Public Relations and Social Media in Non-Governmental Organizations: Case of the Turkish Red Crescent and LOSEV

With the emergence of the concept of globalization and the development of technology, rapidly changing media, have become an environment where institutions and organizations express themselves and announce their activities. The traditional media has been replaced by Web 2.0 technologies and social media. This media brings together a wide audience and offers an interactive environment for its users. Thanks to social media, institutions and organizations get the chance to reach new target audiences together with existing ones. This has brought great benefits to them in terms of time and cost and now, it is possible to say that they actively use social media as a medium in which they can carry out and conduct public relations activities. This provides institutions with great advantages in introducing themselves to the public. Non-governmental organizations started to use these media channels to reach their target audience with the appearance of web 2.0 technologies and the development of social media. Through social media, non-governmental organizations can offer their activities on a low budget without time and space constraints. This study examined how non-governmental organizations use two of popular social networks Instagram and Twitter for their public relations activities. In a study carried out by Third Sector Foundation of Turkey, the most well-known fifteen non-governmental organizations were determined and in this study, these organizations formed the universe of the research. The most familiar ones among these fifteen non-governmental organizations, The Turkish Red Crescent and LOSEV, were selected as the sample of the study and their Instagram and Twitter accounts were analyzed by using content analysis method. The importance of the research is that the institutions discussed in the study have not been used in any other study in the light of the literature review. The findings of the research showed that social networks Instagram and Twitter were used by Turkish Red Crescent for the purpose of public information, whereas they were used by LOSEV for interacting and public information purposes. When the number of shares are examined, it is found that the Turkish Red Crescent uses its social networks Instagram and Twitter more actively when compared to LOSEV in this two months-long period of time. In general, it can be said that the organizations use social network accounts during working hours and on weekdays.