Looking for Friends, Fans, and Followers? Social Media Use in Public and Nonprofit Human Services

• Author: Christopher J. Wells,David A. Campbell,Kristina T. Lambright
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12261
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Published date: 01 September 2014

David A. Campbell is associate profes-

sor and chair of the Public Administration

Department in the College of Community

and Public Affairs at Binghamton University.

His research interests include performance

measurement in nonprof‌i t organizations,

philanthropy, and campus-based civic

engagement. He has published his research

in a cross-section of public administration

and nonprof‌i t management journals.

E-mail: dcamp@binghamton.edu

Kristina T. Lambright is associate

professor of public administration in the

College of Community and Public Affairs

at Binghamton University. Her research

interests include service delivery structure,

contracting, organizational performance,

and campus-based civic engagement. She

has published or has articles forthcoming

in several journals, including the Journal

of Public Administration Research

and Theory, Journal of Policy Analysis

and Management, Administration &

Society, American Review of Public

Administration, Nonprof‌i t and

Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the

Journal of Public Affairs Education.

E-mail: klambrig@binghamton.edu

Christopher J. Wells is a 2013 gradu-

ate of the master of public administration

program at Binghamton University. He

currently works in the nonprof‌i t sector in

Washington, D.C.

E-mail: cjwells67@gmail.com

Looking for Friends, Fans, and Followers? Social Media Use in Public and Nonprof‌i t Human Services 655

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 74, Iss. 5, pp. 655–663. © 2014 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12261.

David A. Campbell

Kristina T. Lambright

Christopher J. Wells

Binghamton University

 is article uses interviews and Internet data to examine

social media use among nonprof‌i t organizations and

county departments involved in the delivery of human

services in a six-county area in south-central New York

State. Social media use was modest, with nonprof‌i t

organizations much more likely to use it than county

departments. Organizations used social media primarily

to market organizational activities, remain relevant to

key constituencies, and raise community awareness. Most

organizations either had a narrow view of social media’s

potential value or lacked a long-term vision. Barriers to

use included institutional policies, concerns about the

inappropriateness of social media for target audiences,

and client conf‌i dentiality. Findings build on recent

research regarding the extent to which nonprof‌i t organi-

zations and local governments use social media to engage

stakeholders. Future research should investigate not only

the dif‌f erent ways organizations use social media but

also whether organizations use it strategically to advance

organizational goals.

The proliferation of social media has changed

how people provide and receive informa-

tion, creating fundamentally dif‌f erent ways

for individuals to interact with

each other and democratizing

participation in community life.

Social media has the poten-

tial to change a wide variety

of management practices in

nonprof‌i t and public organiza-

tions. For example, social media

has contributed to innovations

in how nonprof‌i t organizations approach fund-raising,

organizing, and advocacy (for illustrations, see Guo

and Saxton 2014; Kapin and Ward 2013). It is easy to

imagine how social media’s emphasis on engagement

and dialogue could contribute to similar advances in

performance measurement for both nonprof‌i t and

public organizations (e.g., Kanter and Paine 2012).

Researchers have shown an increasing interest in

the role of social media in nonprof‌i t organizations

(Bortree and Seltzer 2008; Guo and Saxton 2014;

Lovejoy and Saxton 2012; Lovejoy, Waters, and

Saxton 2012; Waters and Jamal 2011) and local

government (Bonsón et al. 2012; Hand and Ching

2011; Kavanaugh et al. 2012; Klang and Nolin 2011).

Although this research has provided a valuable founda-

tion for understanding social media use in those set-

tings, there are several gaps in our current knowledge,

which this article addresses. First, much of the recent

research in the nonprof‌i t f‌i eld has examined social

media use among large, prominent nonprof‌i t organi-

zations but not among smaller, community-based

entities. Similarly, research on social media use by local

governments has focused primarily on entities located

in larger metropolitan areas. Second, previous studies

have considered either nonprof‌i t or public organiza-

tions, but not both and not comparatively. Finally,

researchers have not focused on how leaders in human

services use social media to advance organizational

goals.  e close relationship between human service

providers and their stakeholders ( particularly benef‌i -

ciaries and funders) suggests considerable potential

for those organizations to draw on social media’s

capacity to engage stakeholders. To address these gaps

in our knowledge, this study

analyzes data gathered through

interviews and Internet searches

to explore how nonprof‌i t

organizations and county

departments involved in the

delivery of human services

in a six-county region in

south- central New York State

use social media.  e article addresses the following

questions:

1. To what extent are nonprof‌i t and public

human service organizations using social

media?

2. Why are these organizations using social

media? In particular, to what extent do these

organizations use social media to engage

stakeholders?

Looking for Friends, Fans, and Followers? Social Media

Use in Public and Nonprof‌i t Human Services

Social media has the potential

to change a wide variety

of management practices

in nonprof‌i t and public

organizations.