More than 90pc of Irish non-profit organisations use social media, according to a new survey.
The survey of 178 charity organisations was conducted by The Wheel, the national representative and support body for community, voluntary and charity organisations.
Seventy-five per cent of Irish charities either love or like using social media and 72pc say social media has had a positive impact on their relationship with stakeholders. However, 49pc said they struggle to implement it.
Eighty-one per cent of charities have a presence on Facebook, 43pc use Twitter and 31pc use YouTube. Twenty-nine per cent use LinkedIn, 18.4pc use WordPress and 17.8pc use Flickr.
More than 75pc of charity respondents said they use social media channels to reach new potential supporters and 67.3pc use it to enhance relationships with existing customers.
However, more than 35pc of charities have fewer than 100 followers through social media channels. Twenty-three per cent have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers and just 6.2pc have more than 5,000 followers through social media.
“The research shows that the non-profit sector sees social media as an influential and cost-effective way to promote their cause and reach new potential supporters,” said Hugh O’Reilly, business development executive of The Wheel.
“However, it would seem that much of the sector is at the exploratory stage, with the majority yet to use social media to its fullest potential,” he said.
The survey is part of the Better Together campaign, aiming to let community and voluntary groups showcase their work and attract new supporters by posting short video clips on their website.
The public can vote for each charity, giving each organisation the chance to win one of three €3,000 cash prizes. The cause that gets the largest number of unique donations will win €10,000 cash for their cause.
