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المستخلص ” Online Social Marketing Strategies:A practical Study on Non-profit Organizations in Egypt this study aims to explore patterns of applying online social marketing and its strategies which are used by certain non-profit organizations in Egypt , and how to use it to achieve their objectives. It also sheds light on the effectiveness of these strategies and to the extent of their impact on NPOs` website users as well as its reflection on the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and online behavior / offline behavior. A field study was applied on three non-profit organizations working in Egypt: Egyptian Food Bank (EFB), Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE), Life without Smoking (Hyah bela tadkheen) . A case study method was used in order to know the Internet planning methods applied in those organizations depending on In-depth interviews with those responsible for Internet & Marketing of the Organization’s officials and employees or their deputies .Moreover, the thesis relies on the qualitative content analysis of their websites from 1 August 2012 until 31 January 2013. An online survey was then conducted on a Convenience Available Sample of 122 nonprofit website users as snowball sampling from 20 June 2013 until 4 December 2013, distributed as follows: EFB (61) respondents, BCFE (35) respondents, Hyah bela tadkheen (26) respondents. In addition, the study employed a comparative tool; for comparison between the three organizations in their strategies, and its reflection on the respondents. Findings: It was found that NPOs are interested in being online, as it means multiple opportunities to reach many different audiences, not only in Egypt, but also in many other countries according to the nature of the medium, thereby eliminating the boundaries between countries, in comparison to the traditional means of marketing. Therefore, that explains the interest of non-profit organizations to use one or two Mass media according to marketing plan, as in the case of the (EFB) in some major campaigns, or in some cases which only depend on personal communication and the Internet as in the case (BCFE), and (Hyah bela tadkheen). NPOs use different social media as: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, for interaction and communication with its audience. Furthermore, NPOs use their official websites to show their various activities, hence reaching different audiences in different ways. This procedure fits with the nature the Internet that requires continuous interaction and updates to attract the public to the provided content. NPOs adopted several marketing communications strategies to deliver their message to targeted audiences, as cognitive, emotional and behavioral strategies, which are considered the basics of social marketing in general, but it differs among organizations which use some strategies in accordance with their objectives and their nature, as well as the tools used. However; it is noted that the use of the Internet in social marketing is complementary to the various communication means, such as personal communication. They all reflected the goals and visions of those organizations in their work, especially because of the limited financial resources of these NPOs, specifically for BCFE and Hyah bela tadkheen. On the other hand, (EBF) acts as any professional corporation which has several marketing campaigns in various mass media from one period to the next. It should be noted that the periodic update of the web sites of these organizations were often non-specific, which means they are active in their campaigns and special events, compared to any other period. This was reflected also in the use of certain sites over others, and the most commonly used Facebook because of its wide fame. Youtube and Twitter, were also relied on when needed. But it was clear during the different periods of this study that there were noticeable developments in methods of providing information on the various sites, and for updates form in the NPOs sites hence making sites richer than before. However, the frequency of visiting NPOs websites was average. The results have agreed that Facebook NPOs’ pages were the most visited; compared to other NPOs sites. In general the respondents’ visit NPOs websites to find out more about the issues of NPOs, but in the case of (EFB); the purpose of use was to inquire about how to obtain its service or volunteer, and that generally reflects the nature of each organization. It is notable that visiting NPOs’ website was reflected positively on respondents’ attitudes on both the cognitive and emotional levels. However, performing online-offline behavior for all respondents was generally low. It means that the effectiveness of social marketing online for the NPOs’ was low to make the respondents adopt positive behavior. This was due to the overlapping of many factors concerning the individuals themselves and the circumstances surrounding them. This led to limited behavior such as: lack of financial capacity to donate to (EFB), or not knowing how to perform breast self examination by hand, as well as other factors relating to the NPOs. Such factors include inconsistent and unattractive website updates, in addition to the reflection of the current circumstances in Egypt, especially in the period of applying the survey. Such factors may have lead to ineffective content presented to the public because of instability, and thus the social content was not suitable for current events in general, which may have reflected negatively on NPOs’ activities online. The current study tested seven basic hypotheses in the light of the theory of planned behavior. The seven hypotheses were partially confirmed, which shows that there are multiple variables which may be effective in developing strategies for social marketing on the Internet for non-profit organizations, in order to achieve the desired objective, which opens the way for further studies in this regard to development, and utilizes capabilities of the web in social marketing. |