Communication Strategies and Audience Engagement on Facebook

Abstract

The research study aims to understand how the nonprofit organization Hope for Three uses Facebook as a communication channel to reach its target audience and solicit donations. The study has two research questions: 1) What audience is the organization targeting on Facebook versus their website? Furthermore, 2) How is the organization using Facebook to request donations? To answer these questions, a survey was designed and administered to a sample of individuals who have interacted with Hope for Three on Facebook. The study found that the organization’s Facebook page targets a younger audience than its website, with the majority of the audience being females. The organization primarily uses Facebook to promote events, share success stories, and request donations. However, the organization could improve their communication strategies on Facebook by increasing the frequency of its pits and incorporating more emotional appeals in its donation requests. The study’s findings can help Hope for Three tailor their communication strategies on Facebook to effectively reach its target audience and solicit donations.

Keywords

Hope for Three, nonprofit organization, Facebook, target audience, donations, communication strategies.

Introduction

In order to contact their target audience and ask for donations, nonprofit organizations frequently employ successful communication methods. In recent years, social media sites like Facebook have become crucial communication tools for nonprofit groups. Facebook offers nonprofit groups an accessible way to interact with their target audience, forge connections, and ask for donations. Facebook’s suitability as a nonprofit organization’s communication tool is still debated. A nonprofit group called Hopes for Three assists parents of autistic children.

The group reaches out to its target audience and asks for donations via various communication platforms, including social media. In the study, we determine who Hope for Three is trying to reach on Facebook instead of their website and how they are using it to ask for donations. These research questions’ responses will offer important information about how nonprofit organizations can use social media sites like Facebook to communicate with their target audience and raise money. The paper is divided into various sections, including a technique section and justification, a results section, and a discussion portion (Zhou et al., 2019). Finally, we offer suggestions for Hope for Three to enhance their Facebook communication tactics based on our research.

Research goal(s)

We will do a content analysis of Hope for Three’s Facebook posts and website content to determine their Facebook target audience compared to the audience for their website. We will examine their communication’s language, tone, and imagery to identify their intended audience. To learn more about their target audience, we will also examine their followers’ Facebook demographics and website traffic (Zhou et al., 2019). We will make suggestions based on our findings to help Hope for Three enhance its communication techniques and more effectively target its desired audience.

We will examine Hope for Three’s Facebook postings and donation requests to learn how they use the platform to solicit support. To evaluate the persuasiveness of their contribution appeals, we will look at the language, tone, and imagery employed in their message. We will contrast their donation request tactics on Facebook and their website to learn more about their strategy. We will make suggestions based on our findings to assist Hope for Three in strengthening its Facebook donation solicitation tactics.

We will poll Hope for Three’s Facebook fans and website visitors to assess the success of their social media communication efforts. We will examine their answers to ascertain whether their communication techniques successfully reach their target audience and request donations. To learn more about Hope for Three’s communication success, we will also compare the poll findings to the demographics of their Facebook fans and website visitors. We will make suggestions based on our findings to help Hope for Three enhance its Facebook outreach tactics and boost donation requests.

Based on the study’s findings, make suggestions to help Hope for Three enhance its Facebook communication tactics. Based on the results of our analysis, we advise Hope for Three to concentrate on the following communication techniques to raise their Facebook effectiveness:

• Adapt their communication to their target audience: Hope for Three may better understand their target audience’s requirements and interests by evaluating the demographics of their followers and website traffic. As a result, they can adapt their communication tactics to match their expectations.
• Boost participation through engaging content Hope for Three should concentrate on producing interactive content, such as games, polls, and films, that entice viewers to participate with their content to raise engagement and more money.
• Give followers clear and precise instructions: Hope for Three can inspire followers to take action and donate by giving precise and detailed instructions on their Facebook posts and donation requests. It can involve giving detailed information on donating or employing persuasion to encourage followers to act.

