Social Media and the Journey of Volunteering

Abstract

The challenge for volunteer organizations today is how to protect the environment and maintain volunteers to maintain their social mission. When the volunteers receive positive benefits and social support from the volunteer organization, they express positive commitment to continue. Social media are an inexpensive the digital technologies that can reach a wide variety of volunteer and maintain a dialogue with them to better serve their journey. The study was conducted on volunteers who have participated in Empathy Project (EP) activities from Sociopreneur Indonesia (SociopreneurID). This case focus on implementation social media in the journey of volunteer. This study used an exploratory qualitative approach to build an understanding of the social reality of the implementation of the EP. The data that we synthesized from several social media posts by volunteers, after participating in volunteer activities, produced four things that motivated volunteers to make repeat decisions. These are (1) Personal Values; (2) Social Support; (3) Change of Perception / Added Knowledge and (4) Knowledge Sharing. Through social media, these four things are used by organizations as a strategy to maximize repeat decisions. Moreover, social media also acts as a platform to encourage communication and collaboration between organizations and volunteers.