Social Media Now Used By Over 80% Of UK Charities

According to a recent report from fundraising software provider Blackbaud I read recently, social media is now used by over 80% of charities to market their brand, engage with supporters, and to find new people to support their causes.

The study among 592 not-for-profit organisations from the UK and Ireland shows that, unsurprisingly, Facebook is the most popular social network among charities, used by 87% of respondents. Twitter followed closely behind with 84%, and next comes LinkedIn (49%), Flickr (18%), Google+ (15%), and Pinterest (12%).

Charitable organisations said they value Facebook for its ability to reach supporters, and the power it gives them to share complete levels of information. Twitter, on the other hand, is praised for its instantaneousness and its capacity to ensure rapid engagement, while LinkedIn is seen as a suitable platform for managing communication with certain groups, like alumni for instance.

Not-for-profit companies also try to make sure their social media efforts are as efficient as possible, with 63% establishing staff roles or adding new team responsibilities that place social media into focus. Two in five charitable organisations have also adopted new metrics to evaluate their social marketing performance in the past year, while another 27% have started to spend more on social media.

Around 21% of charities have also embarked on technology that could help them better monitor what supporters say about their organisation on social media. The same percentage of charities said they have bought technology that could assist them with the implementation and assessment of their social media initiatives.