This document provides information and best practices for using Twitter effectively. It discusses topics such as common Twitter terminology, growing followers strategically, using tools like HootSuite to schedule tweets, using hashtags to amplify messages, running contests to engage followers, integrating Twitter with other marketing efforts, and fundraising on social media. The document aims to help readers take their use of Twitter to the next level.
6. RT- Retweet: when a user manually Retweets another’s Tweet
DM- Direct Message: found in your inbox, a private message
between users
FF- Follow Friday: every Friday, users suggest who other users
should Follow
HT- Hat Tip: crediting another user for something they used in
a Tweet
MT- Modified Tweet: Tweet manually changed by another
user
OH- Overheard: things someone hears in real life
RLRT- Real Life Retweet: similar to OH
PRT- Please Retweet
TFTF- Thanks For the Follow: quick thanks to new follower(s)
7. Who to Follow
Trending topics
URL shorteners (bit.ly)
Custom
backgrounds
8. ANYTHING YOU WANT!
Be creative. As a medium, Twitter is built for individual
overshare, but in essentially writing ad copy in a 140
characters, you can be a little liberal with what you’re
posting.
11. You’re representing your agency, so stay away from
personal beliefs regarding religion, politics, most – if
not all – controversial issues
Use conventional wisdom, or if it seems like a bad
idea, it probably is.
12. DO:
◦ Follow like-minded people and organizations
◦ Post great content that people want or need
◦ Engage with followers and those you want following you
DON’T:
◦ Follow everyone and their brother and their dog
◦ Ignore your Twitter presence
◦ Blast one-way messages
◦ Only use your Twitter profile when you want something
(promote event, fundraise, etc)
13. There is no magical way to rapidly grow in followers.
Do not buy followers. Don’t bribe people to follow.
Slow and steady is the only way to build an engaged
and loyal following on Twitter.
14.
15. While you can manage your Twitter feed through the
Twitter site, most people use a third-party app.
These apps allow you to pre-schedule tweets, monitor
mentions or conversations (hashtags), and get
reporting/analytics
HootSuite and Tweetdeck probably the most popular –
I’m going to cover HootSuite
16.
17.
18.
19. HootSuite also comes with reporting and analytics
tools. I’ll show a few pre-loaded ones, but you can also
create custom reports.
HootSuite comes with:
◦ Summary reports
◦ Owl.ly individual link stats
◦ Facebook Insights
◦ Google Analytics
20.
21.
22.
23. What is a hashtag? Examples
◦ Hashtag (#)- Tags. If you put ◦ #sm4np
a # in front of a word, ◦ #fundraising
phrase, or abbreviation, it ◦ #oceangiving
will bring up your Tweet ◦ #potus
whenever anyone searches
that #hashtag.
24. Specific topics, events, conferences, etc. have specific
hashtags.
Amplify message
Contests
Go viral
Find new Tweeps
25. What is a targeted follower?
What is your [organizational] goal for Twitter?
26. The What The How
marketing activity to get Be clear on purpose
followers Chose right time and
RT/Pledge/Submit to prize
enter Track participation
Winner is picked Make sponsors shine
Keep in touch
More??
Tony Eldridge is the creator of the
Marketing Tips For Authors Blog
27. Sponsor/prize?
Hashtag and contest?
Who would run the contest?
Who are you looking to find?
In one minute, I’ll ask you to turn to your neighbor and
share your idea. Then please share with the group.
28. “How much social media Invite high-intensity,
can $200 buy?” ask expressive participation
Alexandra Samuel of Social with tangible rewards
Signal Frequent smaller prizes
beat one large prize
Great contest + short
deadline= high density
participation in short
time frame (virality)
Use Twitscoop
30. Your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can
be enhanced by Twitter
Part of Twitter strategy should be to tweet links to
your site’s best content
These tweets should also be rich in relevant keywords
(analyze which search terms people use to find your
site to help determine best keywords)
31. Assess the issue with your peers
Never admit fault (unless instructed to do otherwise)
Do as much damage control as possible on Twitter
Don’t answer negativity with more negative comments
32.
33. You know how to tweet, but what about what to
tweet?
You need to answer:
◦ Who is your desired audience?
◦ What do you want them to do, big picture?
◦ How does this fit in with other marketing/communication
plans and goals?
◦ Who will do your tweeting?
34.
