Pathfinders:
Pathfinders is one of two organizations that runs homeless shelters for teens in Milwaukee. It also has a drop-in center for youth/young adults to hang out, receive counseling and any other help they may need. Due to their numerous grants Pathfinders has been expanding the programs that they offer.
Pathfinders' Facebook contains mostly event posts, photos and news articles. These are posts that are targeted towards adult members of the community who are supporters, and donors. None of the posts I saw appeared to target the youth they serve.
As for Pathfinders' twitter, the same can be said; the posts contains news articles, event information, photos and post from local businesses and local celebrities.
Suffice it to say, Pathfinders' uses Social Media as a way of gaining support and funding, not as a way of reaching their targeted clientele. Perhaps this is because the demographic that tends to utilize their services most often are low income families. Events at schools and within the community may be a better way to inform families and youth about their services.
Milwaukee LGBT Community Center:
The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center runs a variety of programs including adult enrichment services, community trainings, and a youth drop-in center.
The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center's Facebook page has about 3,800 followers, substantially more than Pathfinders. This could be because the Center has many programs for adults, not just youth and families like Patherfinders does. The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center's Facebook page caters to adult users with posts featuring their work, fundraising events and news articles related to their cause.
The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center's Twitter page feature tweets strictly from the organizations with links to facebook photos and articles. It appears that they aren't yet using twitter to it's full potential, as they are not engaging users by tweeting at them. It appears that twitter is more an afterthought in their social media strategy.
While both of these nonprofit organizations have programs geared toward youth, they used their social media pages as a way to network and gain funding. However, it is important to mention that the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center does have a page devoted to their youth program 'Project Q'; the posts cater to youth. Pathfinders had no other Facebook pages associated with it.
Great post Casey. As someone who works with a variety of non-profits, it always amazes me how many groups still are unsure of how best to utilize Twitter beyond a few announcements and a tweeted story here or there. They will have to get on board eventually if they hope to reach a younger, more connected audience.
ReplyDeleteBoth organization are on the right track to using social media. Ideally, these organizations need to find a way to use Twitter and Facebook to reach out to both, those who can use the services and the donors that help keep non-profits running.
ReplyDelete