Charitable Groups Outpace Others in Use of Social Media

New research shows that charitable organizations are still outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media.

The latest study looking at 2009 data (pdf) by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research revealed that 97 percent of charitable organizations are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging, wikis and Twitter.

The analysis is based on detailed interviews with executives from 76 of 200 charities that responded to the researchers' requests. They were working off a list of 200 of the nation's largest charities as identified by Forbes magazine.

The charities that participated in the study are diverse in mission, average gifts and total revenue. They include some of the best-known charities in the country such as the Salvation Army, American Heart Association, Catholic Relief Services, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and American Lung Association.

The participating non-profits are geographically diverse with headquarters in most major U.S. cities including New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco.

The researchers issued their first study on this subject and showed that these large non-profits were leading large and small businesses as well as universities in their familiarity with, usage of, monitoring of and attitude towards social media. That trend continued in 2008 and 2009.