Twitter

We’ve had prospective MPs fired for comments made on Twitter,  indeed barely a day seems to pass without Twitter making headline news. The days when Twitter was for geeks only are barely a speck in the rear view mirror, as it now has over 100 million users worldwide.

But what does this mean for charities? Is Twitter a useless distraction or a game changer?

Well, it’s neither. It offers exciting new possibilities for spreading your message and recruiting new supporters, but if you invest a lot of time in Twitter, it’ll take a while before you see a reward.

Here are a few uses worth highlighting:

Listening

Most people’s first reaction to Twitter is ‘But I’ve got nothing to say!’ Start by following interesting people on Twitter – you’ll get the hang of it and you can find others talking issues that your charity is working on.

Examples of people to follow might include:

• @DMiliband – David Miliband
• @BillGates – Bill Gates
• @amnestyuk – Amnesty UK
• @greenpeace – Greenpeace International

(The @ symbol is a common way to refer to usernames – for example @hudigital is twitter.com/hudigital)

Sharing

If you promote your Twitter page, your list of followers will grow. You can then use Twitter to keep these followers informed. Here are things you might talk about:

• You might ‘retweet’ messages relating to your cause (repost a message from someone you follow)
• News and upcoming events
• Your blog
• Resources

Campaigning

You may well find that your campaign target is on Twitter, so why not bombard them with messages?

Updating

Adding your Twitter feed to your homepage makes updating your site as easy as posting a tweet.

Recruiting

You can use search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) to find potential supporters interested in your area. Here’s how:

• search for associated words or phrases e.g. ‘recycling’ or ‘death penalty’. Think about what your target audience might be thinking about and get creative with your searching!
• Follow individuals who you think might be interested in your cause. They may well follow you back.