REMEDIATING COMMUNICATION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA AND FORMING A COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR COMPANIES AND NONPROFITS

By: Heather BurchfieldThis project is part of a larger study.

Rationale

Popularity of social networking sites Formation of a global village SNS creating a participatory culture Noticed business use of social media Possibility of refashioning traditional

communication

Collective Intelligence

Remediation

Theoretical Framework

Theoretical Framework

Collective Intelligence

Pierre Lévy (1997) Intelligence shared by a group that is

constantly enhancing and contributing to the community

Simultaneously enrich individuals SNS wouldn’t be able to exist without

interaction Participatory Culture The participants are the most vital

element of a CI because without them, the aggregation of information wouldn’t be possible.

Theoretical Framework Continued

Remediation

Bolter and Grusin (2000) Refashioning media Hypermediacy

Multiple representations of media in SNS Replicates human experience (YouTube)

Immediacy Sought through transparency Reproduction of reality, remediates the real Contact point between medium and what it

represents Social media’s contact point is emitted

messages or media which generates interaction forming a conversation.

Literature Review

Facebook grew 58.9% from June 18, 2008, to January 4, 2009 (Corbett, 2009)

Banks and Humphreys (2008) noted that many companies feel uneasy giving their consumers more power because the idea of user co-creator and participatory culture is foreign to the customary way business is conducted.

One of the main aspects of a participatory culture is that the participants must actually produce and not simply consume (Jenkins, 2006).

Social networking sites have become verbal playgrounds to converse and discuss contributing to an immanent collective intelligence (Frohmann, 2000).

Research Questions

How has the utilization of social networking sites in nonprofit organizations formed a participatory culture, and does that culture establish a collective intelligence?

How has remediation been depicted through social media by businesses, and have the implemented social media strategies been effective?

Methods

Participant Observation Child and family-focused nonprofit Before focus group

Focus Groups Both nonprofits

Survey Volunteer nonprofit Before focus group

Triangulating Methods

Participant Observation

Child and Family-focused Nonprofit

Spent six-month period (June-Nov. 2009)

Administered and maintained Facebook Fan Page, Cause, and Twitter account

Promoted organization to virtual community Events, volunteers, staff changes,

awards Formed an analysis about responses,

participation & effectiveness of SNS

Focus Group

Both Nonprofits

Wanted to understand the utilization, participation, and remediation effects seen through social media

Snowball samples Child and Family nonprofit

consisted of board and staff members

Volunteer nonprofit consisted of organization members and officers

Survey

Volunteer Nonprofit

92 female participants Nine-question survey Largest general membership

meeting Women ranging in ages from

24 to 50 participated in the survey.

Median age was 33 89.2% had personal Facebook

profiles 9.7% did not have Facebook

profiles

Findings

Lack of familiarity and understanding of social media

Lack of communication Saw potential with social media to reach a

new donor/member demographic Language barrier Like being able to stay connected and

reconnect with those in their social circles Filter information Have become self publicists Complement traditional media

Findings continued

Volunteer Nonprofit Survey Results

Cross tabulation The first test did not identify

evidence of a relationship between having a Facebook profile and awareness of the organization’s Facebook Group (x2=1.16, df=1, p>.05). The members do not have to have a personal Facebook profile in order to be aware of their organization’s Facebook Group.

Findings continued

Volunteer Nonprofit Survey Results

Pearson’s Correlation Individuals who found the Facebook group more personally

useful also tended to think that it was relatively more useful to other members of the organization (r=434, p<.05). If a member feels the Facebook Group is useful for them, they are going to think the group is useful to other members.

Individuals who heard other members mention the Facebook Group more often also tended to find it relatively more personally useful (r=.578, p<.05). The women who did not find the Facebook Group useful did not hear the group mentioned frequently.

The last correlation showed a significant relationship between how often members heard other members mention the Facebook Group and how useful the women thought other members found the Facebook Group (r=.390, p<.05). Since this relationship is positive, the members who heard others mention the Facebook Group more frequently also felt that those members found the Facebook Group more useful, but the members who did not hear the Facebook Group mentioned as regularly surmised that the group was not as useful to others.

Findings continued

Volunteer Nonprofit Survey Results

T-tests There showed to be a significance among those

who were aware of the Facebook Group and the frequency in which members heard others mention the Facebook Group (t=-9.013, df=43.49, p<.05).

There showed to be significance among those who were a part of the Facebook Group and how often someone heard other members mention the volunteer organization’s Facebook Group (t=-3.45, df=66.68, p<.05).

There was no perceived significance among those who were members of the Facebook Group and how useful the organization’s members thought the Facebook Group was to others (t=.150, df=61.27, p>.05).

Discussion

While a complete collective intelligence may not be apparent among the nonprofits, they understand and are aware of the potential social media could have for their organizations.

Networks like Facebook are rapidly building community and establishing relationships.

These nonprofits realized that there was a significant audience using these online tools that they would want to reach, but in order for the groups to be effective with their social media efforts, learning to listen, communicate, and be transparent about their organization is a must.

The two organizations are also aware that social media have complemented and are even remediating other forms of media, but they feel that social networking sites have not replaced mainstream communication outlets at this point.

Just because someone is aware of a nonprofit’s social media presence doesn’t mean they are engaged and interact with them in the virtual realm.

Future Research

To complement this research, t-tests should have been performed to compare Web site traffic before social media efforts were in place and six months after they were in place.

More research needs to be done on this topic Study larger nonprofit organizations with

more resources Research for-profit companies