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Share, Comment, and Like on Facebook and Message Strategies of Non-Governmental organizations:

Share, Comment, and Like on Facebook and Message Strategies of Non-Governmental organizations: The scope of this study is to examine the relationship between message strategies and stakeholders’ responses on Facebook. Data on 20 non-governmental organizations’ Facebook pages was collected by simple random sampling to examine their communication practices on social media. It was found that those organizations were more likely to adopt Public Information (PI) model to transmit information to their stakeholders. Organizational messages based on Two-way symmetry model (TWS) can generate the greatest number of Likes which is significantly larger than Press Agentry (PA), Public Information (PI), and Two-way asymmetry (TWA) models. The multi-way (MW) model was proposed in order to extend Grung & Hunt’s framework in the digital era. Keywords message strategies, multi-way model, non-governmental organization, social media, stakeholders’ responses (PR) discipline, it explained the worth of PR to organizations, Introduction identified a series of guiding principles that served as a bench- According to the Two-Way Symmetric model (TWS) in dia- mark for education and measuring the efficacy of PR (Grunig logic communication theory suggested by Kent and Taylor & Grunig, 2002). In finding ways of solving disputes, negotia- (1998), dialog is the output generated during the process of tion method could be used (Schelling, 1980). The symmetrical communication, which involves sharing of thoughts and nature of excellent PR should be more than conventional strat- viewpoints characterized by intersubjectivity. Relationship egies in communication theory, which stressed on persuasion, building is a foundation for public relationships, and social advocacy and message strategies design; whereas more atten- media as a dialogic medium and “convivial tool” brings tion should be paid on relationship management through dia- about the creation, adaptation, and change of organization- logic conversations, managing conflicts, listening, and public relationships. Kent and Taylor (1998) suggested orga- corporate social responsibility (Grunig & Grunig, 2002). PR nizations to establish dynamic and long-lasting online public communication is not only used for addressing the concerns of relationship, such as to start and maintain conversations by external stakeholders; but also being used to manage the rela- encouraging feedbacks and providing professional and tionship with internal stakeholders. A study conducted by timely responses; and providing useful content that can Duthler and Dhanesh (2018) in the UAE found that the two- address public interests, values and concerns. Social media way asymmetrical communication model adversely predicts adopts dialogical communication technology to connect peo- employee perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility ple, which may stimulate the democracy of information (CSR), whereas the Two-Way Symmetric communication reception and participation among family and friends (Kent, strongly predicted employee engagement. 2013). Social media platforms provides useful channels for marketing and customer account management (Alalwan et al., 2017). Apart from marketing and advertising, Public The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Relations (PR) professionals can also use social networking Corresponding Author: services for a tool to benefit the society through problem Tai Ming Wut, School of Professional Education and Executive solving and crowdsourcing (Kent, 2013). Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 9 Hoi Ting Road, The 15-year Excellent Study set in the US, Canada, and the Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong. UK, is the most large scale study in the public relationship Email: Edmund.wut@cpce-polyu.edu.hk Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open Besides, social media is commonly applied by non-gov- maintain a Facebook group (44%), use Facebook Live ernmental organizations (NGOs) in branding, community (43%), and some even use Messenger bots (36%), and engagement and education. Some NGOs design social media Facebook Charitable Giving Tools (29%; Nonprofit Tech for graphic for free download, for example, Facebook profile Good, 2019). picture frame, a typical example is “Love has no labels” China is an exceptional case under the PRC government’s launched in 2015, which is a campaign promoting the equal- internet censorship; WeChat and Sina-Weibo are the most ity of everyone (Ad Council, 2020). Some organizations col- popular social networking sites among Chinese. Ruellea and laborate with cartoonists to create emoticon stickers pack Peverelli (2017) carried out a case study of an NGO in China, that contains educational messages or local slangs, examples which explored theirconstruction of social identity in ongo- including World Wild Fund (2020) in Hong Kong. ing instant messaging discussions. Online activities on Facebook is the most powerful social media site glob- WeChat over several months were analyzed, it proved the ally, which had over 2.60 billion accounts as of year 2020 functions of social media as a discursive space for a charita- (Statista, 2020). Previous studies focused on the function ble organizations in China. These functions include drawing of social media in promoting products and services (Kapoor attention on recurrent issues, encouraging members to par- et al., 2018), some past literature suggested public rela- ticipate in conversation, and growing trust, so as to establish tions practitioners to utilize the potential of dialogic com- and strengthen their sense of belongings. With the presences munication on Facebook for maintaining close relationship of loyal followers who are “broadcasters” or “supervisors,” with stakeholders (Bonsón Ponte et al., 2015; Ihm, 2015; social media may facilitate development of non-profit orga- Kapoor et al., 2018; Warren et al., 2014; Waters et al., nizations (Ruellea & Peverelli, 2017). 2009; Wut and Yu, 2016). Charitable organizations and Zhou and Pan (2016) observed 155 educational NGOs in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) usually concern rural areas of China for 6 months on Sina-Weibo, they found about their public relations budget; they try to keep their that regardless cyber censorship and the relationship with the costs reasonable and social media could be one of the Chinese government, NGOs were still active on Weibo. cheapest ways to reach wide range of target audiences Similar to NGOs in other parts of the world, they spread (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). information, form communities, and mobilize resources on Only a few studies, such as Cho et al. (2014) and social media. As Chinese NGOs commonly faced legitimacy Nordström (2012), discussed communication strategies used problems under national policies, aside from attracting fol- by NGOs on Facebook under Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) lowers, they also use social media to broadcast organiza- “four models of public relations” framework. There is a few tional legitimacy. Besides, these organizations also massively of research in social media messaging strategies applied by employ internet slangs and emoticons to achieve sense of NGOs. Thus, this study seeks to examine various types of intimacy with younger generations; with the purpose of Facebook messaging strategies used by NGOs and the related drawing attention on Weibo, many publish posts on popular effects on the level of stakeholder’s engagement. topics not necessarily related to their area of service (Zhou & Pan, 2016). Background Literature Review According to the recent Global NGO Technology Report, among the 5,721 NGOs in 160 countries surveyed, 90% use NGOs need to consistently interact with target audience so social media for regular engagement with donors and follow- as to maintain strong connections with the society, even ers, and 44% of NGOs have a digital marketing strategy though virtual communication cannot replace physical inter- (Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2019). About 47% perceived action, the comment, like, and share functions of social is social media very effective communication and fundraising more far reaching when comparing with traditional prac- tools for them and 37% thought it is somewhat effective. tices of face-to-face communication. Larger scale NGOs Respondents perceived social media an effective useful can afford to set up websites for information sharing, but for online tool to promote brand awareness (94%); recruit smaller organizations may need to rely on social media as attendees for events (80%); advocate social changes (78%); the entry requirement is much lower, like setting up a recruit volunteers and inspiring people in taking political Fanpage and account for free, making announcements and action (75%); and participate in online fundraising (72%). reaching out for with possible future donors, alliance orga- Facebook is considered the most popular platform used by nizations, and community members. Thus, they may have to NGOs (84%), followed by Twitter (46%), LinkedIn (28%), spend certain budget to buy advertisement from the service WhatsApp (28%), and YouTube (26%; Nonprofit