Twitter - A Mix of Wit and Titter
Despite social networking types using the word liberally as if we all are intimate with the term, you may or may not have heard of Twitter, a social networking, micro-blogging site that allows you to write or text messages to the site. It has sometimes been described as the SMS of the Internet.
Twitter has become quite a phenomenon in recent times. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009; Twitter had a growth of 1382%.
Over the past year, I've noticed more and more organisations within the Third Sector ‘twittering' on a consistent basis. It would appear that if used correctly, it can indeed become an influential medium for supporters. For example, several 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns used Twitter as a publicity mechanism, including that of Democratic Party nominee and President Barack Obama. British comedian Stephen Fry is also well known for having a myriad of followers and was reported in The Times in April 2009 as being the celebrity with the most followers on Twitter (just under 1 million).
Obviously, this can be a very powerful publicity vehicle, but does it work in the not-for-profit space? Personally, I feel any medium where you can promote information about your organisation and YOU control the content - is first class. I think the success of Twitter boils down to content consistency, frequency of update and immediacy. Providing there someone to frequently manage an organisation's updates and the content is relevant to its supporters, I believe it's a great benefit to any organisation. It's also a great testing ground or listening tool on how your audience respond to your posts.
Probably the most important aspect of Twitter for our sector is the potential to raise awareness by ‘friendraising '. The more awareness we raise, the more knowledge the general public has about the cause, so increasing the amount of supporters. Bullying UK is a great example of a charity that uses Twitter to build awareness with limited emphasis on raising money. They regularly post anti-bullying posters on their site to help them gain more followers. It's been very successful so far and followers are increasing rapidly.
Many think Twitter can help charities raise funds without spending any money themselves. This is true, but this medium is not particularly sustainable. Good-ly is a great example of an interesting and sustainable way to raise money via social networking, which is less reliant on the ‘geek' factor. If you use Good-ly to make a product recommendation on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else, and people buy what you suggest, they give 55% of any earned referral fees to charity. They rotate attention to 3 charities each month to even out distribution.
Twollars are another great example of a more sustainable way to raise money via social networking. Twollars are a currency of appreciation for Twitter. Twollars are designed to reward positive actions. You can give Twollars when someone helps you by tweeting useful information, sharing a tip, writing an inspiring Tweet or if you are just feeling generous. Besides giving them to people, you can show your support to multiple charities on Twitter by sending them Twollars. The recipient can then collect Twollars this way and later, exchange them for hard currency from businesses and people who support their cause.
I know many believe that Twitter's a fad and the novelty will disappear, which in some respects, could be true. However, they said the same thing about blogs and social networking - and look at them now! Facebook is a great example of this - now the main referral source for JustGiving. Perhaps the only true way to discover whether it works for you is jump on the Twitter bandwagon and test it out!