Chapter 3
W (Write): Why You Should Tweet Like Kanye
After coming up with a proposed Target for your overall organizational account, and for the individual campaigns you want to run on that account, the next step is to start implementing your strategies. This step, Write, is all about extending information within your chosen Target so that others can learn what your Twitter account and your organization are all about.
Joining Twitter, Getting Started, and Jumping on Mobile Tweeting
When I give trainings, there is a fine line between ensuring I give enough practical information on how to get started on Twitter and not overexplaining the basics of Twitter to veterans. Sometimes individuals suggest that I should walk through the actual signup process during the presentation. In other presentations, however, I encounter questions from audience members that baffle me (and often the rest of the audience) with their nuanced understanding of the specifics of Twitter. For this reason, I will not focus on the how-to basics of getting started on Twitter in this chapter. Similarly, I will not walk through the exact steps of how to sign up for Twitter on your mobile device in this chapter. For these things, Twitter.com is your go-to resource. However, please keep in mind throughout this book that all references to tweeting and tweeting strategy encompass mobile tweeting as well—whether through a smart phone or in a country with fast follow (direct from SMS), as there are key benefits that tweeting on-the-go can offer organizations.
Now let's jump in to talk about what it means to craft your Tweet—to Write on Twitter.
The Written Word—Or, What You Can Learn from Kanye West
For many new Twitter users, the hardest part of getting started is simply sending out your thoughts without overediting. The idea that millions may read your first attempt—and every attempt thereafter—can be a bit daunting. I promise you, it's a problem that every Twitter user has faced.
Time and time again, organizations send out a mild first Tweet, like, “Hello World! Finally figuring out this Twitter thing!” only to, days later, delete it and rewrite their first Tweet for posterity.
Is that wrong? Not at all. Sure, it would be ideal that we all craft something brilliant before tweeting it, but the reality is that such brilliance (usually) eludes us. The important thing is to get going, with whatever you write. Anne Lamott explains, in her superb guide to writing Bird by Bird, that putting your first words on paper—no matter what those first words are—is the most important step in the writing process. The creation of those bad first attempts is the key to eventually developing quality content. Though Lamott is referring to crafting a book, writing is writing, and when it comes to getting yourself into the habit of writing, tweeting is no different.
When giving presentations on how cause-based organizations can excel on Twitter, I often use famed Twitterer and rapper Kanye West as an example of what to do (much to the surprise of the audience). After all, what on earth can the prolific ramblings of a sometimes self-absorbed rap star have to do with the mission-based work of organizations? It turns out—a lot.
Although others might debate the merits of Kanye's tweeting abilities, I am a firm believer that there is no one who can better teach us all about the downsides of overediting ourselves on Twitter. Kanye shows the importance of putting out as much information as possible—especially during the early stages of your tweeting career, when you are just trying to find your legs on the platform. Kanye does not overedit his Tweets, and neither should you.
At Twitter headquarters, we often reference an important guiding principle called “fail fast”—the idea that you should try things, make mistakes, and do so quickly so that you can immediately jump back up and try again. The story of how Kanye got started on Twitter is not lacking in such spontaneity. One day in July of 2010, Kanye West and Twitter advisor and angel investor Ron Conway were spending some time together in the San Francisco Bay Area as Kanye learned more about social media. The story goes that Conway, ever the Twitter aficionado, asked Kanye why he wasn't tweeting to better connect with fans. Since they were in San Francisco, and Kanye was intrigued with Twitter, Conway asked Kanye to jump in his car and drive over to Twitter headquarters. As Conway told me later, “It was fun and interesting to host Kanye's visit to Twitter—where he learned that he could communicate directly to his fans for the first time … and he sure caught on fast!” Before meeting with Twitter management and employees and learning about Twitter, Kanye sent his first Tweet:
A minute later, he sent his second.
Less than an hour after that, the Internet was abuzz with his entry onto the information network. Although anything Kanye said on Twitter might have gotten attention, it was Kanye's particular breed of tweeting that really had people hooked.
He was, in short, an immediate hit.
Saying everything he was thinking, without taking time to spellcheck his writing or filter his ideas, his Tweets really were a look into the complex, often funny brain of Kanye. In talking about his couture tastes in couches, his international flight exploits, and—yes—his newfound love for Twitter, he showed that his tweeting was authentic—that this celebrity didn't have anyone doing his tweeting for him.