Tech for providers in order to boost the viewing rate (Armstrong & Good, 2019). According to the same survey, majority of Butcher, 2018). NGOs (97%) own a Facebook Fanpage, around half of them There has been more research regarding NGO social share Facebook Stories (54%), buy Facebook Ads (47%), media usage in developed regions such as America and Wut et al. 3 Europe, mostly case studies on thematic topics. NGOs social Public Relations and Social media media usage in developing regions are less likely to have a Nowadays everyone on social media is able to spread infor- broad impact due to technical problems, such as low Internet mation, yet Verhoeven et al. (2012) found that not many penetration rate. Armstrong and Butcher (2018) analysis European NGOs performed the role of gatekeepers. It is sug- twitter content of 151 Nigerian NGOs, and found out that gested for organizations to monitor their regular activities NGOs mostly perform single-way communication on social using key performance indicators. Besides communication media, those posts are informative yet with low interactivity, modes and content, advertising affects the content over social and become less effective in furthering relationships between media, Dhanesh and Duthler (2019) identified the relations the organizations and their recipients. Some people may be between ad recognition and awareness of paid endorsement, reluctant in using social media due to privacy concerns of in correlations with eWOM, purchase, and influencer-fol- digital footprint; while this may be less a concern for those lower relationship. who live in regions with vibrant democratic civil society. For A few reviews of related scholarly articles have been done those who live under oppressive regimes may even have in recent years. Verčič, Verčič et al. (2015) selected 155 arti- unique safety threats (Armstrong & Butcher,2018). cles over 35 years, and found that digital PR literature were Rodriguez (2016) investigates how LGBTI asylum-spe- lopsided to new media as tool, but generally neglected media cific NGOs used Facebook and Twitter for relationship stakeholders and public, besides, emerging topics of mobile building with general public. Among the three functions technology and privacy issue was not discussed. Later study investigated, the two LGBTI global NGOs based in the US by Huang et al. (2017) analyses 141 publications between utilized social media for disseminating news and facts on 2008 and 2014 to identify for paradigm shift brought the rise human rights and legislation in foreign countries, more of social media, it was discovered that there has not been a than for community building and actions of fundraising, research trend for social media in the field of PR (Alalwan recruitment of staff or volunteers, and advocate causes. et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2017; Khang et al., 2012). Moreover, they did not engaged in social media platforms Social media, from the perspective of PR executives, is an for videos photos in comparison to mainstream NGOs economical channel for carrying out marketing research and (Rodriguez, 2016). instant communications, organizations can use it for starting McPherson (2015) identified two models for NGO social conversations and learning about market needs, customer media journalism, namely the evidence model, which is profiles, strengthen and weaknesses of competitors, and their largely assessed under the time based process and expertise; employees (DiStaso et al., 2011; Dwivedi et al., 2021). Major and the engagement model, as evaluated by participation in challenges facing organizations include change management the process of information production and distribution. affecting employees, especially for older employees need to Carrasco-Polaino et al. (2018) investigated the type and adapt to the rapid technological changes, and the immediacy subject matters of photos posted on Instagram during 2017, of the medium that required timely online service and crisis by the 20 NGOs that work on “artivism” at international management (Khang et al., 2012). Augmented reality, virtual level, to identify their choices of formal elements in the use reality and artificial intelligence are typical examples of new of children images. They found that typical NGO post is an technologies (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Moreover, there are image of an aid recipient, usually in a child alone or female, risks of intellectual property leakages, criticism of the com- facing the camera in a middle to close up shot, posing a posi- pany or its management, fake news, user misbehavior, and tive feeling gesture, which suggests the benefits of donating brand damage caused by embarrassing employee behaviors to that NGO. Although such prototypical images are often (DiStaso et al., 2011; Dwivedi et al., 2021). Although face- used by NGOs, but the type of image generating greater to-face interactions have higher levels of social presence, engagement were those containmiddle-aged NGO co-opera- virtual communicators like in social media can achieve cer- tors or volunteer who shows a smiling gesture (Carrasco- tain level of intimate exchanges, and reinforce relationships Polaino et al., 2018). through personalization of content (Kent & Li, 2020). There are a few related studies on crisis management of NGOs. del Mar Gálvez-Rodríguez et al. (2019) used the situ- ational crisis communication theory to perform an analysis Four Models of Public Relations of online activity by NGOs during the Syrian refugee crisis. The Four Models of Public Relations (FMPR) covers one- As the public more often criticize the public sector than pri- way and two-way communication (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). vate sector when it comes to immigration issues, NGOs were Public relations serve a promoting function in the first much more proactive than governments in terms of crisis model: Press Agentry (PA), which involves in spreading communication. During humanitarian crises, NGOs should preferred information by an organization. In Public emphasize that the beneficiaries in the local communities are Information (PI), the aim of PR is to report objective infor- active contributors in recovery and rebuilding, social media mation to stakeholders. For the Two-Way Asymmetric provide a channel for such engagement (del Mar Gálvez- (TWA) model, practitioners use researches and supporting Rodríguez et al., 2019). 4 SAGE Open figures to persuade stakeholders to accept the organization’s distribution of resources between stakeholders and corpora- opinion, as a result, gaining people’s support. In the Two- tions, the unequal position provide chances for corporations Way Symmetric (TWS) model, public relations people serve to promote their own interests in power relations, therefore as a middle man among organizations and stakeholders. the seemingly symmetrical interactions are inherently asym- Their purpose is to foster understanding among the organi- metrical (Stauber & Rampton, 1995). Cancel et al. (1997, zations and the public. Regarding the nature of communica- 1999) used “accommodation” in replacement of the sym- tion, for PA and PI models, they are always single way from metrical model, which refers to building trust with external the organization to the public. In the two-way asymmetric publics through “dialog, compromise, collaboration, and model, practitioners plan what they want to communicate to cooperation.” However, Grunig and Dozier (2003) argued stakeholders for the purpose of achieving a change in atti- that the notion of symmetry already underlines certain bal- tude and behavior if possible. Communication from stake- ance between organization and public. holders is regarded as feedback only. Basically, TWA is still one-sided. A true dual communication model is the TWS. It Geographical Contextualization consists of dialogs between the organizations and stakehold- ers. Stakeholders are likely to change organizational attitude Methods for measuring and evaluating in PR and CSR prac- and behavior whereas, at the same time, organization per- tices vary across geographical locations. Examples for PR suades people to change their attitude and behavior (Grunig frameworks such as GCS in the UK, DPRG/ICV from & Hunt, 1984). Germany, and some more internationally recognized model Grunig and Hunt (1984) put forward the FMPR by com- such as Barcelona Principles and AMEC Integrated bining several previous models with long history: PA from Evaluation Framework (Buhmann et al., 2019). In Western 1850, PI from 1900, TWA in 1920s, and TWS in 1960s. countries, CSR is usually managed by PR practitioners. Organizations that adopt PA equate PR with publicity or pro- While in India, it is business executives and managers who motions, it is associated with propaganda, which is more lead CSR (Dhanesh, 2012). Multinational companies have to commonly adopted in the business sector by companies deal with PR in daily operation, likewise global NGOs also which have departments specialized in advertising. PI is require communication officers to equip with sensitivity to more frequently applied in government agencies, NGOs and multiple cultures and the ability to change while preserving educational sector for dissemination of information, core identity of organizations (Verčič, Zerfass, et al., 2015). expressed in active press-relations