August 6, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
With a growing number of charities using Twitter and other online social networks, do they risk over saturating their audience?
Caroline McCarthy, who writes about social media for CNET News, raises this question.
“The influx of charities and nonprofits to platforms like Facebook and Twitter could result in noise, congestion, and outright apathy. Spreading awareness of a good cause grows difficult when that good cause starts to seem like spam,” she writes.
Kristin Ivie, on the Social Citizens blog, raised similar concerns, saying that social media has made it easier for people to organize for a cause, but it also encourages “slacktivism” and “bumper-sticker philanthropy.”
In her article, Ms. McCarthy looks at how one group, Charity:Water, has been successful in using Twitter and is now exploring new Internet tools, like a Web site that will allow people to create their own fund-raising campaigns for the charity.
Read The Chronicle’s article about how Charity:Water is using Twitter and a profile of the group’s founder, Scott Harrison, a former New York event planner turned nonprofit leader.
(A subscription or free temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle articles.)
What do you think? Are charities at risk for using social media too much?