Most interestingly, the flurry of Tweets didn't die down. In those early days, many speculated that Kanye was simply on an early Twitter high, and that his prolific, amazingly bizarre tweeting would soon give way to more infrequent, tame updates, as often happens with users (celebrity and noncelebrity alike). As of this writing, Kanye is still enthralling his followers with such witticisms and nonsensicalities as:
To the pleasure of many, he's even inspired others—like Charlie Sheen—to emulate his everything-goes tactic. Jokes aside, what can worthy causes legitimately learn from Kanye? Although fans might argue that Kanye's wisdom is endless, there are three main things that Kanye teaches us about how to best convey information on Twitter. If organizations take these three things to heart, and add in a bit of both content and textual editing, they'll be well on their way to getting started with the Write step of the T.W.E.E.T. model on Twitter.
Three Lessons for Organizations from Kanye West
- Bite the bullet: The time interval between Kanye's decision to join Twitter and his first Tweet was brief. Although Chapter Two encourages you to spend a bit more time in crafting your own organizational Twitter strategy, Kanye's enthusiasm to get going should be taken to heart. It's time to get started—no matter what the Tweet.
- Let it all hang out: Kanye doesn't edit himself, and (to some extent) neither should you. In the beginning, it's important to send out more information rather than less, and to be more personal than you might like. Erring on the side of overexuberance is a good bet for your first few days or weeks on Twitter, while you try different approaches to reach the Target you're aiming for with your account or campaign.
- Fail fast: In efforts to find your feet on Twitter, it's important to try different things (and to do so relatively quickly) to see what your followers respond to. In Kanye's case, his strategy was an immediate success, so he ultimately never turned his back on his Target (a personalized account, if you're taking notes) to use Twitter as a running commentary on his eclectic brain.
Ultimately, when organizations first start tweeting they cannot be sure exactly how their planned strategy will proceed and how their new and growing list of followers will receive it. Kanye teaches us that the important thing is to get going—and to do so exuberantly. As you get started on Twitter, there will be a process of adjustment as you find your legs. The Twitter strategy you dream up in your boardroom may not be the one that most resonates with your followers, and adjustment will be needed. Although Kanye has found wild success with his bizarre tweeting (and in my opinion should never change his winning strategy), you want to evaluate whether things are really working for you. We'll touch on this in much more depth in later chapters, but for now it's important to point out that the reason for diving in is to find your legs as quickly as possible.
See a full list of some of the best Tweets of all time at http://twitter4good.com/resources/best-tweets/
Using Multimedia in Your Tweets
Tweeting is not just about the written word. Text is powerful, but your efforts in multimedia may be much more likely to impress your followers. The launch of the new Twitter in September 2010 allowed for even better integration with multimedia, making it easier than ever to immediately have an impact with media in your Tweets. When Kanye TwitPics the targets of his online shopping addiction, his followers are more intrigued than when he just references it. Yours will be when you do so, too.
Charity: Water and the Photo of the Day
As one of the most-followed accounts on Twitter, @charitywater was one of the first early causes on Twitter to truly prove that helping the world can be a popular topic on the platform. The history of charity: water and its charismatic founder, Scott Harrison, is an interesting one. Harrison was not your typical do-gooder in the clean water space. For years, the only watering holes this New York club promoter knew about were the ones that you had to pay a cover charge to get into. In a July 2009 piece by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Harrison famously said of his pre–charity: water self, “I realized I was the most selfish, sycophantic, and miserable human being. I was the worst person I knew.”
But a trip to Liberia changed his life and set him on a new path to provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
Harrison first leaped onto the Twitter scene in 2008, when his September birthday campaign raised an incredible $965,000 for clean water efforts. He caught the public's attention online and shared his dream of delivering clean water to those who need it most by posting catchy videos showing Manhattanites filling bottles to the brim with dirty Central Park water. Highlighting the campaign on Twitter—and sharing powerful videos—was crucial in making the campaign viral, and in the spring of 2009 charity: water was selected to be the recipient of the Global Twestival initiative led by Amanda Rose, where Twitter users came together to raise more than a quarter million dollars to dig wells in Ethiopia, Uganda, and India. Harrison explained to me, “charity: water's approach to Twitter is just an extension of our brand values: we try to be funny and inspiring; we value relationships with our supporters and care a lot about our communications. We love our Twitter audience and use it as our primary channel for news, updates, and insights into the inner workings of our organization.”
Becoming one of the biggest accounts on Twitter doesn't happen by accident, and @charitywater has used a creative strategy to best gain followers and build a network of clean water activists and supporters on Twitter. One of their secrets—then and now—is powerful, personal media.
charity: water knows that getting you to care about a cause is all about getting you to see the problem, understand the problem, and feel the problem. charity: water uses high-impact media to do just that. First, they personalized their Twitter background with beautiful, powerful pictures of work they are doing in the field. Videos, which they place in their Tweets, convey their effective regular-guy-does-good message. Their photo of the day feature also gives followers a daily reason to remember the global efforts of charity: water and to share these accomplishments with friends.
