Online or offline? Nonprofits’ choice and use of social media in Hong Kong

Nonprofits are strategically using social media to disseminate information, engage with community, and mobilize activities. The use of social media has attracted increasing academic discussion in the recent years. By challenging the proposition that online presence is always beneficial to nonprofits, we argue that seeking an online presence is itself a strategic choice; social environment as well as resource dependence would fairly affect nonprofits’ decision either to join the cyber world or just stay offline. Based on analysis of 427 social service nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong, we find that nonprofits that depend on private funding are more likely to use social media, while those depend on government funding are less likely to appear online. We further examine the nonprofits’ activeness and effectiveness of social media using, and find that informational posts generate the most “likes,” while actional posts are more likely to be diffused through “shares”. Copyright © 2019 International Society for Third-Sector Research.