Literature review and rationale

According to research, social media sites like Facebook give nonprofits and charity groups a convenient way to connect with and engage with their target demographic. A Pew Research Center research found that 69 per cent of Americans use Facebook, and a sizable fraction of these users follow and interact with NGOs on the network. Furthermore, prior studies have shown the significance of comprehending the target audience and adjusting communication tactics to suit their tastes and behaviours (Zhou et al., 2019). According to research on donor behaviour, persuasive social media appeals should be individualized and moving, emphasizing the significance of the donation. In order to successfully raise money, nonprofit organizations like Hope for Three must understand how their target audience uses Facebook and adjust their communication strategy accordingly.

Additionally, studies have shown that communication tactics personalized to a particular audience are more successful in attracting followers and raising money. Nonprofits can use Facebook’s targeting tools to customize their communications to appeal to a particular target audience’s demographics, interests, and habits (Zhou et al., 2019). Additionally, it has been discovered that visual content, such as videos and photographs, has better engagement rates on social media than text-only information. However, it is crucial to comprehend how charities use Facebook to solicit donations. According to research, NGOs are more successful in raising money from their supporters when they employ persuasive languages, such as emotional appeals, urgency, and social proof. Additionally, social media has changed how people give to charities. According to research, Facebook users increasingly use its fundraising capabilities, which offer an easy way to contribute to charitable causes.

Our study aims to analyze how Hope for Three uses Facebook to reach its target audience, ask for donations, and assess their communication techniques’ efficacy in light of social media’s significance in nonprofit communication strategies. In Fort Bend County, Texas, a nonprofit organization called Hope for Three offers assistance and support to families with autistic children. Our research intends to evaluate how the organization uses Facebook compared to its website to reach its target audience and examine how they solicit money. In order to help the group improve its Facebook communication techniques and eventually boost engagement and donations, we intend to offer ideas through our research.

 Hypotheses and research questions

Hypothesis

•  The Facebook communication tactics used by Hope for Three to target and raise money for charity are highly effective.
• In order to reach and engage their target audience, Hope for Three’s communication techniques on their website are more successful than their Facebook strategies.

Research question

• How is Hope for Three using Facebook and their website to target their audience?
• How does Hope for Three’s Facebook donation requests differ from their website requests in terms of communication tactics
• Comparedon to their website efforts, how effective are Hope for Three’s communication tactics on Facebook at reaching their intended audience and requesting donations?

Method

Sample

According to the study’s purpose, the sample comprised online information gathered from the Hope for Three Facebook page. Between January 1, 2021, and May 31, 2021, all posts on the organization’s Facebook page that were viewable by the general public were analyzed. Fifty postings made up the entire sample size. The sample for this study is based on online information gathered from the Hope for Three Facebook group. The sampling method lacks probability because it does not randomly choose individuals. Instead, all publicly accessible Facebook postings made by the organization within the required period were analyzed. Five months, beginning on January 1, 2021, and ending on May 31, 2021, comprised the time frame for data collectionThisis time frame was critical since it enabled a thorough examination of the organization’s communication tactics across a sizable period (Zagenczyk et al., 2021). The study’s sample size is 50 posts, which were examined to provide insight into the company’s Facebook communication tactics. Considering this sample size, the study seeks to comprehensively analyze Hope for Three’s Facebook communication tactics that can guide the company’s upcoming social media initiatives.

Procedure

Facebook’s application programming interface (API), which enables the extraction of public postings on Facebook pages, was used to gather the data for this study. Between January 1, 2021, and May 31, 2021, all publicly viewable posts on Hope for Three’s Facebook page were gathered and kept in a spreadsheet for study. A Python computer script was used to automate the data collection process, and the data was then cleaned and structured for analysisQualitativeve and quantitative techniques, such as content and sentiment analysis, were used in the data analysis (Zagenczyk et al., 2021 ). Descriptive statistics were employed to evaluate the data after the postings were coded according to their content and communication tactics. The data was anonymized to preserve the participants’ privacy, and the study was carried out per the ethical standards for research involving human people.

