Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.8 NGO Adoption and Use of Social Media
2.8.2 NGO Use of Social Media
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the specifically chosen communication strategies. Nah and Saxton argue that the external resource environment has a positive correlation to the pressure to adopt social media. This
pressure comes from external constituents and social and institutional forces. Therefore, the more an NGO relies on external stakeholders, the greater level of online attention will be given. Thus social media is likely to be adopted if there is a great reliance on donors or government
dependence.
To employ the model presented by Nah and Saxton, RQ 1 is as follows:
RQ1: What factors have influenced PPSA and PPSE to adopt and continue to use social media for meeting organizational goals?
2.8.2 NGO Use of Social Media
The final model for this study comes from Kristen Lovejoy and Gregory Saxton’s (2012) study that explains they ways in which an NGO uses social media. In this study, Lovejoy and Saxton conducted a content analysis of the Twitter accounts of the top 100 NGOs in the United States. Their analysis revealed that there are three classifications of micro-blogging postings-
“information, community, and action.”
This study will use the same classification scheme as Lovejoy and Saxton’s (2012) study, while also allowing the possibility of new codes to emerge after the data collection process.
These researches found a total of twelve types of tweets that emerged on NGO social media accounts, and these twelve types of tweets were grouped into three categories: information, community, and action.
The category of informational posts encompasses messages that contain information
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about the organization’s activities, event highlights, any relevant news or facts, reports, and any other information that could be relevant to stakeholders. Informational posts can also contain links to other sites. The purpose of informational tweets is solely to inform and is not meant for any other purpose. Therefore informational tweets cannot promote an event, make a call for action, or foster dialogue.
Community posts are meant to create a dialogue. These type of posts could propose a question to be answered by followers; it could give thanks or appreciation to members in the community; it acknowledges current and local events (but does not invite the community to the event); these posts can be responses to public reply messages; and finally community posts can be response solicitations.
The final category encompasses posts that make a call to action. These types of posts promote events, call for donors, sell a product, call for volunteers and employees, and ask
followers to lobby or advocate a policy. Call for action posts can also ask users to vote, join other organizations, and push for the audience to learn how to help or become involved.
This study will utilize the same coding schema as Lovejoy and Saxton by doing a thematic content analysis of PPSA and PPSE’s social media. Instead of only using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram will also be analyzed in order to provide a comparison of how each social media outlet is used. Furthermore, the posts will be analyzed to see how PPSA and PPSE use social media as means of promoting and celebrating Cambodian art and intangible heritage.
After observing the frequency of informational, community, and action posts, a thematic analysis of the posts will reveal the patterns and strategies PPSA and PPSE are using to convey the
importance of Cambodian arts to their audience.
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Therefore RQ 2 is as follows:
RQ2: How do PPSA and PPSE strategically use social media?
Finally, RQ3 was devised to provide a deeper analysis of the strategy by investigating what themes or topics are mostly portrayed on PPSA and PPSE’s social media platforms. Therefore RQ3 is as follows:
RQ3: What are the themes that emerged on PPSA and PPSE’s social media?
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Chapter 3
Research Methodology
3.1 Method Introduction
After reviewing the precedent literature on NGOs, social enterprises, Cambodian history, Cambodian tourism, sustainability, intangible heritages, social media adoption, and the research models pertaining to NGO social media adoption and use, this chapter outlines the chosen methodology for this research study.
A case study was used to investigate why PPSA and PPSE have chosen to adopt social media as a communicative device while also examining their strategy and use. According to Babbie (2014, pp. 302), “a case study focuses attention on a single instance of some social phenomenon, such as a village, a family, or a juvenile gang.” Babbie also states that the “chief purpose of [a] case study may be descriptive . . . or the in-depth study of a particular case can yield explanatory insights (pp. 302).” Yin (2009, pp. 18) explains that a case study is useful when exploring a “contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context.” A case study is an appropriate method when searching for new insights that can be applied to a larger group of cases (Curry et al., 2009)
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The insights discovered in this research, will thus be able to help other organizations, especially those with socially and culturally sustainable missions, who are looking towards investing in social media, particularly in developing countries.This research focused on a single organization PPSA, as well as their partner enterprise, PPSE in order to gain insights about how a well-renowned Cambodian organization has
developed their digital communications strategy. This was an interesting organization to