So, you’ve heard of Twitter but you have yet to take the dive into the Twitosphere. Or, you created an account, but still feel like a newbie. Before I scare you away with how to create your account, best practices, and must-know lingo, here are some reasons why it’s worth investing some time to get to know the platform.

Why use Twitter at all?

You may feel like the amount of time you need to commit to establish a Following or even figure out what you’re doing isn’t worth the return on investment (ROI). It can be frustrating learning a completely new technology, but the numbers are clear. Millions upon millions of people in the world are using social media, and not just Facebook. Twitter hit 500 million users in February of this year. Nonprofits can use these tools to advance their missions:

1. Build your brand: create your own unique voice, develop a personality, strategy, and story for your nonprofit, and then be able to share that with current and potential supporters.
2. Be included in the conversation: Twitter gives its users their own personalized news stream. You can stay up-to-date on the latest happenings within the scope of your mission. Speak about your opinions, events, and news, and share it with others.
3. Increase search engine optimization: Once you have established a following and others begin to share your content, your website will be more likely to appear in search engine results on sites like Google and Bing.
4. Connect directly with supporters: You can reach out to specific supporters, recognize them individually by Tweeting to them, thanking them for support. This builds stronger relationships.
5. Fundraise: After you’ve familiarized yourself with social media, you can start using these tools to fundraise. You have the opportunity to reach a new audience and turn social activity into positive change for your mission. Enable your supporters as donors.

What is Unique About Twitter?

Twitter is bidirectional. Unlike Facebook, anyone can view your Tweets even if they aren’t Following you (if your profile is public). Also, you can Follow someone but that doesn’t mean they Follow you. Because of this, you have to make sure that you’re providing something to your Twitter audience, such as consistent news updates, exclusive information, and valuable resources including videos, images, and articles.

Twitter is a real-time platform, which provides a fast flow of information. This can be advantageous for events, advocacy campaigns and PR for your cause to help spread the word and quickly gain support. It’s a great place to bring together supporters, creating a temporary community, around one of these events using a hashtag.

 

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Tags: SMF 101, social media, twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2012 at 10:16 am and is filed under Commentary, SMF 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.