ABSTRACT
Social media have become ubiquitous. Two-thirds of adult Internet users now use social networking sites, a number that has doubled since 2008. The study presented in this chapter presents an exploratory analysis that seeks to address these issues in two ways. First, by building on nascent research into best practices of social media use and the organizational determinants of social media practices, the study examines the relationship between key organizational factors and measures of the successful use of Twitter. Second, a survey was carried out to study nonprofit managers' perceptions of the barriers and challenges to social media use. This study adds to and expands on existing research by focusing not only on the benefits but also the challenges and pitfalls of social media use. The research design for this study consisted of two different strategies: the statistical analysis of tweets sent by the 50 organizations and an Internet survey sent to these organizations' social media managers.
