Department

English

College

Arts and Humanities

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations offer a useful lens for viewing the impact of social media on communication. The constraints experienced by nonprofits (including funding limitations) are somewhat mitigated by the “free” services offered by social media sites. Nonprofits, while slow to adopt traditional marketing practices, have been early adopters of computer-mediated communications. Social networking sites offer nonprofits the ability to connect with donors and volunteers, network with other philanthropic organizations, post informational updates, and spread a consistent message throughout a large community, all by creating a user account.

To facilitate these new conversation strategies, nonprofit organizations are employing social media writers. Previous scholarly work shows an industry demand for writers proficient in social media applications. These positions are also becoming legitimized through higher salaries, more permanent work, and extensive use of social media user agreements. As a response to industry needs, some academic programs are incorporating social media literacy into their curriculums. Technical communication programs are addressing the social creation of content that is disseminated through social media platforms and focusing more heavily on the “communication” aspect of technical communication.

This paper will bring together two largely disconnected areas of technical communication—scholarship that addresses social media writing and scholarship that addresses nonprofit use of social media— to argue that social media writing is technical communication.

Instructor’s Name

Jennifer Veltsos

Degree

Master of Arts in English, Technical Communication Option

Document Type

Video

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