programs to spread news In cross-cultural settings, even with English as the lingua through media to the public. TWA is usually adopted by franca, PR practitioners still have to balance between culti- firms selling consumer products that are facing keen compe- vate and nurture of mission and visions, and appreciate the tition, this model stresses on positive reasons for taking the diverse socio-economic, linguistic and political realities suggested actions using scientific persuasion. TWS are used across continents (Verčič, Zerfass, et al., 2015). by organizations that emphasize social responsibility, they organize dialog sessions to develop mutual understanding Hypotheses Development with recipients (Grunig & Grunig, 1992). Although there are tendencies for different types of organizations to adopt cer- Engagement in social media is measured by users’ behavior. tain models, they need to consider the applicability of each Popularity can be measured by metrics, stakeholders’ com- model case by case, according to the kinds of problems that mitments and virality for engagements on Facebook (Bonsón they are facing or the nature of public relations activities Ponte & Ratkai, 2013). Popularity is gauged by reactions on being carried out (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). posts, commitment refers to number of comments, and viral- ity refers to the number of shares. This model assumed that the importance of Like, Share and Comment to be the same. Criticism on the PR Models In reality, the numbers of Likes, Shares, and Comments by Criticism received by the above mentioned models sur- fans when responding to feeds require different levels of rounded the dichotomous of symmetry/asymmetry and one- efforts. Therefore, Cho et al. (2014) proposed the different way/two-way communication dimension. Laskin (2009) levels of engagement was measured independently for the considered FMPR theory more an academic concept and three Facebook engagement features of Like, Share, and utopian normative ideal than a reflection of reality in PR, by Comment, such that the uniqueness of each these functions claiming TWS to be the most effective mode of communica- can be captured . tion, the labeling of inferior models arouse resentment of PR FMPR were also used for analysing organizational mes- practitioners (Laskin, 2009). Besides, some critical and sages on Twitter (Waters & Jamal, 2011; Waters & post-modern theorists did not recognize TWS a final solu- Williams, 2011), and non-profit organization messages on tion for creating truly equal participation and bringing ben- Facebook (Cho et al., 2014; Nordström, 2012). The above efit to all involved parties (Laskin, 2009). Due to the uneven studies showed NGOs tend to adopt public information Wut et al. 5 model, and social media is generally used for communicat- Research Method ing unilateral messages, while the provided interactive and Sampling Process dialogic functions have not been utilized fully (Waters & Jamal, 2011). The list of “Directory of Non-governmental Organizations” Social media usage is continuously evolving, it started as in Hong Kong was used as a sample frame (Hong Kong Non- a private or social platform rather than for business supple- Governmental Organisation, 2021). There are 434 non-gov- menting their traditional marketing tactics. But nowadays, ernmental organizations. A simple random sampling method social media marketing becomes the dominant marketing was used in the selection 20 NGOs which operate their offi- strategy. It has been found that message structure in term of cial Facebook Fanpages targeting local audience. According interactivity and formality could affect customer behavior to Wut and Yu (2016), Non-governmental Organizations can (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Thus, it is a good timing to investigate be classified into three categories, namely environment and NGO Facebook usage and examine the impact of different animal welfare, healthcare, and service for people. Within message strategies on stakeholder engagement as today. Two the 30 days from 1 October to 31 October 2019, 443 posts research questions are detailed as follows: have been uploaded on Facebook by these 20 NGOs. The data collected were organized in a spreadsheet with coding; Research Question 1: To what extent the FMPR is appli- the coded messages were later analyzed by statistical soft- cable to Hong Kong NGOs’ Facebook usage? ware, SPSS version 25 in January 2020. The sampling size is Research Question 2: “How do message strategies affect determined by point of saturation. Researcher tried to collect levels of stakeholder engagement on these NGOs’ more samples beyond the said period but the result is basi- Facebook pages? (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900)” cally the same. It is anticipated that when TWS model was used by NGOs, Coding Procedure there could be more stakeholder engagement than when PA was used. “Like” is an affectively driven by sensory and For the content analysis of organizational message strategies, visual features (Kim & Yang, 2017), which requires the min- this study used the concept coding method. A concept is a imum amount of effort, in comparison to typing text or emot- word that suggests a meaning or an idea. In cases of mes- icons in comments, and therefore being the most used button sages involving multiple strategies, only primary strategy is on Facebook for expressing positive attitudes such as agree- being counted. Three levels of stakeholder engagement in ment to the posted content. terms of Likes, Shares, and Comments, of posts uploaded by the 20 NGOs were coded. Furthermore, followers for each of “H1: There is a significant difference in the lowest level of the organization’s page, as well as the quantity of postings stakeholder engagement (Likes) among four types of organizat- found in data collection period were recorded. Two indepen- ional message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). dent coders carried out the coding process. The results obtained there from were compared. In case of any discrep- Among the three types of reactions mentioned, “Share” ancy, discussion between them was allowed before they requires moderate level of effort, and it also expects responses came to a final conclusion. In case that the discrepancy is not from the others. Also, a shared post appears both on News resolved, a third coder was employed to examine the relevant feed and one’s profile page. It might suggest “Share” post posts and made the final decision. All the data were reviewed making some sort of one’s presentation. “Share” could be by two coders for reliability and validity. regarded as cognitive behavior (Kim & Yang, 2017). It is the moderate level of engagement. Discussion of Findings “H2: There is a significant difference in the moderate level of Among the 20 NGOs cover in this study, 10 belongs to envi- stakeholder engagement (Shares) among four types of ronmental issues and animal welfare, 7 in human service, organizational message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). and 3 fall into the category of health. The number of posts in the October 2019 ranges from 1 to 89. The average number Replying to Facebook messages by making comments of post updated daily is 0.71. During the period set for date requires considerable cognitive effort, one creates or write a collection, the sampled post by these NGOs received 156,259 feedback indicates certain level of participation. It is the Likes, each post received an average of 352.73, ranging from highest level of engagement compare to Like or Share, espe- 30 to 111,438. cially when more than one comments were involved. Research question one examines the extent in which NGOs apply the FMPR on Facebook by frequency counts. “H3: There is a significant difference in the moderate level of stakeholder engagement (Comments) among four types of Results show the least used model in FMPR was TWA organizational message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). (N = 13 posts or 2.93%; Table 1). Majority of messages under 6 SAGE Open Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Organizational Message Strategies. Message strategy Number of post Percentage (%) Press Agentry (PA) 120 27.0 Public Information (PI) 284 64.1 Two-Way Asymmetry (TWA) 13 2.93 Two-Way Symmetry (TWS) 26 5.86 Total 443 100 Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of Like/Share/Comment. Model Like (M) Like (SD) Share (M) Share (SD) Comment (M) Comment (SD) PA 84.04 272.33 9.03 26.98 2.59 6.66 PI 120.43 266.89 84.71 831.94 109.42 1330.85 TWA 100.77 150.91 18.46 22.33 4.62 7.72 TWS 410.44 715.59 64.27 168.89 58.00 131.22 this model are with the purpose of event promotions, and Similar results were observed for the moderate level of stakeholder persuasion through raising awareness, asking engagement (Share) on messages regardless of which model them to offer help or to get involved in the organizations by is used (F = 0.378, p = .769). The p-value is not <.05, the null taking immediate actions. PI was found to be the predomi- hypothesis cannot be rejected. Difference in the number of nating model (N = 284 posts or 64.1%), followed by PA Comments (F = 0.303, p = .824) was insignificant. Thus, H2 (N = 120 posts or 27.0%). NGOs mainly used PI model mes- and H3 were not supported. sages for updates and making announcements, and some- The content analysis result parallels with the previous times also for sharing reports or information published by studies (Cho et al., 2014; Waters & Jamal, 2011; Waters & other organizations, whereas PA model was used for expres- Williams, 2011; Wut & Yu, 2016), which suggest PI model to sion of organizational emotions. The TWS model (N = 26 or be the most popular among NGOs, followed by PA, TWS, 5.86%) messages usually appeared when cultivating dialogs, and TWA, which means most NGOs used Facebook to pro- giving recognitions and expressing gratitude to donors, sup- mote activities and spread information. However, NGOs in porters, and/ or volunteers. Sometimes, hashtag function Hong Kong seemingly engaged less with stakeholders on presence in the posts for easy searching by stakeholders on Facebook than their counterparts in western countries. other posts under same topics. During the coding period, the average posts update rate is Research question two investigates the effect of organiza- 0.71, which means that most organization publish two posts tional communication strategies on the level of engagement on their pages every 3 days. In order to maintain close com- on Facebook pages. