Nonprofit Sport Organizations’ Use of Social Media as a Stakeholder Communication Tool : The Case of Generation Amazing Foundation

Using social media to communicate with stakeholders has become a standard practice for all types of sport organizations. Employing a case study approach, the present thesis examines how Generation Amazing Foundation (GA), an international sport-for-development organization established as a legacy program for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, informs, interacts, and engages with its stakeholders through its official X (former Twitter) account. The study is underpinned by stakeholder theory and guided by the Information-Community-Action (ICA) Hierarchy of Engagement model and the Power-Interest stakeholder matrix. 1,606 GA's X (Twitter) English language posts, reposts, reposts with comments, and replies from September 2019 to December 2023 were manually collected and quantitatively analyzed. Findings indicate that GA primarily uses X as a tool for information distribution, making it an information-source organization for its stakeholders, followed by action-oriented and community-building functions. Further analysis of GA's activities through X reveals that, although most posts and reposts serve as sources of information, most quote posts and replies are intended to build community. This signifies that GA utilizes existing X content its stakeholders create to engage the community. Further, the study indicates that GA's activities on X primarily focus on stakeholders with high interest but low power.

Most action-oriented messages, however, target low-interest-low-power stakeholders in an effort to encourage them to participate in the Foundation's programs. This study contributes to the field of sport management both theoretically and practically. First, it builds on the academic discourse on how nonprofit sport organizations and sport for development foundations, in particular, utilize social media platforms to communicate with their stakeholders. It does so by exploring X affordances, such as posts, reposts, quote posts, and replies, thereby adding a new dimension to the hierarchy of engagement model. Second, by exploring a link between the hierarchy of engagement model and the power-interest stakeholder matrix in social media communication, this study opens the door for future research that can examine and enhance theoretical conceptions of nonprofit sport organizations' communication with stakeholders through social media. Finally, the thesis provides a set of practical recommendations for GA to enhance its stakeholder engagement efforts and improve its social media communication strategy.