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Jeremiah Jean

English 3020

Professor Flaherty

10 April 2017

Social Media Platform Improvements to Auntie Nas House

Problem Statement

Detroit has undergone many major changes in its history as a major city in the United

States. People have left the city in search of work. In Detroit, there are issues of blight,

underfunding/cuts to funding in education, and urban deserts are the result of the loss of people

in the city. Additionally, people have issues finding jobs, housing, and training, Finally, many

parents wish to find a safe place for their children to reside in the city, off the streets and out of

trouble. There is no lack of community organizations in Detroit to tackle the laundry list of issues

mentioned above. There has been a major loss in a sense of community in Detroit homes. Among

organizations dedicated to rebuilding the community, Auntie Nas House-Harvesting Unity is

especially dedicated to working with people.

Auntie Nas House-Harvesting Unity does a little bit of everything-its a grassroots

organization dedicated to rebuilding the community of Detroit. Auntie Nas House (ANHU) is an

organization that focuses intently on people; parents can drop off their children there after school

for tutoring, one can go there for a meal if one is hungry, have a place to sleep if there is no place

to go, or even receive aid for writing a resume so one can find work. However, as with many

other grassroots organizations, Auntie Nas house relies heavily on outside assistance to function.
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Funding is a consistent need, and organization in some of ANHUs programs needs to be

established. In this day and age, social networking is one of the major methods with which an

organization can complement its relationship with the public. To help bring awareness of ANHU

to the general public, Auntie Nas House has multiple online outlets; A Facebook page, Twitter,

Instagram, and a free Wordpress blog. Even equipped with all of the mentioned social media

outlets, ANHU is still struggling to make themselves known to benefactors and better reach their

target audience through social media. The blog is the most professional outlet of ANHUs current

online platforms. However, blog posts are infrequent and the site could be more user-friendly.

There is an implicit lack of clarity in their blog, where volunteers are confused about what

exactly ANHU does and what one can do to help out. This leads to the question: How can the

functionality of Auntie Nas houses WordPress blog be improved upon? In answering this

question, we will attempt to uncover the possible effects that these improvements will have on

ANHUs target audience, which consists of donors/benefactors, volunteers, and those who are

benefitted by ANHUs services.

Proposal for Research

To better understand this topic, it will be important to understand the implications

associated with altering another entitys website(s). Primary and secondary research should

strengthen my understanding of how other organizations utilize their online presence to perform

the following functions; reach out their target audience, gain volunteers/donations, and establish

a rapport with their target audience. In order to help Auntie Nas House improve its online

presence, a project that helps to answer explicitly what volunteers will be doing, what goals

ANHU is trying to accomplish, and how to get involved with ANHU will be essential.

Literature Review
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Community non-profit organizations tend to be most popular and receive the most

donations when they retain an upstanding online presence, establishing a two-way exchange

between the organization and the target audience. (Nolan) Instead of using the social media

simply for the benefit of the organization, the agreed-upon goal is to establish good rapport with

the target audience, not creating a one-sided relationship filled with nothing but the

organizations notifications, but drawing a connection between the organization and the target

audience. Most sources attest to the importance and viability of using ones online platform to

continually notify the target audience of any events taking place, as well as notifications of all

kinds that would otherwise be harder to hear by word of mouth communication. Sources assert

that community organizations use of social media should be treated as complements rather than

substitutes. (Wang)

Some sources identify multiple methods in which social media/websites should be used

to best present themselves to their target audiences. Additionally, there is debate as to what

specifically grasps the attention of the target audience best, and the reasons as to why one part of

the target audience would react to one type of fundraising scheme versus another. These have

implications that impact the overall success of the organization in attracting people to

volunteer/donate/etc. Finally, some sources make the case for the best methodologies for a non-

profit business to expand and grow.( (Madden) (Svensson))

In general, the case for using social media to enrich the experience of the target audience

at a particular site is uncontested. The exact methods of which social media can be employed to

reach the target audience however, are numerous.

In The impact of executive personal branding on non-profit perception and

communications, the Lynnette Nolan analyzes how corporate branding works in theory, and
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how different results such as number of likes on Facebook and retweets on twitter contribute to

the successes of personal branding in non-profit organizations. (289) She utilizes a content

analysis of seven nonprofit executives tweets, analyzes the major themes of their mission

statements, and determines the correlations between the tweets of the most active executive in

that organization the themes of their organizations missions statement. Lynnette Nolan makes

the case for personal branding as being essential for retaining stakeholders in an organization.