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) munication with stakeholders on social media, organizations test was adopted for hypotheses testing, which found differ- are supposed to provide frequent updates, while various ences between levels of stakeholder engagement in FMPR. studies pointed out that NGOs did not make full use of ANOVA test analysis reveals considerable variations in the Facebook for stakeholder engagement (Waters et al., 2011). amount of Like (lowest level of engagement) between modes According to multiple scholars, lack of resources is an endur- of FMPR (F = 8.091, p ≤ .001). Thus, H1 is supported. ing challenge for NGOs in using digital marketing (Briones ANOVA test was designed to compare several means. Post et al., 2011; Cho et al., 2014; Nordström, 2012; Pavlovic hoc tests were used comparing all combinations of pairs of et al., 2014; Wut & Yu, 2016) as some of the organizations’ groups. The test is performed well when the group size is followers might be attracted by other pages that are active not much different. There are four models. Post hoc tests and well-developed. were used for comparing all combinations of pairs of groups. The study shows major difference in the lowest level of From the Post hoc tests with multiple comparison, Model 4, engagement (Like) in all of the four models, but the differ- two-way symmetry model (TWS) has the greatest numbers ence is insignificant for in the highest level of engagement of Like which is significant more than the rest of the models. (Comment), which did not align to the findings of Cho et al. Among the models applied, PA (M = 84.04, SD = 272.334), (2014). Both studies found no significant divergence in the PI (M = 120.43, SD = 266.893), or TWA (M = 100.77, moderate level of engagement (Share) on all states of FMPR. SD = 150.905), stakeholders of the researched NGOs were Findings show that stakeholders were more willing to give more willing to Like Facebook messages that fell into the Likes on TWS messages. Sometimes, NGOs use name tags category of TWS (M = 410.04, SD = 715.586; Table 2). to give recognition to supporters, fostering dialog, and Wut et al. 7 address specific stakeholders. Even though PI used more fre- Based on the Excellence Study with emphasis on media- quently by NGOs, stakeholders were not commonly engaged tion and orientation of conflicts; and establishing two-way by this type of messages. communication to better describe the realities of PR practice, Murphy (1991) applied the game theory to incorporate both asymmetrical and symmetrical models into a multi-way Practical Implications communication model. The mixed-motive model acknowl- Some non-governmental organizations might not have edges the importance of the organization interests while enough budget for full fledge marketing programs. It is a including a scale between TWA and TWS (Plowman, 1998). trend that they tend to promote their campaigns through In this new model of symmetry, organizations and clients social media platforms more than before. It was found that retain stronger sense of each other’s interests, yet both par- those organizations were more likely to adopt Public ties are motivated to compromise in a limited extent in Information (PI) model to transmit information to their resolving conflicts (Dozier et al., 2013). stakeholders, in a style of similar to Web 1.0 (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008). The direction of communication flow Limitations and Future Research is one way, that is, toward the stakeholders. NGOs are the chief content providers and stakeholders simply acting as Facebook provide service that one could “buy” Likes from users of content. Also, it was found that they seldom engage target audiences for sponsor posts (Kim & Yang, 2017). Our actively with their followers or fans through constant update findings might not show the true behavior of respondents. It their page, which might affect their subsequent communica- might be helpful for us to study stakeholder engagement tion effects. using emoji, in which various small images, used to express Online social networks are communities where people the emotional attitude of the people without using text. Emoji can share text, emojis, images, videos, and hyperlinks. is a non-text pictorial language used by more than 90% of Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was social media users (Marengo et al., 2017), which is espe- invented as private network for college students and later cially commonly used in mobile instant messaging to repre- was expanded to include high school students. Stakeholders sent different emotions. Regarding its widespread usage, the can use the instant messaging function to carry out real-time effect of emoticons is worth for further research. discussions enabled by a video tool. Since the age of Web The number and categories of Non-governmental orga- 2.0, many tools are available to facilitate the potential for nizations could be increased to raise the representativeness content creation (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008), thus of the samples. One month’s data might not be enough to NGOs should investigate how to make better use of these reflect the whole picture. Several years and cross-countries social media platforms. data could also be considered. The number of followers on Incentives, membership, and past habit could affect a NGO’s Facebook page could affect the effectiveness of online participation (Khansa et al., 2015). Thus, some goal stakeholders engagement as well. It would be a control settings for online users including labels and rewards should variable. be used to enhance their participation. Changing the content Other message structure in terms of formality and imme- on the social networking sites regularly and giving feedback diacy might affect stakeholder involvement. to queries raised within a short time is necessary (Butler & Wang, 2012). It certainly increases the online traffic and Conclusion user satisfaction. This study explored the Facebook usage of NGOs by analys- ing their social media adoption modes for stakeholder Theoretical Implications engagement. Confirming the results of previous studies, Apart from one-way and two-way communications in the NGOs have the tendency to engage stakeholders with the “Four Models of Public Relations (FMPR),” multi-way com- one-way Public Information communication model. TWA munications are needed to add to Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) and TWS communication models are not yet common prac- framework in light of the digital era. Organizations cannot tices even NGOs consider social networking sites ideal plat- rely solely on Public Information model for spreading mes- forms to engage people with organizational messages. sages, communications among stakeholders are also impor- For NGOs to make better use of the FMPR message strat- tant. Digital word-of-mouth generated on social media egies on Facebook, we suggest, firstly, at the earlier stage of platforms is influential, because people tend to consider rec- founding a Facebook page, PA and PI strategies may draw ommendations from their peers more than promotions from the stakeholders to become followers. Several studies organizations. Thus the fifth model is named as multi-way (Bonsón Ponte et al., 2015; Cho et al., 2014; Lovejoy & (MW) model in multi-way communication mode, making Saxton, 2012; Warren et al., 2014; Wut & Yu, 2016) believed use of communication among stakeholders. information sharing “could be seen as a core activity to 8 SAGE Open attract” social media users (Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012, p. 21). Cho, M., Schweickart, T., & Haase, A. (2014). Public engagement with nonprofit organizations on Facebook. Public Relations Secondly, TWA is recommended for engaging people in hav- Review, 40(3), 565–567. ing further involvement. 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Communicating global inequalities: How action on Sina-Weibo: How Chinese philanthropic NGOs use LGBTI asylum-specific NGOs use social media as public rela- social media. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and tions. Public Relations Review, 42(2), 322–332. Nonprofit Organizations, 27(5), 2433–2457. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SAGE Open SAGE