A two-step validation approach was employed to guarantee the data’s validity and the analysis’s precision. In the first phase, the programming script used for data collecting and cleaning was examined for accuracy. The second phase required manually validating a ten per cent random sample of the gathered data. Two separate researchers examined the accuracy of the coding and analysis as part of the manual validation process. Any disagreements were settled by discussion and agreement. The study’s shortcomings were the small sample size and dependence on publicly available data, which might not give a thorough view of the organization’s communication tactics and audience involvement. Nevertheless, the survey offers insightful information about how NGOs might utilize Facebook to connect with their target audience and raise money.

 Instruments

No particular tools were employed to acquire data for this study because it required the analysis of information from the Hope for Three Facebook group. Instead, information was gathered utilizing a spreadsheet and Facebook’s application programming interface (API). In order to analyze the data, qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used (Winarno et al., 2022). They also included content and sentiment analysis using the Python programming language and other software tools. Descriptive statistics were employed to evaluate the data after the postings were coded according to their content and communication tactics. In this investigation, no questionnaires or surveys were used.

There was no requirement to create or validate any instruments because this investigation’s data was secondary. It has been demonstrated that using content and sentiment analysis to analyze vast amounts of data from social media sites like Facebook is an efficient way for social media research. While sentiment analysis uses natural language processing techniques to ascertain the sentiment or emotional tone of the text, content analysis involves the systematic investigation of text and media to spot patterns, themes, and correlations within the data. This study applied these techniques to assess how well Hope for Three’s Facebook posts connected with its target audience and encouraged donations by analyzing their content and communication tactics.

Results

Data gathered from Hope for Three’s Facebook page was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques to determine the study’s conclusions. The posts were subjected to content analysis to find trends and themes in the organization’s communication tactics. The emotional tone of the posts was also determined using sentiment analysis. Frequencies and percentages were employed in descriptive statistics to summarize the data and spot trends in the organization’s communication tactics (Sunyoto et al., 2021). Overall, the data analysis allowed us to assess how well Hope for Three’s communication techniques reached its target audience and raised money.

In order to provide context and insights into best practices, the study’s findings were compared to the literature on social media communication tactics and nonprofit fundraising. The data were presented clearly and succinctly to aid in understanding and interpretation, utilizing tables, graphs, and charts. The small sample size and reliance on publicly available data, which might not fully represent the organization’s variety of communication techniques, were two final drawbacks of the study that were also noted. The study’s results and implications for upcoming research and practice in the nonprofit sector were also reviewed (Sunyoto et al., 2021). The findings made clear how crucial it is to employ various communication techniques, such as storytelling and visual content, to engage audiences and raise money on social media. The limits of the study were discussed, and suggestions for future research to overcome these limitations and further examine the efficacy of social media communication tactics in nonprofit organizations were given.

The answer(s) to the RQ(s)

• What is Hope for Three’s most frequent Facebook communication tactics?

On Facebook, Hope for Three mostly used the distribution of information about forthcoming events and asking for donations (64 per cent of posts) (30 per cent of posts). The group also supported autism awareness campaigns and often provided updates and success stories about the people and families it helps.

• How successful are these communication tactics at attracting donations and interacting with the intended audience for the organization?

According to the study, Hope for Three’s Facebook communication tactics was only marginally successful in engaging the organization’s target demographic and requesting funds. The engagement rates (likes, comments, and shares) of posts with a direct call to action to donate or participate in an event tended to be higher, indicating that these posts were more successful in reaching the organization’s audience and evoking a response.

• Based on their emotive tones, does Hope for Three’s communication techniques on Facebook differ noticeably in terms of their effectiveness?

According to the study, posts’ emotional content had no bearing on their success at raising money or interacting with the target audience. The difference was not statistically significant, but posts with positive emotions tended to have higher engagement rates than posts with negative emotions. While positive emotional content may appeal more to audiences, it may not be the most essential factor in driving engagement and donations.

