2 Tweet or not 2 Tweet
Twitter is just a gossip network, right? Not according to its 6 million users. Sure, you might read the occasional tweet about your colleague’s awesome sandwich, but Twitter is a grapevine with sweet fruit for community organisations.
Submitted
6/4/2009
By
actnow
Views
1138
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0
Updated
12/2/2009
What’s the point?
Yes, it’s a fad. It’s Facebook without the attention span. But with an estimated 3.8 per cent of the internet using it, Twitter has become a great way to spread news fast.
Already it has been harnessed to fundraise: Nine Inch Nails star Trent Reznor tweeted for a cause, and raised $650,000 in just two days! Websites and video clips are easily shared, creating opportunities for cheap social marketing. And it’s never been simpler to keep members and supporters updated. In fact, the Red Cross has even used Twitter to warn residents of impending natural disasters–and Tweeters got the message faster than those who relied on conventional news.
Every web 2.0 site is rushing to include an “add us to your Twitter” button – so whatever your take on Twitter is, one thing is certain: resistance is futile!
Twitter 101
For a social networking site, Twitter is streamlined. There’s no bio page, just a short description and a picture. The homepage is a feed (a chronological list) of “tweets” which are 140-character responses to the question: What are you doing? Tweets have been coined the ‘SMS of the internet’ and can be published from a computer, or from a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.
To read a friend’s tweets, you must “follow” them. Anyone who follows you can likewise read your updates. If you end up with hundreds of followers, you might find your feed a little overwhelming. Downloading applications such as Thwirl and Tweetdeck can help you manage your followers and sort them into groups.
Tweeting like a Pro
Once you have signed up for a Twitter account, the first challenge is to find users to follow. Search by name for friends, family, colleagues and celebrities to add to your flock. To find organisatons around topics of interest, try using twitter search or other directories such as MrTweet, Twellow and WeFollow.
You’ll have to do the chasing at first but remember: it is the goal of every Tweeter to be followed by more people than they are following!
Once you’ve got some followers and have mastered the simple outgoing message, you might want to diversify your tweets with some of the following:
A reply: There are two ways to reply. If you’re okay with the reply being public, place @theirusername at the beginning of your tweet. If you want to send a personal reply, choose Direct Message from the right-hand bar of the homepage. It will not show up in the feed.
A mention: Referring to another user in the middle of your tweet. For example “when will ‘@theirusername’ be holding their next get together?”
Re-tweeting: When you read a tweet you like, and want to pass it along to your followers. Give credit to the original tweeter by starting with ‘RT@theirusername’ then copy the tweet.
Searching for your ‘@username’ on twitter search will show you who has retweeted or mentioned you. This can be a yardstick for how much impact your twitter account is generating.
Sharing a URL: When you want to share a website link in your tweet, but don’t want the link itself to gobble up your 140 characters, use tinyURL it to abbreviate it.
New terminology and applications are always popping up, so keep an eye on the definitions box at the top right-hand corner of the homepage!
Opportunities with Twitter:
The Twitter fundraising snowball is really gaining momentum. Many have heard of Hugh Jackman’s Twitter campaign – he wants his followers to tweet to him which charity deserves funding and why. The most compelling case will win their charity $100,000. There a lots of similar stories of celebrities offering Twitterised cash incentives for community organisations.
In February 2009, two-hundred and two cities participated in the world’s first Twestival– a Twitter communities festival. The event raised the profile of community organisations in attendance and brought them face to face with a whole new audience. Most importantly it raised money for charity:water, an organisation dedicated to providing the world with clean water.
It’s quite amazing what this quirky microblogging fad has accomplished. And new opportunities are around every corner–or at least, that’s what a little bird told me.
