Use this guide to take stock of your organization’s Twitter routine

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, brands, bloggers, social media managers, individuals.

This is part of our series on how nonprofits can get the most out of Twitter. Please check back weekly for the next installment.

By Kyria Abrahams and J.D. Lasica
Socialbrite staff

There are scads of Twitter guides, cheat sheets and how-tos floating around the Web. However, too often we see experts being clinical, detached and almost mathematical in trying to dissect an otherwise fun and useful social medium.

Actually, Twitter is not that complicated. And unless you’re Anthony Weiner, your job most likely does not hang on a single tweet. In fact, Twitter is especially suited to nonprofits because it allows your organization the freedom to spotlight a broad range of issues and newsworthy items that relate to your cause.

Below we’ll outline some basic practices about how to use Twitter, especially if you’re just getting started with the platform. If you’re an old hat at it, think of this as a little refresher course for your daily Twitter practice.

Here are 24 basic best practices with Twitter that every nonprofit should know.

Don’t overcomplicate Twitter

1Be honest, be real, be human. Don’t be the guy at the party with a set of “emergency” conversation starters on index cards. Don’t overthink your Twitter entries. Use your own voice, not a detached, institutional one.

Tweet about things people care about

2Link to newsworthy events that people are already talking about and how they relate to your cause. Remember, no one outside of your organization cares who your executive director shook hands with today. Link to interesting items about your partners or sector.

Tweet in the moment

3Are you at a gala event and your senator or governor just walked in? Don’t be afraid to live tweet as it’s happening.

Follow the 60-30-10 rule

4That’s 60% retweets and pointers to promote items from other users or sites, 30% conversation and responses, 10% announcements and events. If all you ever talk about is you, no one is going to pay attention after a while.

Be strategic

5Follow and schmooze with influencers in your sector. Use search.twitter.com’s Advanced search link to find people in your sector or geographic region. Use tools like Klout, SocialMention, PeopleBrowsr (including its new Kred) and Twitter Lists to find them and make sure you engage before you ask for anything.

Be supportive

6Follow like-minded users and engage with them. Retweet liberally. Link to interesting news stories about your partners or sector.

Optimize your keywords

7Make sure that people can find you in a search. Your profile should contain the name of your organization, relevant keywords and a url to your site or blog.

Personalize your page

8Upload your organization’s logo as an icon, or you may want individual staffers to use their own thumbnail images. Don’t use a standard Twitter background (click the “Change background image” link under the Design tab of your profile). Adjust background and text colors. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t make your account private.

Stick to a routine

9The most popular accounts offer a steady stream of tweets: five to 10 a day. It’s unlikely you’ll overtweet. Tweet during weekdays, mostly from 9 am to 5 pm. Use social media dashboards like CoTweet, Hootsuite, TweetDeck or Seesmic to spread out and schedule your tweets.

Find your retweet style

10You can hit the retweet button, or go old school with a “RT” and an @mention, allowing you to add your own comment at the beginning (fyi: it’s common practice to comment before, not after, the “RT”).

Use hashtags

11Join in relevant Twitter conversations and trending topics by using #hashtags. Use existing ones or create your own. Check out our list of 40 hashtags for social good.

Get into a groove

12Consider focusing on one topic for a day or a week. Combine your updates with a hashtag theme like #WaterWednesday or #socialjustice.

Sync Twitter and Facebook

13Add a tweet button to your site or blog to allow easy sharing of your content. If you have a blog, always tweet about an updated post, but rewrite the headline to ask a question or create a jazzier angle.

Ask questions

14Use Twitter to conduct research, to solicit ideas, to identify experts, to thank donors and to ask questions of your followers.

Use calls to action

15It’s OK to say “Please check out our latest photo essay” or “Please RT.” Just don’t abuse people’s attention spans.

Include links

16Social media expert Dan Zarella found that tweets containing a url are three times more likely to be retweeted.

Measure your links’ popularity

17Use free url shorteners like bit.ly whenever including a link. Tools like CoTweet, Hootsuite and TweetDeck include these. Bit.ly will track which urls in your tweets get the most click-throughs.

Retweet your @mentions

18Instead of tooting your own horn, it can be more effective to retweet someone else’s tweet about you.

Have one regular, daily tweet

19Consider sharing a “Photo of the Day” or “Tip of the Day.” It gives you a chance to link back to your website or blog.