35. Links
Longer words
Higher reading level
New words/novel concepts
Don’t refer to yourself
DanZarella.com is awesome resource
42. Tweet @ someone, cc someone (did you like their blog
post, for example?)
Participate in a chat #fundchat #npchat
Retweet other people
Tweet afterhours/weekends
Did we miss anything?
43. Monitor responses/mentions every hour using either
the @connect feature or HootSuite
Respond to positive mentions or questions
It’s best practice to not even acknowledge negative
comments, lest they are severe accusations and may
require a legal team
44. Just like it’s valuable to monitor mentions, also
monitor conversations
Twilerts is a great tool (free) for monitoring a keyword
(summary email)
Keyword hashtags are another way to listen.
45.
46. Social media is not a ‘stand-alone’ activity, separate
from other ways you market or communicate. It’s not a
car, it’s a wheel on the car.
When properly integrated with other marketing efforts,
social can enhance effectiveness.
Top 2 benefits*:
◦ Increased exposure of message
◦ Increased traffic
47. 58% of marketers report using social media has helped
them improve sales
85% reported increased exposure (even with minimal
time investment)
Nearly half saw reduced marketing expenses
*
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport
48. Build an understanding at what your agency does for
the community
Start small – See if you can make volunteers out of
your followers first
Contests, similar stunts to help gain interest
49. Has anyone tried? What did you do? Who
wants to try? What are your thoughts?
50. You can fundraise on social media
Without a million followers
Without a tweet from Justin Bieber
Without adding another job to your day
51. Your audience is crucial
Experiment, test, and improve
Thank donors, move them up your engagement ladder
People give money because:
◦ People they know give
People give to
◦ There’s an immediate need faces and
◦ They’re asked heartbeats, not
People give to a cause, not to a logo statistics!
52. It has become increasingly common for new donors to
give their first gift online.
53.
54.
55. Not everybody sees each message
Not everybody responds
◦ Conversion rate
Each step in a process reduces response
◦ Conversion funnel
◦ 10%x10%x10%=0.1%! (need 1000 people to start)
Part of every community is dead weight
◦ Abandoned accounts, bots, spam folders
The good news…
◦ People share
◦ Action is easy
◦ Compounding interest
56. What to expect
Realistic goals
Grow your presence
Smallness as an advantage
57. 2,500 followers ≈ 5-10 donors
How do you figure?
If you have around 2,500 followers,
you’ll probably get 25 hits to the page
to which you're linking, and five or
ten people finish the action (donate,
like, etc)
58. Get 10 new donors
Learn who they are
Thank them personally
Stay in touch with them
Ten donors giving $25 per month all year is an extra
$3,000. Not bad!
59. Good: Better
Did you know you can Matching deadline
donate by… today – donate now!
Please give to support the Save this homeless
Animal Rescue dog today – all it
Organization takes is a $5 donation
Please Share! Donate, THEN share!
We’re trying to raise $25k We’re trying to
this year raise $250 from our
http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/
fans *today*. Only
http://johnhaydon.com
3 more needed!
60. Use it: Leverage a Special Event
Earth Day, Valentines Day, event
…or create one! #oceangiving
http://oceana.org/en/blog/2011/11/this-november-celebrate-oceansgiving
61. Use em': Partners, Advocates
Celebrity ambassadors
◦ Local and personal are best
Corporate sponsors
Local media, previous supporters
http://scr.bi/JUUCFo
62. Reward Participation
Reward participation
◦ “Like” for a chance to win…
◦ Submit a picture for a chance to win…
Nonmonetary gifts
◦ Facebooker of the week
◦ #FF (Follow Friday)
◦ Pizza box autographed by all staff
63. What's a free and easy way to
keep supporters happy?
Thank supporters/donors right away on social media.
It's free and powerful.
66. Best practices for thanking donors
Provide inspiring stories about what donors are
accomplishing with their giving
◦ “Susan just donated enough for 20 Thanksgiving meals!
Thank you!”
Be personal
Be specific:
◦ “Thanks for volunteering today Brian!”
more:
http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2012/02/how-skimping-on
http://www.bethkanter.org/say-thanks/
67. Link to your donation page Use social media fundraisers
The fewer steps the better
Remember the funnel
FirstGiving, PayPal
Any others?? Please share!
68. Setting up with parameters that you consider success
Retweets
Amount of followers
Comparing them with donations or general interest
from the community
69. Vanessa Swesnik: Director of Business Development –
HelpAttack!
