Social media’s effectiveness for activating social declarations and motivating personal discussions to improve organ donation consent rates

Purpose: While the support for organ donation and registered donors continue to increase, next of kin consent remains a critical issue for the organ donation community. Despite the increased usage of social media campaigns for organ donor registration, there is a lack of understanding of how social media can be used to motivate individuals to socially declare their support for organ donation and encourage them to engage in personal discussions about organ donation with their next of kin. The purpose of this study is to better understand the link between social and personal discussions and organ donation consent rates. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses structural equation modeling to examine the precursors to activating organ donor registration social media advocacy that leads to increased support for organ donation and motivates personal discussions about organ donation. Findings: The results provide the organ donation and transplant community insight on the value of using social media to increase social advocacy, support for donation and social declarations and personal discussions on organ donation to improve next of kin’s consent rates. Practical implications: Social causes similar to organ donation increasingly turn to social media for grassroots marketing efforts to engage others in the cause and motivate action. Originality/value: The authors proposed an omni-channel IMC Framework and a research agenda for advancing the field. As this is a new area of inquiry, the authors argue for the development of other comprehensive frameworks, both for general omni-channel IMC conceptualizations.