Social media evaluation for non-profit organizations : The case of Oxfam Italia

Abstract: The thesis presents an evaluation of the Facebook page of the Italian non-profit organization Oxfam Italia from November 2013 to March 2014. The research’s aim is to analyze the community which follows the organization, how this community interacts with it and how the moderators of the page communicate with its followers. The research aims also to find ways to increase Oxfam Italia’s performance on Facebook. The theoretical framework focuses on non-profit marketing and its peculiarities, Social Media Marketing and notions such as engagement and brand community. The methods used in the research consist in data mining and content analysis. Data have been gathered from Facebook Insights and through the issuing of FQL queries from the Facebook Graph API. The research found out that Oxfam has more female followers than male (62% vs 36,5%), the age range of them is 25-44 years. Oxfam’s presence, in particular, is very rooted in the region of Tuscany (where its headquarter is). Facebook followers showed a very good attitude toward the organization, even though criticisms are common, and Oxfam used its social media presence mainly to update the followers concerning ongoing activities and to urge to on-line activism. The users’ favourite engagement method was “liking” photographic contents.