Tweet Tweet Nonprofit
How to Twitter for Nonprofits
So you are ready to Tweet? Great. If nothing else, give it a try and see if it is for you. As a nonprofit or any business, the more avenues in which you can make yourself available to others the better your chances of developing relationships that stick. For more on building relationships that stick, read http://oceangrand.org/building-nonprofit-relationships-equals-success. Twitter is an avenue that can make a huge difference in your knowledge about how to run a successful nonprofit and is a great way to stay in touch up-to-the-minute with supporters, donors, volunteers and grant makers. Read on to learn how you can use Twitter to make a difference in your nonprofit.
Last week we talked about whether “To Tweet or Not to Tweet”, read that here. Hopefully you’re reading this because you have decided to tweet. Take it from us, for an organization that stays in touch with lots of people, nonprofits and others all around the world on a minute by minute basis, you can’t get better than Twitter. By using Twitter, we can keep in touch with all the nonprofit news, initiatives, info on nonprofits we work with, while keeping all that want our information informed up to the second. It’s awesome and once you get the hang of it we believe you will agree. I will briefly run through the benefits to you and your nonprofit using Twitter, then list the steps on how you can get started “Tweeting” yourself.
Real Simple
Twitter is messaging that uses only 140 characters per message, called Tweets. It is easy to send and receive tweets from your computer or mobile phone. Because the messages are short, reading and writing them are quick. People that want to keep in touch with you “Follow You” and receive your tweets. You follow people that you want to keep in touch with. Several short tweets a day is all it takes to keep everyone up-to-date with what you or your nonprofit is up to. Twitter is short conversations that keep everyone in your life connected.
How it Could Help You
As a nonprofit, keeping your supporters, donors and volunteers up-to-date with daily updates and many times minute by minute reports have huge benefits. The more you can keep your organization in front of those that are involved with your nonprofit the more they will be involved with you. Likewise, staying transparent and keeping people more informed will let them know exactly the kind of help you need and when you need it.
Several tweets a day from you can:
- Update those following you on on projects status
- Tweet your fundraising and program events for those that cannot be there (play by play)
- Let others know of fundraising needs
- Keep grant makers updated with progress
- Quickly find volunteers
- Find others who would like to involved with your nonprofit
How You Can Start Tweeting
When using Twitter, “less is more†and keeping track of your and other people’s tweets can be managed easily on your computer by using TweetDeck http://www.tweetdeck.com. Throughout the day, “tweet†several times and let people know what you’re up to; you will be amazed at how interested they are in the little things you do each day.
Twitter Steps:
- Go to http://www.twitter.com.
- Sign up and create an interesting profile. Definitely add a photo.
- Use the site’s “find friend” feature to search your email address book for people you know.
- To find people you maybe interested in following, go to Twitscoop http://www.twitscoop.com/ and search topics you’re interested in.
- Search websites that you are interested in to see if they have a “Follow Us on Twitter” link.
- You may find more people to follow by reading the posts of those you are already following whose conversations seem interesting.
- Keep the number of people you follow to less than 150 so that you can actually keep up with all the posts.
- The number of people you allow to follow you depends on you but the more people following you, the farther your tweets will go out to the masses.
- Try to think of ways to allow those that follow you to get to know you and your nonprofit.
- Think of ways that you can introduce what your nonprofit is doing without giving a sales pitch.
- Get all your donors and those interested in you and your nonprofit (donors, volunteers, board members) signed up and promote your Twitter link so people can connect to you.
- Put your Twitter link on your email signatures, your web site, your literature and every place you, can making it easy for people to follow you.
- A few “What I am doing†updates a day goes a long way. Likewise, reply and respond to other people’s updates.
- Give it a couple weeks to find those to follow and to find a “following”
Above all have fun and see what Twitter can do for you and your organization.
Later this Week in our Twitter Series: Tweet Like a Pro (sign up for our RSS so you don’t miss an article)
Advisory: All the information, pictures, video and updates on Twitter are able to be seen by all your followers and your profile can be seen by anyone, so keep that in mind when you put information on the internet.
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