Creating vocal advocates on Twitter : examining the importance of purpose in social media communication.

Social media is a powerful tool for organizations to build relationships, promote services and encourage community activism. Through content analysis, this study investigates which types of messaging on Twitter are effective in turning members of the public into vocal advocates for education-based nonprofits. The study identifies current Twitter practices among the organizations and describes how they can influence social change. The situational theory of publics is used to analyze online engagement. This study also examines the importance of organization-public relationships and their utilization on social media platforms to promote advocacy. Findings revealed that informational posts are the most frequently used form of messaging by education-based nonprofits on Twitter and are the most successful in garnering engagement. Education-based nonprofits prefer to have a majority of their tweets originate from their organization. Furthermore, they are utilizing Twitter’s other media related tools by including links in 65 percent of their posts