She notes values and missions based messaging as key factors in communication with the

organizations target audience. (Nolan) It is insightful how Nolan successfully asserts the

importance of personal branding in accordance with an organizations mission statement, which

points to the quality of personal branding found within ANHUs WordPress blog. ANHUs blog

posts, while infrequent, do contribute to the integrity and message of the organization. (Auntie

Na's House ) If the blog can better communicate ANHUs overall theme/message of unity within

the community to the target audience, then the volunteering/donating to ANHU would become

more appealing. (Auntie Na's House ) Add specific quote about surviving and thriving here*****

Saxton and Wang provide insight into the driving forces behind donations in social

media. In The Social Network Effect: The Determinants of Giving Through Social Media, the

author informs us of the importance of use of social networking to bring in donations to an

organization. By developing a personal relationship with the donor, the donor becomes more apt

to give funds to the organization in which they are dealing. By inciting a feeling of inclusiveness

within the organization, it serves as a potential driving force for increases in

donation/fundraising. (Wang) Additionally, having multiple platforms in which an organization

can spread its name increases the rate of donation. Finally, it is interesting to note that Saxton

and Wang found a negative relation between size and donations, i.e. the smaller the organization,
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the higher chance of receiving increased pay. If it is possible, helping to make the theme of

ANHU more clear than ever before will play an important role in engaging the target audience,

thus increasing the number of people who will eventually provide donations to ANHU.

In Twitter as a Communication Tool for Nonprofits: A Study of Sport-for-Development

Organizations, the authors analyze the different methods in which social media can be used to

communicate with their target audience. Such methods include; General program information,

non-program related information, and retweets. (Svensson) While it can be understood that a

blog and a social networking account such as Facebook have different functions, they also have

similar goals as it pertains to reaching a target audience and maintaining a relationship between

the organization and the individual. No matter what the platform information is expressed, they

can all be used to; promote and event, appeal for donations, and call for engagement in some

form. (Svensson) The authors of this source utilized a content analysis to draw correlations

between tweets on Twitter, how information is disseminated/used, how stakeholders are engaged

via tweets, and how the tweets are used to facilitate action. (Svensson) In ANHUs WordPress

blog, the major difference is that blog posts are typically longer than 140 characters, and the

format is slightly different. In comparison, ANHU uses their blog posts to appeal for donations,

however they link their audience to their Youcaring site as a major inlet where donations may be

received. Events are also spoken of on ANHUs blog, however because blog posts are not

consistent, they are typically already become a memory rather than a signal for the audience to

attend.

Sources debate about the changing face of nonprofits today. For example, in Democrats

support international relief and the upper class donates to art? How opportunities, incentives,

and confidence affect donations to different types of charitable organizations. Wiepking

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communicates that there are trends associated with different donors donating to different types of

organizations. (Wiepking) Wiepking discusses how the elderly, those who are more religious,

[and] have a higher incomeare more frequent and are more generous charitable donors.

(Wiepking) ANHUs WordPress blog has spiritual undertones/themes within their posts, and does

discuss areas where they would like to grow. Mary Madden of the Pew Research center informs
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us of the current state of internet usage in the diagram below. (Madden)

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Among all age groups, use of social media/networking sites is rather frequent, thereby displaying

the importance of reaching benefactors via the internet across all age groups, whether young or

old. Wiepking also identifies that the elderly population is more likely to donate through direct

mail. (Wiepking) However, since internet usage and online donation options have become

commonplace over the last generation, it appears that donations/connecting to non-profits online

is beneficial to the support of a non-profit, more than ever before. ANHUs wordpress blog is an

example of an online platform which reaffirms this concept. ANHUs blog targets all ages able to
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give back to the organization; its content attempts to create sympathy between the organization

and the audience.

Given the information gleaned from the sources above, it becomes clear that a revised

approach to how ANHU reaches its audience must be performed. Aunt Na has stated herself that

she does not involve herself in much of the online networking; she will however, contribute to

some of the Facebook posts. (Na)) The weblog itself is still a useful method of garnering the

attention of volunteers and gaining donations, however it could take some of the ideas of the

works mentioned above into consideration. If the weblog can be made to better connect/establish

a relationship with the target audience, then the online presence will be much clearer for people

who decide to learn more about Auntie Nas house. In addition, a proper revision of the content

posted within the weblog would help to make sure the audience is interpreting the goals of the

site more clearly. Finally, making the weblog more easily navigable will of great benefit for all

kinds of people to learn about ANHU and to potentially contribute to the organization.

