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How Your Nonprofit Can Use Twitter–Even If You Don’t Tweet

August 13, 2015 by Dennis Fischman 3 Comments

What are people saying about your nonprofit?  Who lives in your area and cares about your cause?  Who’s looking for your help right now?

You can find out.  You won’t have to hire a private investigator or ask the NSA to give you secret data.  What you need is Twitter search.

Is Your Constituency on Twitter?

You may be surprised at who’s using Twitter these days.  “For Black Americans, the social network of choice may very well be Twitter, as 25% of Twitter users are African Americans (approximately double the U.S. population),” says marketing expert Jay Baer.

In fact, a Pew study reveals, “The typical Twitter user is an 18-29 year-old educated minority with a well-paying job, and slightly more likely to be male than female…Use of Twitter across all age demographics is on the rise.”

Listening In to Conversations

Twitter offers you the chance to be a fly on the wall when the people you care about are talking.  As Tao of Twitter author Mark Schaefer points out, “If you search Google, Bing or Yahoo, your results will be articles, videos, and websites. But if you search Twitter, the results are real-time conversations.”

What could your nonprofit find out by listening in to conversations on Twitter?  Let’s say your mission is to create affordable housing.  You could find:

  • People living in your town who have expressed positive sentiments about affordable housing
  • Tweets that mention your agency by name
  • Elected officials who have (or noticeably have not) addressed the issue
  • Media personalities who take an interest in the issue
  • Donors to your organization and what’s on their minds

Getting In On the Conversation

Even if you never send a tweet yourself, this information could be highly valuable to you.  You could add like-minded people to your mailing list, or recruit a public figure to speak at your next event.  You could find out how you look to your community.  You could do donor and prospect research that produces more gifts.

But if you tweet, you make yourself part of the conversation.  Imagine:

  1. Building a relationship with that high-powered donor who’s too busy to have a meeting, but always answers his tweets.
  2. Answering questions about affordable housing so that people know you’re the thought leader in the field.
  3. Lobbying a public official and having many of your supporters join in.
  4. Finding someone who needs housing right now, helping them obtain it, and watching them sing your praises online.
  5. Getting on the radar screen of people who might never have seen your name any other way.

Whether you use Twitter search to gather information or also tweet to take part in a conversation, it could be a powerful tool for your nonprofit.

Are you already using Twitter at your nonprofit?  What advice would you give an agency that wants to start using Twitter?

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How Small Nonprofits Light Up Social Media

December 16, 2013 by Dennis Fischman 6 Comments

Are you a small nonprofit organization, based in a single community?  Congratulations: you have natural advantages when it comes to social media.

What are your advantages?  The same strengths that social media maven Mark Schaefer sees for small businesses–only more so.

Local angle.  “I could care less about a tweet from a mega-brand,” Schaefer writes, “but I would certainly be interested to get to know a local shop owner in a personal way.” The people you serve, their families, your staff and Board, their families and friends, your city council, your school committee, and all your donors and volunteers are interested in you in real life.  They might be interested in you on Facebook or Twitter, too…but only if you show you’re interested in them.

Personal touch.  As a small nonprofit, you can know more of your supporters personally.  This one is always talking about raising a biracial child.  That one prides herself on her mouthwatering vegetarian recipes.  When you can provide useful information on a subject they care about , your supporters will notice.  (And they will always appreciate a compliment!)

Relationships. Businesses, and large nonprofits, are tempted to look at everything in terms of ROI, Return On Investment.  They miss the intangible results that small nonprofits perceive. If your supporters are telling you, “I loved that picture you posted,” or if they’re sharing information that you put out, or if municipal officials are treating you with more respect, you know you are building loyalty that will help you sooner or later.

Don’t Hide Your Light

“But I don’t know how to use social media,” you say.  “And I don’t have the time.”  You do know how to be social in real life, right?  A good consultant can train you on how to do social online.  A consultant can also help you use your time to best effect, or you can pay him or her to be your online voice.

Is it worth it?  Using social media well means getting closer to the people who matter most to your organization.  Yes, that’s worth doing.  You are ideally positioned to do it.  Go ahead: let your light shine!

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The Tao of Twitter, for Nonprofits

November 25, 2013 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Author Mark W. Schaefer

Mark W. Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter

I started tweeting about nonprofit communications a year and a half ago. I would say, “The Tao of Twitter is the book I wish I had read back then,” except that might give you the impression it’s only for beginners. That would be untrue.

The Tao of Twitter is basic in the sense that it focuses on the basis underlying all successful social media–and a lot of life.

1. Targeted connections. “Systematically surround ourselves with people likely to want to know us, learn from us, and help us.”

2. Meaningful content. Write, blog, and tweet for the people you want to reach. Make sure what you say will be important to them.

3. Authentic helpfulness. Don’t sell. Connect. Find ways to help without already seeing (let alone asking for) a favor you can get in return.

One-third of the book elaborates these principles. One-third tells you how to put them into action through Twitter. And one-third tells you how to build on the basics and succeed.

Nonprofit organizations are in an especially good position to practice what Mark Schaefer preaches in The Tao of Twitter.  We may call it outreach, coalition-building, collaboration, or whatever, but acting together with a mission in mind is in the nonprofit DNA. Doing it online is just a natural outgrowth of what we do already.

Nonprofits know a lot about our subject matter, too.  When we write, blog, or tweet in order to be useful to our community, it does more for us and our reputation than if we blow our own horn.  The nifty new name for this approach is content marketing, but it’s how nonprofits have always made our reputation.

So I encourage you to read this slim book, then decide whether Twitter is the right medium for you.  And if it is, tweet me…and Mark.  I’m sure both of us will be happy to hear from you!

 

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