Digital Invitation to “Goodness”; A Review on the Social Media Accounts of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Proceedings of The 5th World Conference on Social Sciences

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Digital Invitation to “Goodness”; A Review on the Social Media Accounts of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Aşina Gülerarslan ÖZDENGÜL, Mustafa AYDIN, Burçe AKCAN, Süleyman KARAÇOR

 

ABSTRACT: 

In today’s world, the existence of both individuals and institutions in social media based on two-way communication has turned into a necessity, not a choice. Developments in information technologies, the internet’s facilitation of access to social networks have accelerated the spread of information. Social media has the ability to keep the communication between the “source” and the “recipient” constantly fresh, with opportunities such as sending messages independent of time and place by selecting the relevant target audience, disseminating information, receiving quick feedback, and measuring. Due to the structure of social media that allows mutual communication, it is preferred by individuals. This gave non-governmental organizations the opportunity to direct their target audience towards their desired goal, and to make communication strategies to change attitudes and behaviors. For Non-Governmental Organizations that need donations and volunteer-based support and aim to create a social benefit, the opportunities offered by social media offer important opportunities to overcome the barriers to community interest.

In today’s communication society, social aid organizations use all the opportunities provided by information technologies to both increase volunteers and reach their donors. Social media, which is used by NGO’s to inform the public, to express themselves and their goals, to call volunteers and donors to “goodness”, to mobilize, to create opportunities for dialogue, to create regular resources for studies, realizes this invitation with interaction skills that cannot be offered by traditional tools.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, one of the oldest and most powerful civil society movements in the world; It is an international humanitarian movement that aims to protect human life and health, to ensure that human existence is respected, to prevent people from suffering and to alleviate their suffering, regardless of religion, belief, language, race, social class or political opinion. The aim of this research is to determine how the social media accounts of the Red Crescent and Red Cross movements are shaped in the context of strategic communication and to reveal the similarities and differences in the components of establishing relationships.

keywords: Humanitarian Aid, Donation, Non-Governmental Organization, Strategic Communication, Volunteering