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140 Characters for Better Health: An Exploration of the Twitter Engagement of Leading Nonprofit Organizations

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Social Media and Strategie Communications

Abstract

The nonprofit sector is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. economy. Making up roughly 10% of the overall economy, it employs 13 million people and generates annual revenues of $300 billion (Kanter & Fine, 2010). Nonprofit organizations play an important role in nearly every aspect of American society, especially in the health sector which, until recently, there was a lack of universal access to healthcare (Forbes, 2011). Due to their great impact on public life, it is essential for nonprofits to communicate effectively with their public and develop new media strategies for their public relations practice. The emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter allows nonprofits to directly engage with their audiences and build communities around their causes (Kanter & Fine, 2010).

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Authors
  1. Marcus Messner
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  2. Yan Jin
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  3. Vivian Medina-Messner
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  4. Shana Meganck
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  5. Scott C. Quarforth
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  6. Sally K. Norton
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA

    Hana S. Noor Al-Deen

  2. Stephen F. Austin State University, USA

    John Allen Hendricks

Copyright information

© 2013 Marcus Messner, Yan Jin, Vivian Medina-Messner, Shana Meganck, Scott C. Quarforth and Sally K. Norton

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Messner, M., Jin, Y., Medina-Messner, V., Meganck, S., Quarforth, S.C., Norton, S.K. (2013). 140 Characters for Better Health: An Exploration of the Twitter Engagement of Leading Nonprofit Organizations. In: Al-Deen, H.S.N., Hendricks, J.A. (eds) Social Media and Strategie Communications. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137287052_7

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