 Support/failure to support H(s)

Based on the study’s results, Hope for Three’s Facebook communication tactics was only marginally successful in engaging the organization’s target audience and requesting funds. According to the study, conveying information about forthcoming events and asking for donations were the organization’s most popular communication tactics, which were only moderately successful at engaging the audience. The effectiveness of posts in raising money or engaging the audience was not significantly impacted by their emotional tone (Namin et al., 2022). The study also offered insights into the best practices for nonprofit sector fundraising and social media communication strategies, which can assist in guiding the creation of future communication plans for Hope for Three and other organizations of the exact nature. Overall, the research validates the efficacy of Hope for Three’s Facebook communication tactics and offers insightful advice on enhancing them for increased audience engagement and donation solicitation.

Future studies could build on these findings by examining the effects of charitable organizations’ communication methods on engagement and donations on Twitter and Instagram, among other social media platforms. Furthermore, more research may be done to determine how demographic variables like age, gender, and income level may affect the efficacy of the communication tactics employed by Hope for Three and other groups. It might offer insightful information on how to customize communication plans for particular target demographics and increase donations.

Discussion

Conclusions

Knowing the efficacy of various communication tactics is essential as social media plays an increasingly significant role in nonprofit fundraising and communication efforts. The current study offers significant new information about Hope for Three’s Facebook communication tactics, including how well they work to engage fans and raise money. According to the study’s conclusions, the company employed direct calls to action and disseminating information about future events as its most successful communication techniques (Khan & Iqbal, 2020). The outcomes also shed light on how crucial emotional content is in nonprofit communication plans. The study indicated that emotional tone had no discernible effect on how well communication methods engaged the audience or raised money, despite the fact that content with positive emotions may be more appealing to audiences. When establishing their communication strategies, nonprofit organizations may need to consider various elements, including the organization’s unique aims and the preferences of its target audience.

The study results have significant ramifications for creating efficient communication plans for charitable organizations, especially those involved in autism awareness and support. Nonprofit organizations can better engage their audience and significantly influence the community by learning from the most efficient communication techniques employed by groups like Hope for Three. As a result, these groups may receive more funding and assistance, which will ultimately help them fulfil their vital goals and significantly improve the lives of autistic people and their families.

Implications

For charitable organizations, especially those serving the autism community, the study’s findings have significant ramifications. First, according to the study, Facebook is an excellent platform for distributing news about future events and asking for donations (Griffith, Lee & Yalcinkaya, 2023). This information allows nonprofits to create more specialized and successful communication strategies to interact with their audiences and raise money.

Second, the research raises the possibility that while users on social media may find positive emotional material more appealing, it may not be the primary determinant in driving interaction and donations. Using the knowledge, nonprofits may create content that balances positive and negative emotional undertones and concentrates on delivering a solid call to action that motivates people to give money or participate in activities.

The study also emphasizes the value of social media as a tool for nonprofit sector communication and fundraising. According to Griffith et al. (2002), nonprofits can utilize social media to disseminate updates and success stories about their work and engage with their donors and supporters. Nonprofits can better engage with their audiences and meet their fundraising and awareness objectives by creating effective social media communication strategies.

Areas for future research

According to its recommendations, future research can build on the study’s findings in several areas. One topic of possible research is examining the effects of social media communication tactics on long-term donor engagement and retention. It can offer insightful information about how charitable organizations can create efficient communication plans to build and maintain donor relationships over time.

Another study area is the effects of various content kinds on donations and engagement. Future research could examine how well visual content, such as pictures and videos, engage people on social media and helps raise money. It can inform nonprofits about the material that works best to increase social media participation and donations.

Future studies might examine how social media communication tactics affect charitable organizations’ overall effect and results. Nonprofits can better understand how to maximize their effect and accomplish their objective by examining the relationship between communication tactics, engagement, and outcomes.

Table 1: Comparison of Hope for Three’s Facebook and Website Audience Demographics

Table 2: Engagement Rates for Different Types of Facebook Posts on Hope for Three’s Page

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