Social media and social networking’s rise to prominence over the past five years has been nothing short of phenomenal; Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are amongst the top 10 sites globally, according to statistics on Alexa.com.
In Europe, Facebook has almost 200 million users, and here in Malta, Facebook is the second-most used website nationally, with almost 200,000 people across the islands accessing the site on a weekly basis. Companies have developed pages, where they can market their products and services, and share news with people who “like” them, and NGOs have harnessed the value of the Facebook audience in order to raise awareness of and support for their causes.
Non-profit organisations rely on donations and fundraising activities to finance their activities, and Facebook helps to publicise their events. Esther Sant, co-founder of Action for Breast Cancer Foundation explains:
“Throughout the year, the Foundation organises a variety of events in conjunction with venues such as Hard Rock Café, among others. Using Facebook, we can publicise these fundraisers on our page, and Hard Rock Café Malta also does the same on their page. This means that we don’t only share the information with our ‘likes’, but also with the people who ‘like’ them, therefore reaching a much wider audience than our ‘likes’ alone. We also post breast cancer awareness events and information to our page’s wall and our audience often shares these with their own friends.
“Being a non-profit organisation means we don’t have a huge marketing budget by any stretch of the imagination, so Facebook helps us to achieve publicity at no cost; something that’s very important as we can channel our financial resources into our core activity; continuing to lobby for better treatment and care for women diagnosed with breast cancer and having the much needed fully accredited Breast Unit.
“The Breast Unit is crucial for patients that need further treatment after surgery. It’s a known fact that when treated in such units, patients have a better chance of survival and enjoy a better quality of life after breast cancer. Furthermore, European Union member states are to provide multidisciplinary specialist breast units in accordance with EU guidelines by 2016”.
In Malta, other non-profit organisations have a strong following on Facebook, and use the medium to promote upcoming fundraisers. L-Istrina fundraising marathon in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund has over 15,000 “likes”, and works hand-in-hand with several companies that support them.
Air Malta is collecting for L-Istrina onboard its flights up until the end of December, and as well as the airline sending out a press release, they also chose to announce it on the Air Malta Facebook page. By doing this, the airline will spread the news about L-Istrina to their global Facebook audience, who may in turn, share it to their own walls; it’s this vital element that makes Facebook, as a medium, successful as a way of propagating news and causes.
The Gozo SPCA operates from tiny premises in the middle of Victoria, and the Society has very limited space, so finding homes for animals in the centre is crucial to their activities. We spoke to Betty Berry, the public relations and re-homing officer of the association, about how Facebook helps them to achieve their goals.
“We’ve had a website for a number of years, and almost two years ago, we set up a Facebook page. Having such small premises means we have limited space, and we are always full up. We have to prioritise the space to take in abandoned animals that need medical attention or are injured, as well as the many puppies and kittens that are dumped in Gozo each year. We have a regularly updated re-homing gallery on our website, and details about our animals looking for homes also go on Facebook. This online presence has really helped in our quest to find loving, forever homes for our animals at the centre.
“We currently have over 1,800 ‘likes’ on our Facebook page, and many of our Facebook supporters re-post to their own walls, so news about dogs, puppies and kittens looking for homes spreads. We’ve found loving homes for a good number of our longer-term residents at the centre over the past two years through publicity on Facebook alone, and as well as finding homes in Gozo and Malta, some have gone to homes in the UK, Germany and Sweden.”
NGOs use Facebook for many different reasons, and it’s a free, yet extremely effective resource. It seems that a Facebook page has become almost a necessity if a non-profit organisation is to be effective in reaching its goals. In Malta, Facebook is here to stay, for the foreseeable future at least; if you work with an NGO or charity without a Facebook presence, then it could be worth your while to set one up, as soon as possible!
Ms Rogers is PR Director at The Creative Partners; a boutique web, creative and communications consultancy based in Mosta.