Ryan Pangilinan: Social Media & Communications
Assistant – Volunteers of America Western
Washington (VOAWW)
Pat Rhoads: Social Media Specialist – AdoptUSKids
: Who to Follow can be found in the Discover tab. Here, you should see a few recommendations of accounts we think you might find interesting. These are based on the types of accounts you’re already following and who those people follow.
Hashtag (#)- Tags. If you put a # in front of a word, phrase, or abbreviation, it will bring up your Tweet whenever anyone searches that #hashtag. A lot of the time, specific topics, events, conferences, etc. have specific hashtags. Example: #sm4sg = social media for social good
http://www.socialsignal.com/blog/alexandra-samuel/14-tips-twitter-contests-build-followers-and-brand-visibility 200,000 followers. about 950 people had retweeted the message in one hour
Has anyone tried? Who wants to try? What are your thoughts? Image credit http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Discipleship/Stewardship/Fund-Raising.aspx
Are there supposed to be two "another"s on the slide? Ok, so enough promotion. This presentation is about how you can fundraise on social media without a million dollar ad budget You don't need a billion followers You don't need a Justin Bieber or Ashton Kutcher retweet And you also don't need to spend 24 hours a day doing it If you lay the right groundwork and approach it in the right way, you can grow your fundraising capacity on Facebook the same way you did with email, events, and other channels. You start from zero, and grow a little bit at a time. Images from: http://static.culturemap.com/site_media/uploads/photos/2010-11-22/no_justin_bieber.263w_350h.jpg https://www.facebook.com/officialpeta http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1205669/Is-multi-tasking-bad-brain-Experts-reveal-hidden-perils-juggling-jobs.html
Much of the early discussion of social media fundraising focused on the differences. However, As before, the more people hear or see your message, the more people will act on it. This goes both for the number of people who hear it, and how many times, and in how many different ways, each person hears it. This industry has spent decades measuring and improving email marketing and email fundraising, and that process is just beginning on social media. We all have to take risks, experiment, test, and improve. Just as before, organizations will focus on building their "house file," or database of contact information, donor, and history. Make sure you are always collecting information from Facebook, Twitter, and other online sources to complete your picture ofyour supporters. As we all gained wisdom, we realized that the reasons people give haven't changed. People give because people they know are doing it. People give because they feel there's an immediate need, and a way they can help with that immediat eneed. And finally, people give because they are asked. Image from Dog Training Secret http://www.thedogtrainingsecret.com/boxer-puppy.JPG
From Blackbaud’s 2011 Annual Giving Report
From Blackbaud’s 2011 Annual Giving Report
From Blackbaud’s 2011 Annual Giving Report
So when you set out to fundraise using social media, at first it doesn't live up to the hype. You post a link to your donation form, and... nothing happens. Why? First, not everybody sees each message. If people aren't online when you Tweet, they might miss it. Maybe Facebook decides not to show your message to everybody who liked your page. Maybe your post went out just before a Tsunami hit, and suddenly nobody pays attention. If you send out one social message - and this is a very general guess - you might expect a third of your audience to actually see it. Of those who see it, not everybody is going to retweet it, share it, or click on it. How many do that depends on you, and them, and the message. A conversion rate measures how many people can do a thing, versus how many people do that thing. Each "thing" someone needs to do to take action and support you, in sequence, filters some people out. This is usually called your "funnel." If you ask people to log into your website and then donate, that's two steps. If you asked them to do it from Twitter, that's three steps, since they weren't already on your website. You can measure each step, but in our experience the conversion rate is usually no better than 10% - again, this is a vague ballpark figure. So if you want one donation, and donating means clicking, logging in, and then donating, then you need to reach 1,000 people to get one donation. Plus, your community isn't as big as the numbers suggest. Some people just don't log back in, or filter our your messages on Facebook, or are, in fact, spam bots. The good news in all this is that your community is also bigger than the numbers suggest. People share what you say, and that sharing is frictionless. It's also so easy to reach new people, and for them to find you, that the larger your community is, the quicker it grows. Think of it as compounding interest in your bank account. Image from: http://www.moneychimp.com/features/simple_interest.gif http://www.flickr.com/photos/9968016@N02/5849739737/
http://goodorbademail.com/plain-text-email/sample-thank-you-letter-for-donation/ There are two reasons why this is good: 1. HelpAttack! is here! (to help you swing way above your weight)
and 2. That's still a lot of money. If only 1,000 people know who you are, you aren’t going to get (and retain) all 1,000 as recurring donors this year. Thank them ON social media, right away Network affect Each of these slides smashes doom and gloom and reaches further
I'm obsessed with which Facebook updates and Tweets are best for social media fundraising. And I don't know the answer. It's a tough thing to study because each audience, cause, time of day, Facebook feature - it's all different. You really can't A/B test, in the purest sense. I've noticed that communications people are driven by engagement and involvement, but for actions like fundraising you gotta be all about the clicks. Tell them what to do. Tell them how it will help. Make it a game, set goals, set deadlines. Make your Twitter audience feel special for what only they can do. Your logo and organization name is probably (maybe "maybe" instead?) really boring. Puppies, children, faces - much better. Be sure your post pulls in an image from the page you link to. By the way, go read everything John Haydon has to say about Facebook and everything Katya Andresen, nonprofit marketing blog, has to say about donor psychology and messaging. amazing.
