Top Tips

 

Twitter tools and features

Tools - try them out - and keep experimenting!

Utilise your background, add more info.

Post a 'pic of the day' on Twitpic.

Try using audioboo for immediate and authentic voice.

URL shorterners - bit.ly.

Tweetdeck.

Who's talking about you - samepoint.com, monitter.com.

Try Twollar - for turning social capital into real currency.

Twitter can lead to your blog... and teach you to blog more succinctly!

 

Who to follow?

Follow people that do it well - and steal their ideas!

Try and follow quality Tweeters.

Follow one or two famous people - you get interesting info/ subjects.

 

Tweeting for your charity

Try tweeting as yourself before you tweet as/ for your charity.

Tweet on a theme and tie personal tweets into this if possible.

Reserve your name on Twitter and any new service as soon as you become aware of them.

Bio - who's tweeting, mission statement, good URL, take some time to craft the message.

Constantly drip professional mission into your tweets.

Make it easy for interested people to find you by making your bio clear and including searchable keywords.

Who should use Twitter at your charity? Who is the person with the interest and who is already using it?

It is marketing, but do it in a more personal, engaging way.

You don't need to pay for stuff! That's where corporates fail.

Talk to colleagues to check with them about what they want to use Twitter for.

Become a 'mini expert' within your organisation.

Think whether what you're tweeting about is genuinely interesting - take a step back, be critical and ask yourself whether people would really want to follow your Twitterstream.  Is is interesting and engaging?

Overcome resistance in getting internal buy-in by collecting and sharing evidence - including anecdotal.

Bend other people's ideas to the needs of your brands.

Learn by using. If something doesn't work, it's not the end of the world.  Tweets are quite transitory and will pass a lot of people by without them noticing.  If you muck something up, don't be afraid to say so.

 

Building social capital

Be where other people are!

Twitter does not stand alone - use it in conjunction with other social media and your websites.

Search for relevant organisation names, join in the conversations and make friends!

Look at dwell time on your website for people coming from Twitter (quality of traffic).

Map your RTing potential and the spread of information.

Find ambassadors/ cheerleaders for your brand.

Championing change - mobilising very keen supporters. Use their network and encourage them to take actions (eg. pass this on).

 

Points to remember

Be authentic.

Tweet about things you're excited about.

Your parents can see you on Twitter!

Remember you're talking to the world, not just the UK.

Learn to switch off. You can't see everything and tweet everything.

It's all just communication. We've all been doing it for years! It's not really different just because you're using social media.

 

(more top tips to follow)

 

 

Thoughts

 

Using Twitter

How did Twitter kick off for your organisation?

Who should use Twitter/ tweet for your organisation?

Twitter to web to world - how?

I discovered colleagues were just tweeting adverts. It's suppose to be a dialogue!

How do I weave it into our marketing strategy?

Twitter as a PR tool - too cliquey?

How do you do fundraising/ campaigning via Twitter without annoying people?

Tools - difficulties downloading. What are people using?

Keeping business and personal separate is hard on all social networks, not just Twitter.

Does the Twitter undergrowth strangle the blogs?

 

Tone of voice

Are brand guidelines important for tone of voice?

Organisation's policies quite strict - how to be authentic and personal?

I'm worried about striking the wrong tone when/ if I try to be more personal.

Should I tweet about what I did at the weekend?

It doesn't feel real when organisations tweet 'corporately'.

 

One or many?

What's the best way for 3 people to manage a Twitter account? Tweeting according to their role perhaps...

Should my organisation have one voice or many voices?

Diverse audiences - 1 account? Multiple accounts? Organisation approach is to put everything together. Is this right?

UK versus international identity - borders disappear but keep remit.

Individuals tweet on different accounts, depending on expertise.

 

What will donors/ supporters think?

Does it look like we're mucking around?

What will supporters think if they think we're tweeting when we should be working? (we are working when we're tweeting, but they may not realise)

Is NFP tweeting more socially acceptable to the public than corporate tweets?

 

ROI

Is Twitter just a fad?

Is it a good use of time?

Is it worth having a newsfeed that's purely broadcast if there is no resource to tweet more personally?

What measurements prove the efficacy of what we're doing?

Twitter is a digital mayfly, but there is value in perishable data (and Twitter search means it's accessible for a good while).

 

Buy-in

Senior buy-in? How do you 'sell' Twitter to senior marketing staff?

How to convince people of the importance? (including founders & Trustees) 

 

(more thoughts to follow)