Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/312795 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations [ISSN:] 1573-7888 [Volume:] 34 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 540-551
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
This paper explores Twitter adoption and social media engagement of private German environmental foundations. The study follows Lovejoy and Saxton's (2012) approach to the hierarchy of social media engagement. It demonstrates the domination of an information provision role on Twitter and the almost equal relevance of action mobilizations and community building posts. At the same time, the study supplements the existing typology with the additional dimension of communication partners addressed in each type of tweet. Finally, using data from interviews, the study interprets and explains the role of social media tweets and patterns of engagement with different groups. In-depth analysis of tweets and interviews with the foundation representatives confirmed a limited use of social media as a means for dialogue and community development. Simultaneously, analysis shows that tweets posted by foundations predominantly address a professional community of other civil society actors, experts and politicians, creating an online expert bubble . Interviews confirmed that such online connections mirror offline cooperation networks that are perceived to be more important for successful communication and project development by the investigated organizations.
Subjects: 
Twitter
Environmental foundations
Germany
Social media
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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