Be gracious

20Respond to people when they mention you. Reply when people ask questions. Follow back people who follow you (but don’t feel obliged to).

Be pithy

21Leave enough characters at the end of your tweet to enable people to manually retweet it.

Rephrase it, then go again

22It’s OK to use the same tweet more than once, but it’s best if it’s spread out by a few hours and reworded.

Take part in Follow Friday

23Take part in Follow Friday by sending out #ff updates to your favorite Twitter accounts early in the day. Many people will reciprocate.

And last but not least:

Don’t auto-DM

24DM (direct message) followers to ask them to RT an especially important tweet. But don’t use automatic Direct Messages to greet new followers. It’s considered bad form.

Twitter articles on Socialbrite

• 8 nonprofit Twitter superstars

• 12-step guide on how to live-tweet an event

• 40 hashtags for social good

• 12 great nonprofits & causes to follow on Twitter

• Build a fan base: How to get more followers on Twitter

• Go viral: 13 ways to get your blog posts retweeted

• Twitter tutorials: Twitter Lists, hashtags, Twitter stats & more

The post 24 best practices for nonprofits using Twitter appeared first on Socialbrite.

Experiment with the approaches below to see which works best for you

Target audience:Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, bloggers, social media managers.

This is the first in our new series of articles on how nonprofits can get the most out of Twitter.

By Kyria Abrahams
Socialbrite staff

We’re kicking off our new series on how nonprofits can make the best use of Twitter with a roundup of organizations that showcase a strong voice in the community. Below are eight popular nonprofits on Twitter today as well as an overview of their varying styles and strategies.

These organizations are successfully using the following approaches. They:

• Support other nonprofit Twitter users with Follow Friday.
• Retweet others.
• Quote well-known and well-respected voices.
• Write concise “teaser-style” tweets that link back to their main website.
• Make ample use of hashtags or create their own.
• Ask questions that engage their followers.
• Use human interest stories.
• Respond to tweets that mention their organization.

charity: water

1With 1.3 million followers, charity: water is the first Twitter result when using the search term “nonprofit.” The organization’s focus is clear and so are their tweets, many of which focus on celebrating individual supporters, small donors and partners. Tweets feature a compelling teaser, which links back to their website.

The Gates Foundation

2The Gates Foundation makes ample use of hashtags and actively participates in “Follow Friday” (hashtag: #FF), a practice which builds a sense of community around their cause and can be seen as a type of online partnering. They utilize a “Photo of the Day” that links back to their site, a tactic which is also used by Charity Water. If anyone has ideas on properly using Twitter, it’s probably Bill Gates.

The Humane Society

3The Humane Society originated the popular hashtag #FelineFriday, which encourages people to post photos of their cats. The tag is so popular that I sent them a tweet asking if they had come up with the concept. They replied to me within two days, which means that they’ve also got a crack team checking on all their @replies — another big plus!

Free Arts

4With chapters in Minnesota and New York, Free Arts uses Twitter to share inspirational quotes and links to interesting articles related to their cause. Quotes work well on Twitter because people are more apt to retweet inspirational quotes than another link to your blog. Plus, you’ll never have to worry about having writer’s block.

Free Arts

5St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital gracefully retweeted Cindy Crawford after she wrote about spending the day at their facility. Understated and natural retweeting — sometimes pre-scheduled — is preferable to having a page littered with unanswered posts begging to be retweeted by celebrities who will probably just ignore you anyway.

Direct Relief

6Direct Reliefmakes good use of newsworthy hashtags like #healthcare and does a fair amount of retweeting others.

Room to Read

7We like Room to Read for asking interactive questions on hot topics people might be searching for. Asking simple, personalized questions offers an opportunity for users to @reply to you when they otherwise may be disinclined to.

Operation Smile

8Operation Smile updates readers with human interest stories of specific children they’ve helped, and links to well-produced videos highlighting their mission. Like many others, they also use a “Pic of the Day.”

You may wish to experiment with each of these different approaches and see which works best for you. Eventually, you’ll find your own unique Twitter style. Remember that you want to be seen as an educational, entertaining destination and not as a marketing tool. Don’t be afraid to keep the reigns a little lose, have some fun and build community. Then get tweeting!

Stay tuned for more best practices for nonprofits on Twitter in this ongoing series!

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