Share, Comment, and Like on Facebook and Message Strategies of Non-Governmental organizations:

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Abstract

The scope of this study is to examine the relationship between message strategies and stakeholders’ responses on Facebook. Data on 20 non-governmental organizations’ Facebook pages was collected by simple random sampling to examine their communication practices on social media. It was found that those organizations were more likely to adopt Public Information (PI) model to transmit information to their stakeholders. Organizational messages based on Two-way symmetry model (TWS) can generate the greatest number of Likes which is significantly larger than Press Agentry (PA), Public Information (PI), and Two-way asymmetry (TWA) models. The multi-way (MW) model was proposed in order to extend Grung & Hunt’s framework in the digital era. Keywords message strategies, multi-way model, non-governmental organization, social media, stakeholders’ responses (PR) discipline, it explained the worth of PR to organizations, Introduction identified a series of guiding principles that served as a bench- According to the Two-Way Symmetric model (TWS) in dia- mark for education and measuring the efficacy of PR (Grunig logic communication theory suggested by Kent and Taylor & Grunig, 2002). In finding ways of solving disputes, negotia- (1998), dialog is the output generated during the process of tion method could be used (Schelling, 1980). The symmetrical communication, which involves sharing of thoughts and nature of excellent PR should be more than conventional strat- viewpoints characterized by intersubjectivity. Relationship egies in communication theory, which stressed on persuasion, building is a foundation for public relationships, and social advocacy and message strategies design; whereas more atten- media as a dialogic medium and “convivial tool” brings tion should be paid on relationship management through dia- about the creation, adaptation, and change of organization- logic conversations, managing conflicts, listening, and public relationships. Kent and Taylor (1998) suggested orga- corporate social responsibility (Grunig & Grunig, 2002). PR nizations to establish dynamic and long-lasting online public communication is not only used for addressing the concerns of relationship, such as to start and maintain conversations by external stakeholders; but also being used to manage the rela- encouraging feedbacks and providing professional and tionship with internal stakeholders. A study conducted by timely responses; and providing useful content that can Duthler and Dhanesh (2018) in the UAE found that the two- address public interests, values and concerns. Social media way asymmetrical communication model adversely predicts adopts dialogical communication technology to connect peo- employee perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility ple, which may stimulate the democracy of information (CSR), whereas the Two-Way Symmetric communication reception and participation among family and friends (Kent, strongly predicted employee engagement. 2013). Social media platforms provides useful channels for marketing and customer account management (Alalwan et al., 2017). Apart from marketing and advertising, Public The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Relations (PR) professionals can also use social networking Corresponding Author: services for a tool to benefit the society through problem Tai Ming Wut, School of Professional Education and Executive solving and crowdsourcing (Kent, 2013). Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 9 Hoi Ting Road, The 15-year Excellent Study set in the US, Canada, and the Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong. UK, is the most large scale study in the public relationship Email: Edmund.wut@cpce-polyu.edu.hk Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open Besides, social media is commonly applied by non-gov- maintain a Facebook group (44%), use Facebook Live ernmental organizations (NGOs) in branding, community (43%), and some even use Messenger bots (36%), and engagement and education. Some NGOs design social media Facebook Charitable Giving Tools (29%; Nonprofit Tech for graphic for free download, for example, Facebook profile Good, 2019). picture frame, a typical example is “Love has no labels” China is an exceptional case under the PRC government’s launched in 2015, which is a campaign promoting the equal- internet censorship; WeChat and Sina-Weibo are the most ity of everyone (Ad Council, 2020). Some organizations col- popular social networking sites among Chinese. Ruellea and laborate with cartoonists to create emoticon stickers pack Peverelli (2017) carried out a case study of an NGO in China, that contains educational messages or local slangs, examples which explored theirconstruction of social identity in ongo- including World Wild Fund (2020) in Hong Kong. ing instant messaging discussions. Online activities on Facebook is the most powerful social media site glob- WeChat over several months were analyzed, it proved the ally, which had over 2.60 billion accounts as of year 2020 functions of social media as a discursive space for a charita- (Statista, 2020). Previous studies focused on the function ble organizations in China. These functions include drawing of social media in promoting products and services (Kapoor attention on recurrent issues, encouraging members to par- et al., 2018), some past literature suggested public rela- ticipate in conversation, and growing trust, so as to establish tions practitioners to utilize the potential of dialogic com- and strengthen their sense of belongings. With the presences munication on Facebook for maintaining close relationship of loyal followers who are “broadcasters” or “supervisors,” with stakeholders (Bonsón Ponte et al., 2015; Ihm, 2015; social media may facilitate development of non-profit orga- Kapoor et al., 2018; Warren et al., 2014; Waters et al., nizations (Ruellea & Peverelli, 2017). 2009; Wut and Yu, 2016). Charitable organizations and Zhou and Pan (2016) observed 155 educational NGOs in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) usually concern rural areas of China for 6 months on Sina-Weibo, they found about their public relations budget; they try to keep their that regardless cyber censorship and the relationship with the costs reasonable and social media could be one of the Chinese government, NGOs were still active on Weibo. cheapest ways to reach wide range of target audiences Similar to NGOs in other parts of the world, they spread (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). information, form communities, and mobilize resources on Only a few studies, such as Cho et al. (2014) and social media. As Chinese NGOs commonly faced legitimacy Nordström (2012), discussed communication strategies used problems under national policies, aside from attracting fol- by NGOs on Facebook under Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) lowers, they also use social media to broadcast organiza- “four models of public relations” framework. There is a few tional legitimacy. Besides, these organizations also massively of research in social media messaging strategies applied by employ internet slangs and emoticons to achieve sense of NGOs. Thus, this study seeks to examine various types of intimacy with younger generations; with the purpose of Facebook messaging strategies used by NGOs and the related drawing attention on Weibo, many publish posts on popular effects on the level of stakeholder’s engagement. topics not necessarily related to their area of service (Zhou & Pan, 2016). Background Literature Review According to the recent Global NGO Technology Report, among the 5,721 NGOs in 160 countries surveyed, 90% use NGOs need to consistently interact with target audience so social media for regular engagement with donors and follow- as to maintain strong connections with the society, even ers, and 44% of NGOs have a digital marketing strategy though virtual communication cannot replace physical inter- (Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2019). About 47% perceived action, the comment, like, and share functions of social is social media very effective communication and fundraising more far reaching when comparing with traditional prac- tools for them and 37% thought it is somewhat effective. tices of face-to-face communication. Larger scale NGOs Respondents perceived social media an effective useful can afford to set up websites for information sharing, but for online tool to promote brand awareness (94%); recruit smaller organizations may need to rely on social media as attendees for events (80%); advocate social changes (78%); the entry requirement is much lower, like setting up a recruit volunteers and inspiring people in taking political Fanpage and account for free, making announcements and action (75%); and participate in online fundraising (72%). reaching out for with possible future donors, alliance orga- Facebook is considered the most popular platform used by nizations, and community members. Thus, they may have to NGOs (84%), followed by Twitter (46%), LinkedIn (28%), spend certain budget to