We have talked a lot about the social media in the presidential
campaign and non-governmental organizations. Since I have been focusing on the
governance and global civil society this semester, I'd like to look at the
social media in the transnational non-governmental organizations in this blog.
Social media can leverage grassroots NGO because it's more economic way than
traditional channels of marketing and advertising for them to promote their
brand and raise public awareness. For TNGOs and international networks or
advocacy, social media is more efficient way for them to promote their networks
worldwide.
I have
been looking at two international organizations, one is the Scholars at Risk
(SAR), an international network of universities and colleges which dedicated to
promote the academic freedom and defend the human rights of scholars and their
communities worldwide. SAR helps the threatened scholars to escape the
dangerous situation and to continue their research work in the hosted campuses.
While it has done a great job in protecting targeted scholars and defending
academic freedom and human rights offline through bridging the scholars and
academic institutions worldwide, it hasn’t made the most of social media to
better educate the public about its work, which is also one of its main
missions. SAR does have a Facebook page and Twitter account, but not very active
and not influential at all. And another organization I have been looking at is
SAR’s parent organization, the Amnesty International. Contrary to SAR’s lag
behind on the social media strategy, the Amnesty International has an excellent
social media technical group which is responsible for maintaining, updating and
responding on its social media tools daily, or even real-time. And it
absolutely has a big success in terms of its social media strategy. Both its
Facebook page and Twitter account has enough and real-time information, events,
campaigns for audiences to be informed, educated, and more importantly, get
involved.
And
getting more people involved is another magic that social media can play in
promoting the development of global civil society. There is just no reason for
TNGOs or any other global civil society players to not use these magic tools in
the age of social media.
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