaking the bank and apply cheaper alternatives whilst still using social media as a marketing platform. I will give examples from (Johnston 2015), and (Karch

Whether a company is for profit or non-profit, every organization relies on a set of efficient marketing tools in order to advertise and establish relations with supporters (Alharbie 2015). Fortunately, over the past decade the Internet has evolved drastically changing how companies are able to promote their businesses. With so many new social media platforms evolving the Internet has enabled non-profit organisations to engage with supporters throughout social media platforms, allowing instant results through digital marketing outreach (Johnston 2015). After reviewing the ‘Is Social Media a Time-Waster for Nonprofits?’ article I was able to identify the importance social media has on marketing for non-profit organizations and how effective they can be to create strong relations with non profit supporters. Social media allows company’s to communicate with supporters and create a option of open discussion between the supporters as well, and at the same time still managing to market the company. Although social media is great for marketing, not all social media platforms are effective marketing tools (Karch 2016). According to the Non Profit Quarterly “…Facebook’s innovations for nonprofits are not as helpful or useful as they may appear to be...and they are out of budget for many nonprofits (Karch 2016).” Which may be true, but that doesn’t mean that traditional marketing tactics are superior, or more affordable than digital marketing. In fact, it has been said that “online social channels communicate with and tap into a much larger community that may not have been available via traditional advertising channels” giving nonprofit organizations a better chance of being marketed to outside sources. It was said, “To date, Facebook alone has roughly around 1.35 billion active users which is almost twenty percent (20%) of the