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Social media is a new tool that enables people to communicate via the Internet. Nowadays an increasing number of people are engaging with different forms of social media. Especially social networks and microblogging sites are gaining popularity and people can use these channels for socializing, connecting with friends, relatives, and colleagues. Examples include Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and it is estimated that the number of social media users will exceed 1 billion by 2012. What does this new tool for charities? Can charities utilize social media as a promotion tool and how? During the research it was found that currently many charities already utilize social media through Twitter Pages, Facebook Pages, Facebook Causes Application and different online platforms such as 1procentclub. Moreover, it was found that these different ways of promoting are often combined in order to reach a larger audience. The results in the various case studies presented in this thesis indicate that promotion through social media can be very successful, once it is done in the right way.

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Sacha Schets, born January 3, 1987 in Amsterdam. With this dissertation she received two Bachelors in IBMS and EBA. She has been inspired by her dad who is involved with CSR for many years and showed her the importance of helping others. Her biggest passion is traveling and volunteering.

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