New study helps point the way for future use of Facebook, social media for nonprofits

For nonprofits that use social media Facebook remains at or near the very top of the preferred platforms to help spread cause awareness and continue to build their potential donor audience and in North America and I don’t see that changing at any time in the near future. Studies of the demographics of charity supporters consistently show that the youngest adult bracket (typically 18-24 or 18-29) may be the least likely to donate but amongst the most likely to volunteer or take part in nonprofit fundraising activities – so how will today’s 12 to 17 year-olds be likely to use social media over the next few years?

A number of articles caused a social media panic last year following a statement from Facebook that teens “were using Facebook slightly less often” causing many to suggest that Facebook was no longer appealing to teens and therefore was facing a limited shelf-life. Some went as far as recommending that online marketing should move time and resources to Snapchat and Tumblr as soon as possible to remain ahead of the changing landscape, however such reactions about the immediate future of Facebook were without much foundation. For the nonprofit sector I’ve every reason to anticipate Facebook continuing to be a primary platform for engagement with donors and reducing resources in this arena would prove a poor decision. A new study from Forrester Research demonstrates this idea quite clearly.

The study reveals that although Facebook has lost a modest slice of the online teen audience it remains by quite some distance the most popular social network among the teenage demographic. Over the next five years that entire audience will become potential donors and expect to see a Facebook presence from the companies, brands and charities that they support.

The study asked more than 4,500 US teens about the frequency of their social media use including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr. Each were asked if they used the individual platform ‘once a day’, ‘at least a few times per day’ or ‘all of the time’. For Facebook 80% of teens answered that they are checking Facebook at least once a month while a third revealed they are using Facebook ‘all of the time’. Overall about 73% are using Facebook quite regularly which is more than double the rate for Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapchat.

The second most frequently used social media platform among teens is Instagram which is in keeping with the recent overall growth of the photo-sharing service. I’d recommend investing some time with Instagram this year if you’re not already doing so as beyond the growth in popularity it provides a perfect opportunity to share personal and exclusive images from key fundraising events or activities that illustrate the difference your organization is making  providing your audience with insight they can’t perhaps have elsewhere.

The chart above courtesy of Forrester Research shows both the teen social media platform adoption rate (top to bottom points) which represents those who use the platform at least monthly along with the usage rate (left to right) which details the percentage of the audience who are using the tool ‘all of the time’.

Also revealed in the study is that teens are using Facebook for much more than just keeping in touch with their friends with increasing numbers exploring everything that the platform brings and following pages that they like to help keep themselves informed. While in many cases these might be musician, celebrity or product sites it is this sort of interaction that can ultimately lead to your own nonprofit audience growing. As I’ve written about before you can use Facebook Insights to analyze the demographics of your existing followers and monitor how it evolves. To view this data; go to your Facebook page, select ‘insights’ and then select ‘people’ – as you’ll see Facebook breaks down your audience by gender along with their age, in addition you can view location and much more besides. Valuable information to have at hand as you plan to build your donor audience for tomorrow and beyond.

The full report from Forrester Research unfortunately costs $499 but you can find more elements of the data online in various articles. How is your nonprofit positioning itself with regard to capturing today’s teens and tomorrow’s donor audience?

___________________________________________________________________________________ For nonprofit fundraising, CSR business and other news, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Pinterest or subscribe to our RSS feed. Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.