Methodology/Proposal for Study

Overall this study will consist of three main stages; An opening interview, application of

changes, and an exit review. The study will be mostly qualitative in nature, with potential

quantitative results. The first stage in the development of this study is to a conduct simple

interview with the workers/or volunteers at Auntie Nas house. I will gain an understanding of

some of the basic changes that they feel would be most beneficial to ANHUs online platforms.

In doing so, well discuss some of the key facets of the design of the current social media. The

key facets may not all be about specific parts of their social media, such as organizing the photo

gallery or consistently posting pictures on their Facebook page. By answering the following
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questions, we should gain a better understanding of some of the issues to tackle on ANHUs

social media platform from a more abstract perspective.

1) How does ANHU want to look to their target audience?

2) How can we make it so volunteers have an easier time understanding what ANHU is and

have a clear idea of how to get involved?

3) What is the best way to reach our target audience?

To fulfill these goals, receiving administrative permission from workers at ANHU to work on the

current social media platform, and creating a more efficient/consolidated site will be important to

completing this study. Staff at Auntie Nas house would also like to have an outsider point of

view on their current online platform, and to have an outsider review it for clarity. I will be

performing this review. With administrative permission, I will create a proposal for specific

changes to be made to the online platform, and paste it to a google doc to alert members of the

staff of the changes I would like to make to the site. If changes are applied, the results of this

study will be the changes made to the online platform. I have been given the task of working on

the Wordpress blog. Specifically, I am to help make smoothen out the process of signing up for

volunteering, clarifying when and where events are happening, making the site more user

friendly, updating any outdated information, and overall making the organizations goals/ends

easier to understand by a simple google search of the weblog. Overall, when someone looks up

ANHU, I am to streamline the process of understanding what ANHU does and how someone can

get involved or donate, and to make it easier for readers to navigate the site for important

information. The qualitative results will include the extent to which the improved blog fulfills the

goals listed above. After the changes are completed, an exit review of the changes will be

performed answering the following:

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1) Do you feel that the changes made to the online platform will be effective? Why or why

not? (With Clay) Yes, just in the like you hear about the organization, will make it more

accessible. Likes the volunteer descriptions and feels like it will help moving towards an

established website.
2) Were the goals mentioned during the opening interview fully, partially, or not at all

reached? It hasnt been quite implemented, so cant necessarily say right now, but in terms

of accessibility, it will help. Because of this grant, there will be a lot more publicity, so it

may give people a reason to google us. Having a clearer website will hopefully help.
3) Are there any remaining areas of lack in the current social media platform? If so, what

could be done in the future? Being a better donation platform platform-automatic receipt

versus manual receipt, more content ie more blog posts. Looking a little more alive would

be cool, so someone toc consistently post would be nice.

Results and Discussion of Expected Results
The study I designed didnt turn out to yield any physical results as I reached the time

limit in my work. In light of the time limit, I ended up creating a proposal on a google doc for the

senior members of Auntie Nas House to look at. It details many of the genres that I feel need

improvements, along with some of some of my own ideas for additions to their site. I ended up

finding some methods in the form of online software that would prove useful for setting up easy

to use volunteer sign up forms. Additionally, I provided consultation for many of the different

facets of the site that I felt needed clarity. I wrote out drafts for the different volunteer positions

that one would be able to find within a potential volunteering page on their WordPress blog. I

attempted to provide clear exemplars of places in the blog to add to, and methods in which the

blog could be used in junction with other social media in order to enrich the overall online

platform. Finally, I provided a couple of methods in which ANHU could move forward with

popularizing their blog, in hopes of generating a following.

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As it turns out, some of my original goals such as re-organizing the photo gallery as a

result of human limitation. It takes a longer period of time than what was allotted to undergo the

process of review and implementation to make permanent changes to the way an organization

looks/functions.
The Literature Review of this study was meant to point to the need for revising the online

presence of ANHU. Nolans study resulted in a reporting of the percentages of the kinds of tweets

from a given sample size. (Nolan) In comparison, this study attempts to better advertise ANHU

to its target audience. Even with the proposal I created, there are two stages that can be

completed to further this study. By physically applying the changes indicated in my study, and

then analyzing the rate of increase in donations or audience involvement over a long period of

time, we will gain better sense of the successes of improving ANHUs WordPress blog. However,

this process would likely take several months to years to gather complete and reliable results.
Even though I wasnt able to physically make these changes, I feel that there are still

many benefits associated with proposing changes to their weblog.