We can't all be Livestrong or the American Red Cross - household names with bajillions of resources So use what you got. Offline events are, increasingly, online events. People Tweet and Facebook about your gala, your silent auction, and your volunteer day. Oceana made up an event called Oceangiving. First they asked their supporters to share stories about the ocean, and reasons they loved the ocean, on Twitter using the hashtag #oceangiving. THEN, they used our platform to ask people to chip in and donate 5 cents, 10 cents, whatever each time that hashtag was used. The content and the campaign were closely aligned with their mission. This is a model for campaigns that I really like. Use matching donations - either from the community or a larger donor - to incentivize the creation of certain kinds of content. You might be familiar with a company donating $1 per Facebook Like - they call it "action triggered donations". Then, the incentive creates more content, and more awareness, and probably more interest in giving, which can create more incentive, and so on. It's a nice feedback loop.
Remember, one of the challenges is in finding the right audience, and sometimes that means borrowing one. Reach out ahead of time, pick up the phone, send an email, and let them know what you're up to. Ask if they'll share your campaign when the time comes. Of course they will, they love you and sharing is easy. Not even just the Stings of the world. Mommy bloggers, local politicians, athletes perform better than big time celebs. The relationships you've developed all over your organization, make sure they are continued onto social media channels. Like their pages, repost their stuff, and they'll be ready to return the favor. http://www.scribd.com/doc/70669284/Effectiveness-of-Celebrity-Spokespeople-in-Social-Fundraisers http://arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=18841
picture: http://www.123rf.com/photo_8103494_3d-illustration-of-first-place-blue-ribbon-award-isolated-over-white-background.html When you thank donors, and reward participation - remember how important those incentives are You don't have to spend money on them. People who like the work that you do will be tickled pink by a little extra attention. You can invent a new prize, Facebooker of the week, for whoever posts the best stuff, or shares a donation ask, things like that. Follow Friday and other "cultural" events on Twitter and social media are useful too. Did your campaign messaging talk about how hard you've been working? Maybe have everyone in your office sign a clean, empty pizza box - as if left over from a staff meeting - to say thank you.
This image probably took about 5 minutes to create. And how cute is it? http://goodorbademail.com/plain-text-email/sample-thank-you-letter-for-donation/
Charity Water. does great things online, including these simple, direct video thank yous. See the top? It says "Thank you, Mackenzie." That's the founder. He probably did about 100 of these in a morning but that's 100 supporters whose minds were blown by the personal attention. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBrc4c_1jio&feature=player_embedded
I'm beating a dead horse. On Twitter, it's so easy. At reply, and say thank you. On Facebook, it's a little more challenging because you can't tag an individual as a page admin, and you can't message them directly. I would pick some of your supporters who you know a little better, call them out by name, or send a couple emails. Blanket thank yous by first name are also good. Thanks Brian, Kim, Akira, Susan, Jeff!
Thanking is the first step. Using your public thank yous to drive additional interest and activity is the next step. This is doubly true if your campaign is designed to reward the thanked activity. People will see you are listening, you get it, and they will get a reminder of something simple and powerful they can do.
HelpAttack! www.helpattack.com With HelpAttack!, you can support a cause by donating a small amount with each Tweet, Facebook update, #hashtag, blog post, or other social action. Chirpify www.chirpify.com Tweet a request for donations via Chirpify.com. Followers reply to your Tweet or Retweets with the word "donate." Donors and your organization receive receipts via email and DM.