buy advertisement from the service WhatsApp (28%), and YouTube (26%; Nonprofit Tech for providers in order to boost the viewing rate (Armstrong & Good, 2019). According to the same survey, majority of Butcher, 2018). NGOs (97%) own a Facebook Fanpage, around half of them There has been more research regarding NGO social share Facebook Stories (54%), buy Facebook Ads (47%), media usage in developed regions such as America and Wut et al. 3 Europe, mostly case studies on thematic topics. NGOs social Public Relations and Social media media usage in developing regions are less likely to have a Nowadays everyone on social media is able to spread infor- broad impact due to technical problems, such as low Internet mation, yet Verhoeven et al. (2012) found that not many penetration rate. Armstrong and Butcher (2018) analysis European NGOs performed the role of gatekeepers. It is sug- twitter content of 151 Nigerian NGOs, and found out that gested for organizations to monitor their regular activities NGOs mostly perform single-way communication on social using key performance indicators. Besides communication media, those posts are informative yet with low interactivity, modes and content, advertising affects the content over social and become less effective in furthering relationships between media, Dhanesh and Duthler (2019) identified the relations the organizations and their recipients. Some people may be between ad recognition and awareness of paid endorsement, reluctant in using social media due to privacy concerns of in correlations with eWOM, purchase, and influencer-fol- digital footprint; while this may be less a concern for those lower relationship. who live in regions with vibrant democratic civil society. For A few reviews of related scholarly articles have been done those who live under oppressive regimes may even have in recent years. Verčič, Verčič et al. (2015) selected 155 arti- unique safety threats (Armstrong & Butcher,2018). cles over 35 years, and found that digital PR literature were Rodriguez (2016) investigates how LGBTI asylum-spe- lopsided to new media as tool, but generally neglected media cific NGOs used Facebook and Twitter for relationship stakeholders and public, besides, emerging topics of mobile building with general public. Among the three functions technology and privacy issue was not discussed. Later study investigated, the two LGBTI global NGOs based in the US by Huang et al. (2017) analyses 141 publications between utilized social media for disseminating news and facts on 2008 and 2014 to identify for paradigm shift brought the rise human rights and legislation in foreign countries, more of social media, it was discovered that there has not been a than for community building and actions of fundraising, research trend for social media in the field of PR (Alalwan recruitment of staff or volunteers, and advocate causes. et al., 2017; Huang et al., 2017; Khang et al., 2012). Moreover, they did not engaged in social media platforms Social media, from the perspective of PR executives, is an for videos photos in comparison to mainstream NGOs economical channel for carrying out marketing research and (Rodriguez, 2016). instant communications, organizations can use it for starting McPherson (2015) identified two models for NGO social conversations and learning about market needs, customer media journalism, namely the evidence model, which is profiles, strengthen and weaknesses of competitors, and their largely assessed under the time based process and expertise; employees (DiStaso et al., 2011; Dwivedi et al., 2021). Major and the engagement model, as evaluated by participation in challenges facing organizations include change management the process of information production and distribution. affecting employees, especially for older employees need to Carrasco-Polaino et al. (2018) investigated the type and adapt to the rapid technological changes, and the immediacy subject matters of photos posted on Instagram during 2017, of the medium that required timely online service and crisis by the 20 NGOs that work on “artivism” at international management (Khang et al., 2012). Augmented reality, virtual level, to identify their choices of formal elements in the use reality and artificial intelligence are typical examples of new of children images. They found that typical NGO post is an technologies (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Moreover, there are image of an aid recipient, usually in a child alone or female, risks of intellectual property leakages, criticism of the com- facing the camera in a middle to close up shot, posing a posi- pany or its management, fake news, user misbehavior, and tive feeling gesture, which suggests the benefits of donating brand damage caused by embarrassing employee behaviors to that NGO. Although such prototypical images are often (DiStaso et al., 2011; Dwivedi et al., 2021). Although face- used by NGOs, but the type of image generating greater to-face interactions have higher levels of social presence, engagement were those containmiddle-aged NGO co-opera- virtual communicators like in social media can achieve cer- tors or volunteer who shows a smiling gesture (Carrasco- tain level of intimate exchanges, and reinforce relationships Polaino et al., 2018). through personalization of content (Kent & Li, 2020). There are a few related studies on crisis management of NGOs. del Mar Gálvez-Rodríguez et al. (2019) used the situ- ational crisis communication theory to perform an analysis Four Models of Public Relations of online activity by NGOs during the Syrian refugee crisis. The Four Models of Public Relations (FMPR) covers one- As the public more often criticize the public sector than pri- way and two-way communication (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). vate sector when it comes to immigration issues, NGOs were Public relations serve a promoting function in the first much more proactive than governments in terms of crisis model: Press Agentry (PA), which involves in spreading communication. During humanitarian crises, NGOs should preferred information by an organization. In Public emphasize that the beneficiaries in the local communities are Information (PI), the aim of PR is to report objective infor- active contributors in recovery and rebuilding, social media mation to stakeholders. For the Two-Way Asymmetric provide a channel for such engagement (del Mar Gálvez- (TWA) model, practitioners use researches and supporting Rodríguez et al., 2019). 4 SAGE Open figures to persuade stakeholders to accept the organization’s distribution of resources between stakeholders and corpora- opinion, as a result, gaining people’s support. In the Two- tions, the unequal position provide chances for corporations Way Symmetric (TWS) model, public relations people serve to promote their own interests in power relations, therefore as a middle man among organizations and stakeholders. the seemingly symmetrical interactions are inherently asym- Their purpose is to foster understanding among the organi- metrical (Stauber & Rampton, 1995). Cancel et al. (1997, zations and the public. Regarding the nature of communica- 1999) used “accommodation” in replacement of the sym- tion, for PA and PI models, they are always single way from metrical model, which refers to building trust with external the organization to the public. In the two-way asymmetric publics through “dialog, compromise, collaboration, and model, practitioners plan what they want to communicate to cooperation.” However, Grunig and Dozier (2003) argued stakeholders for the purpose of achieving a change in atti- that the notion of symmetry already underlines certain bal- tude and behavior if possible. Communication from stake- ance between organization and public. holders is regarded as feedback only. Basically, TWA is still one-sided. A true dual communication model is the TWS. It Geographical Contextualization consists of dialogs between the organizations and stakehold- ers. Stakeholders are likely to change organizational attitude Methods for measuring and evaluating in PR and CSR prac- and behavior whereas, at the same time, organization per- tices vary across geographical locations. Examples for PR suades people to change their attitude and behavior (Grunig frameworks such as GCS in the UK, DPRG/ICV from & Hunt, 1984). Germany, and some more internationally recognized model Grunig and Hunt (1984) put forward the FMPR by com- such as Barcelona Principles and AMEC Integrated bining several previous models with long history: PA from Evaluation Framework (Buhmann et al., 2019). In Western 1850, PI from 1900, TWA in 1920s, and TWS in 1960s. countries, CSR is usually managed by PR practitioners. Organizations that adopt PA equate PR with publicity or pro- While in India, it is business executives and managers who motions, it is associated with propaganda, which is more lead CSR (Dhanesh, 2012). Multinational companies have to commonly adopted in the business sector by companies deal with PR in daily operation, likewise global NGOs also which have departments specialized in advertising. PI is require communication officers to equip with sensitivity to more frequently applied in government agencies, NGOs and multiple cultures and the ability to change while preserving educational sector for dissemination of information, core identity of organizations (Verčič, Zerfass, et