Having shared this with a few people around the place, I was asked to pop it online for all and sundry to link to.
It's nothing special - I was just trying to put together a succinct guide to using Twitter, specifically aimed at educating the CEO or other head of a not-for-profit organisation.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is often thought of as mobile phone SMS’s online, but this is not the best way to think about it. There are similarities - you have a maximum of 140 characters (as per a text), it is mainly text-based rather than using images or video, and mobile phones remain a key way to access it. However, it is best to think of Twitter as a mass-conversation tool.
Why use this tool?
Twitter enables you to talk to individuals as well as many. It allows you to give information to people who specifically want to hear from you, as well as gather information from sources important to you. Most importantly (from a CEO point of view), it allows supporters to have a genuine personal connection to you.
Twitter user examples
Tim Costello – World Vision Australia (
@timcostello)
Tim has only been using Twitter for a few months, but has already gathered 1000 followers. His account shows a range of messages that mostly cover his official duties, written from a personal perspective.
Kevin Rudd – Foreign Minister (
@KRuddMP)
Kevin has successfully maintained a large number of followers even after losing the Prime Ministership, partly due to his ongoing personal updates. He shows a huge amount of personality through his tweets.
Bob Brown – Greens Senator (
@SenatorBobBrown)
Bob uses his account with a mix of media lines, links to reports, media releases and info about upcoming appearances.
Disclaimer: I did initially set up and train Bob on how to use his account, but in the following years he has expanded this greatly to better reflect his personal style.
Managing your account
Having your own account does not mean it has to be solely managed by yourself. Whilst it is important for followers to see a genuine engagement from you, they will also accept a certain amount of input from your staff.
Eg you may put out a personal tweet:
“Currently en route to Indonesia to tour textiles factory – hopeful they have cleaned up their labour rights issues”
Whereas your staff could put out a more information/press release type tweet:
“The video from my talk at the Wheelers Centre is now available: (LINK)”
There are a number of technical ways to manage an account – via mobile phone, via the Twitter website, via a Twitter client. These options should be explored based on frequency of use and personal preference.
Twitter as a news source
Many news outlets now use Twitter as a broadcast medium. By following these accounts, you can instantly be kept up to date of top stories and breaking news. More importantly, we are seeing Twitter break news quicker and more effectively during disasters and humanitarian events.
Example:
Here,
@SBSNews reported breaking news of a quake in Vanuatu. We instantly retweeted this to our followers.
Ten minutes later we were able to retweet one of our staff reporting on the issue.
Retweeting
This is where you can simply resend an existing tweet to your supporters. This does not necessarily constitute endorsement of the original statement – instead think of it as saying to your followers ‘I think this is interesting and/or relevant to your interests.’
Example:
In this example, the tweet originally came from
@GetUp, but was retweeted by
@OxfamAustralia.
Hashtags
Hashtags simply enable similar conversations to be grouped together. Think of them as quick searches within Twitter. Instead of searching for all tweets that mention the word ‘climate’, you can simply click on the tag ‘
#climate’ and be shown the collective conversation.
Hashtags are used in two distinct ways: for specific events (eg
#COP16 for the Cancun climate talks), and for popular ongoing conversations (eg
#IvoryCoast for the current humanitarian problems in the Ivory Coast)
Examples:
Usernames
Your Twitter username is whatever you choose (subject to availability), with an @ symbol before it. By using this @ symbol when referring to other Twitter users, you alert them to the fact that you have mentioned them. This is important in showing you are engaging within the community.
Examples:
In this example, we mentioned comedian Josh Thomas’s account
@joshthomas87 (in relation to the Oxfam Comedy Gala event), thus notifying him of our mention. He then retweeted this out to HIS supporters, increasing our reach much more than if we had just typed ‘Josh Thomas’.
In this example, the
@LowyInstitute posted a link to an article written by Oxfam ED Andrew Hewett, linking to the
@OxfamAustralia account. This notified us and enabled us to simply retweet it out to our supporters.
Links
Many tweets link to wider content where possible - this is not always necessary, but it enables quick updates to link to further information.
When you link out, you must shorten the website address you are linking to, in order to keep your message under the 140 character limit. For Oxfam websites, we have a custom shortener called
http://oxf.am. For non-Oxfam sites, we use
http://ow.ly or
http://bit.ly.
Examples:
Different Twitter clients will do this in different ways – this can be explored in further detail later, it’s just handy to remember NOT to use full, long URLs.
Responding to people
The power of a real connection cannot be understated. If they receive a genuine response to an inquiry, your followers will hold a closer connection to you. Again, this does not have to be managed specifically by you personally – it can be managed by staff. It’s up to your personal preference.
Further reading
If you have the time, I’d suggest these articles to give a bit more depth to the use of Twitter (specifically for individuals and managers within the NGO sector):
Thanks to everyone on the
ECF list for their suggestions in putting this together.
