Who Leads Nonprofit Advocacy through Social Media? Some Evidence from the Australian Marine Conservation Society's Twitter Networks

Abstract

While much in the field of public management has emphasized the importance of nonprofit advocacy activities in policy and decision-making procedures, few have considered the relevance and impact of leading actors on structuring diverse patterns of information sharing and communication through social media. Building nonprofit advocacy is a complicated process for a single organization to undertake, but social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter have facilitated nonprofit organizations and stakeholders to effectively share information and communicate with each other for identifying their mission as it relates to environmental issues. By analyzing the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s (AMCS) Twitter network data from the period 1 April to 20 April, 2013, this research discovered diverse patterns in nonprofit advocacy by leading actors in building advocacy. Based on the webometrics approach, analysis results show that nonprofit advocacy through social media is structured by dynamic information flows and intercommunications among participants and followers of the AMCS. Also, the findings indicate that the news media and international and domestic nonprofit organizations have a leading role in building nonprofit advocacy by clustering with their followers.