First off, the weblog hasnt been worked on/revamped ever since it has been created, so

any work on the site would be beneficial. The workers at ANHU looked like they already had

their hands full with many of the other functions of the organization, and as a result, the

WordPress weblog was left aside. In other words, my proposal for website redesign is an attempt

to perform a long-overdue update of the site. Therefore, a potential limitation of this study is the

current lack of volunteers at ANHU. Grassroots organizations typically depend much on the help

of volunteers. More volunteers at ANHU would allow for more groups to separate work on

different projects, such as fundraising, online platforms, grant writing, etc. Also, even if the

changes in the proposal I created are physically added to the site, who is to manage upkeep of the

blog? There needs to be consistent work on the online presence at ANHU in order to maintain it,

just as other bloggers must consistently make posts in order to stay relevant in their audiences
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lives. This begs the question: Is there a method in which an online presence may be maintained

and even grow while under minimal maintenance? Further research into how this would be

implemented would be required.

Additionally, another limitation is the issue of whether the WordPress blog is meant to be

temporal. As discussed with Aaron Appel, workers at ANHU are currently investigating getting a

personal URL for the organization. (Aaron Appel) If such is the case, the WordPress blog and all

the work/improvements made on it may only serve as a springboard for the new official site. In

creation of a professional URL, some professional consultation and assistance with official

website/domain creation may be required. Further work on the WordPress would still be of use,

however it may eventually become obsolete.

The use of a WordPress blog is also a limitation in of itself. There are different

functionalities that cost money to use and maintain that ANHUs blog does not make use of. It

currently only makes use of the free functions provided when creating a free WordPress account,

severely limiting it from functions such as uploading video/audio files.

As Chao Guo and Gregory D. Saxton have discussed, social media is changing the face

of advocacy today. (Wang) More work can be done to improve the online presence of ANHU

than just working on the WordPress blog. ANHU also has other social media such as Facebook,

Twitter, and Instagram, that are all similar in the way that they connect people through the

internet yet have functions that differ slightly. Further research and methodologies to improve

these areas of ANHUs online platform, as well as synergizing them would potentially help to

improve ANHUs online presence to a level of maximum efficiency.

It would be beneficial for future studies to investigate correlations various factors that are

important for ANHU to consider. For example, a comparative analysis of the successfulness of

canvassing versus usage of an online platform would provide beneficial information for creating

new opportunities to reach out to the greater Detroit community. WordPress also provides
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functions that provide statistical data of variables that may prove beneficial to ANHU. Clay Coda

once informed me that he would like to see ANHU as an organization that can easily be found by

a simple google search. (Aaron Appel) Currently the website statistics indicate few search terms

that truly pertain to someone directly trying to find content related to Auntie Nas house. (Auntie

Na's House ) This leaves more room for analysis of specific determinants that either incite

interest in ANHU and continue to attract people to the organization.

Works Cited
Aaron Appel, Clay Coda. Auntie Na work meeting at WSU Jeremiah Jean. 3 March 2017.
Interview.
Auntie Na's House . Harvesting Unity . 18 July 2016. <https://auntienashouse.wordpress.com/>.
Madden, Mary. Older Adults and Social Media Social networking use among those ages 50 and
older nearly doubled over the past year. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, 2010.
Document .
Na), Sonia Renia Brown (Aunt. Owner, Director, and Founder Jeremiah Jean. 17 February 2017.
Interview.
Nolan, Lynette. "The impact of executive personal branding on non-profit perception and
communications ." Public Relations Review (2015): 288-292. Document.
Per G. Svensson, Tara Q. Mahoney, and Marion E. Hambrick. "Twitter as a Communication Tool
for Nonprofits: A Study of Sport-for-Development Organizations." Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2015): 1086-1106. Document.
Wang, Gregory D. Saxton and Lili. "The Social Network Effect: The Determinants of Giving
Through Social Media." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2014): 850-868.
Document.
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Wiepking, Pamala. "Democrats support international relief and the upper class donates to art?
How opportunities, incentives, and confidence affect donations to different types of
charitable organizations." Social Science Research (2010): 1073-1087. Report.