10 Ways for Charities to Use Twitter

POSTED ON APRIL 3, 2011 BY ADMIN

Social media benefits aren’t just for businesses. Charities and philanthropic organizations are beginning to recognize the many ways that they can make use of these tools for promotion and fundraising. A search for charity tags on Twitter will bring up a long list of organizations that are already making use of that medium. Here are some of the ways they are using their Twitter accounts:

1. Promote fundraisers. Getting the word out to a broader group of people than their immediate supporters has always been a challenge for charities. They often don’t have the resources needed for big advertising campaigns. Twitter allows then to spread the word about upcoming fundraisers to their supporters and beyond with no expense at all.
2. Finding volunteers. Twitter can be a great tool for attracting new volunteers. Its ability to communicate in short continual bursts that can, and are, re-tweeted to a wider audience, makes it a perfect for whetting the appetite of individuals that share a passion for the cause of a particular charity.
3. Keep in touch with supporters. A Tweet a day can keep supporters actively involved with the happenings of the charities that they support. Many supporters are more likely to read those daily posts than they are a monthly newsletter. Cutting the information into bite sized pieces can make them easier to consume and digest.
4. Networking. Twitter is also a great connecting place with other like-minded organizations. By following other organizations, a charity can learn new strategies and find organizational support as well.
5. Share specific needs. Twitter can be great for locating specific items that are needed on a donation basis. Putting out a tweet that tells of a specific need, such as a van or a computer, can increase the possibilities of that need being met in a shorter time frame than it would be otherwise.
6. Share success stories. Organizations can, and should, also be using their Twitter accounts to share their success stories. Needs draw in many supporters, but it’s the positive stories about what is being accomplished through the organization, that keep supporters long term.
7. Create awareness. Tweeting links to articles and blogs can become a great means of creating awareness and educating followers about the needs a charity is working to meet.
8. Broaden their reach. The concentric circles that can spread out from a social network post are  the essence of their success. One small tweet can be re-tweeted many times. It can also be posted and shared on facebook. Its audience numbers are very hard to estimate, but they can be amazing.
9. Matching funds. There has been some use of Twitter to promote matching funds campaigns. In one instance, the contributor of the ‘matching funds’ simply asked people to begin following him on Twitter, and when he gained 1,000 followers, he would make the donation.
10. Interaction with followers. Twitter also provides for two-way interaction with followers, enabling a charity to answer questions from current or potential supporters.

Some charities have stuck their toes into the waters of social media and have not found it to be as successful as they had hoped. Others are very excited about the response that they received via this new medium. As with any medium, it works better for some than others, and it does need to be used correctly in order to be affective.

(source:bundledpackagedeals.com)