Additional comments

At the end of the survey, respondents were invited to share any additional thoughts they had about the use of social media within their organisation. The themes identified in this open-ended question were analysed and were identified as technical (ease of use and usability), communication (usefulness), ethics and appropriate use (guidelines) and time and resources (see Figure 5). Each of these themes will be illustrated by statements made by respondents and explored further below.

Thematic analysis of open response.

Some respondents indicated that they were trying to identify which platforms members used and preferred. They were exploring which platforms best served their needs as an organisation, including providing analytical tools so the organisation could understand more about the impact their social media efforts were having, for example:

Facebook’s changing algorithms for page accounts have dramatically reduced the reach of any posts by pages, so it’s now unlikely that we are effectively capitalising on our members’ strong preference for this platform (budgetary issues also contribute to this). I am watching with interest whether our members’ preferences of platform change in the future, or what future tweaks Facebook makes that might again change our ability to effectively harness the potential of different social media networks.

This next comment illustrates how tenuous social media can be as a tool when ease of use is a barrier: ‘Usability of social media also depends on how easy it is to access and use – if it takes too long to set or is problematic, then people are less likely to persevere and use’.

Some responses to the survey highlighted that one of the reasons national associations find social media useful is for communicating with members. The responses to the survey that reflected this include ‘It is the main tool of communication with our members at large’ and ‘We hope to develop further interaction on Social Media with our members’. One respondent highlighted the importance of social media in providing educational opportunities for members in regional areas: ‘We are trying to do better for our members that are outside the capital area and use webinars when we have meetings, courses, etc., whenever possible’.

The importance of guidelines for social media use by organisation members and by other users of these resources was identified. As one respondent said,

While we can impose stronger governance over how social media is being used by ourselves, we do have concerns about being vulnerable to occasional irresponsible public comments made. As such, it will be better if associations have resources to support corporate communications.

The issue of resources and time within small, mostly volunteer-driven, organisations was noted: ‘It needs work. And work takes time. In a small organisation you don’t always have that time’. Another respondent noted, ‘We have delegated some responsibilities to branch committees but need a coordinator – at the moment it is really a resource issue based on what we have identified as our priorities’.

Another respondent stated, ‘I think the most important obstacle in using social media is the time it requires, because of not good internet connection and distracting things like extra-professional mails, Facebook news and comments, etc.’.

Respondents were interested in doing more with social media, but this was only one priority amongst many that needed to be addressed by organisations who have limited resources of time and relevant expertise.