al., 2015). expressed in active press-relations programs to spread news In cross-cultural settings, even with English as the lingua through media to the public. TWA is usually adopted by franca, PR practitioners still have to balance between culti- firms selling consumer products that are facing keen compe- vate and nurture of mission and visions, and appreciate the tition, this model stresses on positive reasons for taking the diverse socio-economic, linguistic and political realities suggested actions using scientific persuasion. TWS are used across continents (Verčič, Zerfass, et al., 2015). by organizations that emphasize social responsibility, they organize dialog sessions to develop mutual understanding Hypotheses Development with recipients (Grunig & Grunig, 1992). Although there are tendencies for different types of organizations to adopt cer- Engagement in social media is measured by users’ behavior. tain models, they need to consider the applicability of each Popularity can be measured by metrics, stakeholders’ com- model case by case, according to the kinds of problems that mitments and virality for engagements on Facebook (Bonsón they are facing or the nature of public relations activities Ponte & Ratkai, 2013). Popularity is gauged by reactions on being carried out (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). posts, commitment refers to number of comments, and viral- ity refers to the number of shares. This model assumed that the importance of Like, Share and Comment to be the same. Criticism on the PR Models In reality, the numbers of Likes, Shares, and Comments by Criticism received by the above mentioned models sur- fans when responding to feeds require different levels of rounded the dichotomous of symmetry/asymmetry and one- efforts. Therefore, Cho et al. (2014) proposed the different way/two-way communication dimension. Laskin (2009) levels of engagement was measured independently for the considered FMPR theory more an academic concept and three Facebook engagement features of Like, Share, and utopian normative ideal than a reflection of reality in PR, by Comment, such that the uniqueness of each these functions claiming TWS to be the most effective mode of communica- can be captured . tion, the labeling of inferior models arouse resentment of PR FMPR were also used for analysing organizational mes- practitioners (Laskin, 2009). Besides, some critical and sages on Twitter (Waters & Jamal, 2011; Waters & post-modern theorists did not recognize TWS a final solu- Williams, 2011), and non-profit organization messages on tion for creating truly equal participation and bringing ben- Facebook (Cho et al., 2014; Nordström, 2012). The above efit to all involved parties (Laskin, 2009). Due to the uneven studies showed NGOs tend to adopt public information Wut et al. 5 model, and social media is generally used for communicat- Research Method ing unilateral messages, while the provided interactive and Sampling Process dialogic functions have not been utilized fully (Waters & Jamal, 2011). The list of “Directory of Non-governmental Organizations” Social media usage is continuously evolving, it started as in Hong Kong was used as a sample frame (Hong Kong Non- a private or social platform rather than for business supple- Governmental Organisation, 2021). There are 434 non-gov- menting their traditional marketing tactics. But nowadays, ernmental organizations. A simple random sampling method social media marketing becomes the dominant marketing was used in the selection 20 NGOs which operate their offi- strategy. It has been found that message structure in term of cial Facebook Fanpages targeting local audience. According interactivity and formality could affect customer behavior to Wut and Yu (2016), Non-governmental Organizations can (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Thus, it is a good timing to investigate be classified into three categories, namely environment and NGO Facebook usage and examine the impact of different animal welfare, healthcare, and service for people. Within message strategies on stakeholder engagement as today. Two the 30 days from 1 October to 31 October 2019, 443 posts research questions are detailed as follows: have been uploaded on Facebook by these 20 NGOs. The data collected were organized in a spreadsheet with coding; Research Question 1: To what extent the FMPR is appli- the coded messages were later analyzed by statistical soft- cable to Hong Kong NGOs’ Facebook usage? ware, SPSS version 25 in January 2020. The sampling size is Research Question 2: “How do message strategies affect determined by point of saturation. Researcher tried to collect levels of stakeholder engagement on these NGOs’ more samples beyond the said period but the result is basi- Facebook pages? (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900)” cally the same. It is anticipated that when TWS model was used by NGOs, Coding Procedure there could be more stakeholder engagement than when PA was used. “Like” is an affectively driven by sensory and For the content analysis of organizational message strategies, visual features (Kim & Yang, 2017), which requires the min- this study used the concept coding method. A concept is a imum amount of effort, in comparison to typing text or emot- word that suggests a meaning or an idea. In cases of mes- icons in comments, and therefore being the most used button sages involving multiple strategies, only primary strategy is on Facebook for expressing positive attitudes such as agree- being counted. Three levels of stakeholder engagement in ment to the posted content. terms of Likes, Shares, and Comments, of posts uploaded by the 20 NGOs were coded. Furthermore, followers for each of “H1: There is a significant difference in the lowest level of the organization’s page, as well as the quantity of postings stakeholder engagement (Likes) among four types of organizat- found in data collection period were recorded. Two indepen- ional message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). dent coders carried out the coding process. The results obtained there from were compared. In case of any discrep- Among the three types of reactions mentioned, “Share” ancy, discussion between them was allowed before they requires moderate level of effort, and it also expects responses came to a final conclusion. In case that the discrepancy is not from the others. Also, a shared post appears both on News resolved, a third coder was employed to examine the relevant feed and one’s profile page. It might suggest “Share” post posts and made the final decision. All the data were reviewed making some sort of one’s presentation. “Share” could be by two coders for reliability and validity. regarded as cognitive behavior (Kim & Yang, 2017). It is the moderate level of engagement. Discussion of Findings “H2: There is a significant difference in the moderate level of Among the 20 NGOs cover in this study, 10 belongs to envi- stakeholder engagement (Shares) among four types of ronmental issues and animal welfare, 7 in human service, organizational message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). and 3 fall into the category of health. The number of posts in the October 2019 ranges from 1 to 89. The average number Replying to Facebook messages by making comments of post updated daily is 0.71. During the period set for date requires considerable cognitive effort, one creates or write a collection, the sampled post by these NGOs received 156,259 feedback indicates certain level of participation. It is the Likes, each post received an average of 352.73, ranging from highest level of engagement compare to Like or Share, espe- 30 to 111,438. cially when more than one comments were involved. Research question one examines the extent in which NGOs apply the FMPR on Facebook by frequency counts. “H3: There is a significant difference in the moderate level of stakeholder engagement (Comments) among four types of Results show the least used model in FMPR was TWA organizational message strategies” (Wut & Yu, 2016, p. 900). (N = 13 posts or 2.93%; Table 1). Majority of messages under 6 SAGE Open Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of Organizational Message Strategies. Message strategy Number of post Percentage (%) Press Agentry (PA) 120 27.0 Public Information (PI) 284 64.1 Two-Way Asymmetry (TWA) 13 2.93 Two-Way Symmetry (TWS) 26 5.86 Total 443 100 Table 2. Descriptive Statistics of Like/Share/Comment. Model Like (M) Like (SD) Share (M) Share (SD) Comment (M) Comment (SD) PA 84.04 272.33 9.03 26.98 2.59 6.66 PI 120.43 266.89 84.71 831.94 109.42 1330.85 TWA 100.77 150.91 18.46 22.33 4.62 7.72 TWS 410.44 715.59 64.27 168.89 58.00 131.22 this model are with the purpose of event promotions, and Similar results were observed for the moderate level of stakeholder persuasion through raising awareness, asking engagement (Share) on messages regardless of which model them to offer help or to get involved in the organizations by is used (F = 0.378, p = .769). The p-value is not <.05, the null taking immediate actions. PI was found to be the predomi- hypothesis cannot be rejected. Difference in the number of nating model (N = 284 posts or 64.1%), followed by PA Comments (F = 0.303, p = .824) was insignificant. Thus, H2 (N = 120 posts or 27.0%). NGOs mainly used PI model mes- and H3 were not supported. sages for updates and making announcements, and some- The content analysis result parallels with the previous times also for sharing reports or information published by studies (Cho et al., 2014; Waters & Jamal, 2011; Waters & other organizations, whereas PA model was used for expres- Williams, 2011; Wut & Yu, 2016), which suggest PI model to sion of organizational emotions. The TWS model (N = 26 or be the most popular among NGOs, followed by PA, TWS, 5.86%) messages usually appeared when cultivating dialogs, and TWA, which means most NGOs used Facebook to pro- giving recognitions and expressing gratitude to donors, sup- mote activities and spread information. However, NGOs in porters, and/ or volunteers. Sometimes, hashtag function Hong Kong seemingly engaged less with stakeholders on presence in the posts for easy searching by stakeholders on Facebook than their counterparts in western countries. other posts under same topics. During the coding period, the average posts update rate is Research question two investigates the effect of organiza- 0.71, which means that most organization publish two posts tional communication strategies on the level of engagement on their pages every 3 days. In order to maintain close com- on Facebook pages. