The necessity for social media in the development of external communication skills: The International Federation of Settlements Neighbourhood Centers (IFS)

Abstract

In the year 2020, the coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19, resulted in a sudden and unforeseen disruption to many industries worldwide. Businesses and organizations were forced to rapidly reorganize, digitalize, and switch all their work systems and routines into virtual services. Governments announced social distancing measures to slow the spread of coronavirus pandemic. During the outbreak, social media the most active and fastest way of modern communication have played a significant role in how people communicate, remain connected and engaged in society. Research reported that Nearly half a billion new users have joined social media networks raising the total users’ number to nearly 4.2 billion at the beginning of 2021.

This research examines the necessity for social media in communication teams of the IFS Network member organizations. It explores how communication representatives use or integrate social media networks as an essential communication tool, mainly focusing on external communication. For this purpose, the author has explored and defined several communication concepts, existing research and information on communication, external communication, nonprofits communication and crisis management. As a support to the relevancy and validity of this research, the author has conducted different qualitative interviews and done observational visits to collect and analyze the gathered data.

The findings indicate that most of the IFS Networks member organizations, federations and individual organizations included have a presence on social media. Some are very active with good social media strategies; others are present, struggling with finding an engaged staff, time to concentrate on social media activities and an effective strategy. In contrast, one of the local organizations present in the research was not interested in integrating this communication tool in their activities. The reason is to stay away from the pros of using social media. The social media platform of choice for most of the participants is Facebook. Additionally, most communication teams representatives indicated that the sudden arrival of the health crisis impacted how they communicate with their members and adapting to the new normal was challenging.

All the IFS Network’s communication teams are recommended to analyze their use of social media networks and explore the necessity for developing and integrating social media networks as an effective and efficient communication tool. The members are encouraged to analysis their current online presence situation by using SOSTAC planning model, a simple and easy to use digital marketing planning guide used to plan digital marketing or overall marketing strategy or improving individual channel tactics. Communication teams are recommended to search and compare their use of social media with other similar organizations, create a simple social media strategy with elements such as research, content, promotion, and measurement. The use of a content calendar and crisis communication for social media is highly recommended as well.