New report analyses state of social media among Australian non-profits

Findings draw attention to untapped opportunities

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia — July 12, 2012 — A new report released today takes a fresh and comprehensive look at Australia's social media landscape with a singular focus on non profit organizations.

There is enormous pressure on businesses and non-profits to have a 'social media strategy' – a term often used as a euphemism for nothing more than setting up a basic Facebook page. But very few institutions rely on or carry out concrete research to assess relevance and viability before jumping onto the social media bandwagon.

Scope

Conducted by Wirth Consulting over several months, the State of Social Media Use in Australian Non Profit Organisations report looks at 4 areas – extent of social media use by Australia's non profit sector, most popular social media technologies, method of engagement used by non profits in social media and the top non-profit social media users in Australia.

Online social media technologies now number in the thousands. The report focuses on nine of the most widely used social media platforms. It analyses just under 600 non profits with the bulk (65 percent) drawn from the health and human services subsector.

Information was primarily collected from secondary data repositories and examined different facets of the social media experience including page customization, posting frequency, number of connections (fans, followers or friends) and abandonment rate.

Key Findings

Approximately 97% of the institutions analysed had a website while unsurprisingly LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube topped the list of most frequently used social media technology. On average non profits posted 3 times a week on Facebook compared to 8 times on Twitter, and on average Facebook accounts have 430 percent more fans than Twitter.

The report lists the top 19 non profit institutions in the country in terms of social media utilisation and has an in depth interview with Oxfam Australia on their social media strategy and tips.

Download the report and the summary infographic

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Wirth Consulting specialise in online technology research, analytics, development and training for not for profit, government and commercial organisations. Our goal is to provide more than just technology – we deliver technology+.

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