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) munication with stakeholders on social media, organizations test was adopted for hypotheses testing, which found differ- are supposed to provide frequent updates, while various ences between levels of stakeholder engagement in FMPR. studies pointed out that NGOs did not make full use of ANOVA test analysis reveals considerable variations in the Facebook for stakeholder engagement (Waters et al., 2011). amount of Like (lowest level of engagement) between modes According to multiple scholars, lack of resources is an endur- of FMPR (F = 8.091, p ≤ .001). Thus, H1 is supported. ing challenge for NGOs in using digital marketing (Briones ANOVA test was designed to compare several means. Post et al., 2011; Cho et al., 2014; Nordström, 2012; Pavlovic hoc tests were used comparing all combinations of pairs of et al., 2014; Wut & Yu, 2016) as some of the organizations’ groups. The test is performed well when the group size is followers might be attracted by other pages that are active not much different. There are four models. Post hoc tests and well-developed. were used for comparing all combinations of pairs of groups. The study shows major difference in the lowest level of From the Post hoc tests with multiple comparison, Model 4, engagement (Like) in all of the four models, but the differ- two-way symmetry model (TWS) has the greatest numbers ence is insignificant for in the highest level of engagement of Like which is significant more than the rest of the models. (Comment), which did not align to the findings of Cho et al. Among the models applied, PA (M = 84.04, SD = 272.334), (2014). Both studies found no significant divergence in the PI (M = 120.43, SD = 266.893), or TWA (M = 100.77, moderate level of engagement (Share) on all states of FMPR. SD = 150.905), stakeholders of the researched NGOs were Findings show that stakeholders were more willing to give more willing to Like Facebook messages that fell into the Likes on TWS messages. Sometimes, NGOs use name tags category of TWS (M = 410.04, SD = 715.586; Table 2). to give recognition to supporters, fostering dialog, and Wut et al. 7 address specific stakeholders. Even though PI used more fre- Based on the Excellence Study with emphasis on media- quently by NGOs, stakeholders were not commonly engaged tion and orientation of conflicts; and establishing two-way by this type of messages. communication to better describe the realities of PR practice, Murphy (1991) applied the game theory to incorporate both asymmetrical and symmetrical models into a multi-way Practical Implications communication model. The mixed-motive model acknowl- Some non-governmental organizations might not have edges the importance of the organization interests while enough budget for full fledge marketing programs. It is a including a scale between TWA and TWS (Plowman, 1998). trend that they tend to promote their campaigns through In this new model of symmetry, organizations and clients social media platforms more than before. It was found that retain stronger sense of each other’s interests, yet both par- those organizations were more likely to adopt Public ties are motivated to compromise in a limited extent in Information (PI) model to transmit information to their resolving conflicts (Dozier et al., 2013). stakeholders, in a style of similar to Web 1.0 (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008). The direction of communication flow Limitations and Future Research is one way, that is, toward the stakeholders. NGOs are the chief content providers and stakeholders simply acting as Facebook provide service that one could “buy” Likes from users of content. Also, it was found that they seldom engage target audiences for sponsor posts (Kim & Yang, 2017). Our actively with their followers or fans through constant update findings might not show the true behavior of respondents. It their page, which might affect their subsequent communica- might be helpful for us to study stakeholder engagement tion effects. using emoji, in which various small images, used to express Online social networks are communities where people the emotional attitude of the people without using text. Emoji can share text, emojis, images, videos, and hyperlinks. is a non-text pictorial language used by more than 90% of Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was social media users (Marengo et al., 2017), which is espe- invented as private network for college students and later cially commonly used in mobile instant messaging to repre- was expanded to include high school students. Stakeholders sent different emotions. Regarding its widespread usage, the can use the instant messaging function to carry out real-time effect of emoticons is worth for further research. discussions enabled by a video tool. Since the age of Web The number and categories of Non-governmental orga- 2.0, many tools are available to facilitate the potential for nizations could be increased to raise the representativeness content creation (Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008), thus of the samples. One month’s data might not be enough to NGOs should investigate how to make better use of these reflect the whole picture. Several years and cross-countries social media platforms. data could also be considered. The number of followers on Incentives, membership, and past habit could affect a NGO’s Facebook page could affect the effectiveness of online participation (Khansa et al., 2015). Thus, some goal stakeholders engagement as well. It would be a control settings for online users including labels and rewards should variable. be used to enhance their participation. Changing the content Other message structure in terms of formality and imme- on the social networking sites regularly and giving feedback diacy might affect stakeholder involvement. to queries raised within a short time is necessary (Butler & Wang, 2012). It certainly increases the online traffic and Conclusion user satisfaction. This study explored the Facebook usage of NGOs by analys- ing their social media adoption modes for stakeholder Theoretical Implications engagement. Confirming the results of previous studies, Apart from one-way and two-way communications in the NGOs have the tendency to engage stakeholders with the “Four Models of Public Relations (FMPR),” multi-way com- one-way Public Information communication model. TWA munications are needed to add to Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) and TWS communication models are not yet common prac- framework in light of the digital era. Organizations cannot tices even NGOs consider social networking sites ideal plat- rely solely on Public Information model for spreading mes- forms to engage people with organizational messages. sages, communications among stakeholders are also impor- For NGOs to make better use of the FMPR message strat- tant. Digital word-of-mouth generated on social media egies on Facebook, we suggest, firstly, at the earlier stage of platforms is influential, because people tend to consider rec- founding a Facebook page, PA and PI strategies may draw ommendations from their peers more than promotions from the stakeholders to become followers. Several studies organizations. Thus the fifth model is named as multi-way (Bonsón Ponte et al., 2015; Cho et al., 2014; Lovejoy & (MW) model in multi-way communication mode, making Saxton, 2012; Warren et al., 2014; Wut & Yu, 2016) believed use of communication among stakeholders. information sharing “could be seen as a core activity to 8 SAGE Open attract” social media users (Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012, p. 21). Cho, M., Schweickart, T., & Haase, A. (2014). Public engagement with nonprofit organizations on Facebook. Public Relations Secondly, TWA is recommended for engaging people in hav- Review, 40(3), 565–567. ing further involvement. 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Journal

SAGE OpenSAGE

Published: Mar 8, 2022

Keywords: message strategies; multi-way model; non-governmental organization; social media; stakeholders’ responses

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