In my former
blog post "Have you tried the Big McAfee ?" I came to discover how social media can support the
enterprises on different areas and provide direct economic earnings. This week
I will furthermore pursue to prove how non-profit-organisations and
non-government organisations (NGOs) can also benefit from the use of social media.
According to
the McKinsey report:The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technology
NGO’s can also benefit from the use of social media in several areas as seen in the table below.
A good example of an organisation benefitting
from the use of social media is the Australian Animal Rescue
organisation (AAR). AAR is a
non-profit, non-government organisation, run entirely by volunteers. AAR was
founded in April 2009 in the state of Victoria as a means to save the wildlife
affected by the widespread bushfires that year. AAR has grown and expended its activites over
the years and is today dedicated to creating a better life for both wildlife,
livestock and pets within the state of Victoria.
Facebook as a key tool to improving animal wellbeing
Besides the organisation
website, AAR has also established a Facebook page to reach further out into the
community. Through Facebook AAR has experienced an increased feedback and
interest in several areas. More specifically these
areas include:
- Crowdsourcing resources and solutions (2) in order to help lost pets finding their way home or putting pets up for adoption.
- Increased Fundraising (3) both in terms of financial donations as well as food and other supplies.
- Increased volunteer network (4).
- Retaining public support (5) keeping the community up to date about what goes on in the animal world – telling stories about the god, the bad, the happy and the sad events.
- And lastly the opportunity to educate the public (6)
Images from the AAR facebook site
Even though AAR has already experienced many benefits
of engaging in social media it can, however, be argued that even more
initiatives could help support the work of the organisation. In terms of Gathering information (1) and Engage supporters (7) AAR might consider to urging the
community to report any accidents or other critical events directly through the
social media platform, for instance using on-the-scene pictures. In this way
AAR could proactively gather critical information of animals in need fast and thereby forward the appropriate rescue resources. If an incident was reported in a
remote area, nearby volunteers would also have the opportunity to approach the scene faster. Ultimately this use of social media could even make the
difference of life and death for animals in need.
Having the
public engaged in providing information can, however, also create some risks. I.e. if
the platform was used to report animal cruelty or abuse it would most likely
raise legal issues in terms of privacy rights or risks of unfair public
discrediting.
In closure of
how social media can be used to improve the wellbeing of animals I will finally
also like to point to another NGO. RSPCA decided to take their fight for animal
rights a bit further by creating the hashtag #PoliticalAnimal in order to put
focus on animal-welfare-policies before the Australian election of 2013.
Refrences
I was not aware of the existtence of the Australian Animal Rescue organisation, so I have learned something new from your blog again :) I like the way you pointed out in which ways do AAR utilise social media. As you said, it is important to consider not only the benefits but also the possible drawbacks and legal implications of an organisation using Enterprise 2.0 technologies. The idea you raised about the dangers of discrediting is particularly interesting. What do you think, what measures could be put in place to filter out legitimate reports from the fake ones?
ReplyDeleteHi digitalrainforrest
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback :-) after giving your question some thought I must say that I perhaps don’t think that a social media platform is the right place for filing such reports after all. I mean: material (both written and pictures) might easily cross privacy rights and the consequences might be very serious if an improper report was filed. Instead AAR could through their Facebook site more directly encourage the public to file reports in a discrete way (providing phone and e-mail details) and thereby securing everybody’s rights :-)
It seems like most of their activities are about animals that are lost or need to be rescued (e.g. from a roof), and their wouldn't really be any privacy issues with such cases. Discrediting or defacing comments can always become a problem, so they have to monitor their page and remove inappropriate posts. But there certainly is a big potential in this kind of activity, bringing together people who have a problem (an animal that needs rescue) and those who can solve it.
ReplyDeleteHi Schiya
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. You are defiantly right that AAR does not rescue animals from “bad people” (like the RSPCA) that’s also why I wrote “if” AAR would engage in this activity they should be aware of the potential legal risks using social technology – so my point is just a reflection, not a fact :-)