Can We Chat . . . Privately? Using Twitter Chats to Facilitate Offline Engagement for Nonprofits

Abstract

This study examines a health-focused nonprofit organization’s Twitter chats, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis (SNA) to describe the characteristics of participants and their patterns of interaction. Together, these analyses indicate that Twitter chats do not produce the dialogue that seems inherent to the format. The chats are driven by a small group of users, feature minimal levels of participation from most users, and are heavy on retweets rather than original messages. Nevertheless, these chats can serve to identify committed users and thereby facilitate future offline relationship building rather than being the primary source of relationship building. Offline interactions hold the potential to result in dialogue consistent with theoretical models; however, these interactions may instead serve organizational purposes within an advocacy context. Suggestions that focus on exploring the value of social media for generating offline engagement and relationship building for further research are made.