Poster accompanying short conference paper that suggests an initial applicability framework based on earlier research and the literature review of organisational social media use by NGOs in the context of international development. It aims at providing guidance to these NGOs when assessing the implementation of social media for development purposes. The applicability of this artefact will be tested by development NGOs.

1. Applicability Assessment Framework
for Organisational Social Media Use
by Development NGOs
Anand Sheombar
HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (NL) &
Manchester Metropolitan University (UK)
anand.sheombar@hu.nl or @anandstweets
CIS-0746-2017
An exploratory study was undertaken to address the following
research questions :
1. How can development NGOs make sense of social media use
for their development projects?
2. What might be an appropriate framework to guide social
media use by development NGOs?
The findings of this
study provide an
emerging theory of
organisational social
media use by
development NGOs.
 If we take the five
strategic activities
of development
NGOs, and cross-
reference these
with the four
potential activity
areas of social
media use in the
context of aid and
development, we
arrive at an
applicability
framework as
shown in the
table.
 The social media
activities are
sorted along the
four areas for
each NGO
strategic
developmental
activity.
 This framework
provides NGOs
with a practical
instrument for
assessing the use
of social media
for international
development
purposes.