The key to charity: water's success on Twitter has been their ability to translate their unique personality as an organization into their profile. Employing powerful media with a casual and interactive style, they have built a dedicated Twitter following with their Personalized Account. And when the masses follow charity: water, good happens in the world. In just over three short years, charity: water has raised enough money (more than $15 million) to bring clean and safe drinking water to more than a million individuals. Twitter influencers the world over have supported them as a result. Entrepreneur and Twitter investor Chris Sacca explains that being a supporter of charity: water is easy when they make their results so tangible: “I particularly appreciate organizations so efficient and accountable that they can show the exact impact of individual contributions. With charity: water, I can not only see the exact Ethiopian communities my donations have impacted, but I have even gone to Africa to visit some of those villages in person and see firsthand how transformational access to fresh water can be.”
UNICEF and Pepsi
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has also found success with a similar multimedia strategy. The well-known organization has a more-than-sixty-year history of providing emergency relief to children, and it was an early adopter of Twitter, working hard to engage existing followers and encourage new ones. An important element of this was ensuring that @unicef was sending out quality information and content—no matter the source.
Matthew Cortellisi, senior global marketing specialist at UNICEF, explained that one of the challenges of the UNICEF Twitter account lies in the fact that Unicef.org is not a destination website. Although many accounts rely on tweeting media links that direct back to their own frequently updated website, UNICEF doesn't have that option. Instead, they focus on tweeting quality content from many different sources and do not worry about the traffic it may (or may not) drive back to their website. Tweeting about fifteen times a week, they also rely heavily on multimedia in this practice. Video, for them, is a wildly popular means of attracting new followers and pleasing old ones. They aim to send out a video every week.
In contrast, Pepsi's Refresh Project shows what it means to pique the interest of the Twitter audience, drawing them toward a website to find more information or take action. Tara Roth McConaghy, executive director of the Goldhirsh Foundation, was once the COO of GOOD, Inc., and worked as a senior advisor on the Pepsi Refresh Project. Launched in January of 2010, the Pepsi Refresh Project aimed to take $20 million out of Pepsi's Marketing budget (separate from the Pepsi Corporate Foundation) and award it in grants to individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations who sought to promote change in their communities. The project would later expand to include another $1.3 million for the Pepsi Refresh Project: Do Good for the Gulf. Twitter played a role in its success. McConaghy says, “Since the Pepsi Refresh Project is a democratic campaign about engaging online votes to win, non-profits, individuals, and businesses leveraged their voices and voting forces in a variety of ways, including through Twitter.” Specifically, “Twitter allowed local stories to be broadcast across the nation and beyond to garner votes. Celebrities lent their support to promote innovative causes via Twitter.” Ultimately, she says, “This type of campaign would not have been nearly as successful nor as popularly received or sustained without the power of Twitter and other social media.”
Cross-Platform Media and Tweeting via Mobile: Global Citizen Year and Tweeting from the Field
As evidenced with UNICEF, there is a reason that the mantra of any internet marketer or blogger—content is king—also applies to Twitter. On Twitter, however, that content can be no more than 140 characters.
One of the keys to the success on Twitter is learning how to leverage this small space to intrigue your followers. Ideally, you want your followers to both look forward to your real-time information updates and click through on the link or media embedded in your Tweet to learn more (as in the Pepsi Refresh Project). This is especially true when combining different forms of media and various platforms. Global Citizen Year (@globalcitizenyr) has been especially successful with their cross-platform and multimedia strategy.
Global Citizen Year is a non-profit organization that provides and supports high school graduates with international apprenticeships in social enterprises in developing countries. By facilitating a “bridge year” before college for young adults, Global Citizen Year hopes to better prepare these individuals for university life in the United States—with the ability to speak a second language, a clearer sense of themselves, and a global perspective.
Abby Falik, a Harvard Business School graduate and the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, believed that her own experience working with a social enterprise in Nicaragua as a teenager was instrumental in opening her mind. (My own early experiences overseas—strangely enough, in the same rural Nicaraguan village where Falik had lived earlier—had a similar effect on me.) But back when Falik made her sojourn, she had only letters as a way to communicate with friends and family back home. With the advent of widespread Internet and mobile technology, the year-abroad experience has changed in fundamental ways, making current Global Citizen Year fellows more connected than Falik (or I) ever were.
When the first inaugural class of Global Citizen Year fellows headed out into the field in 2009, they immediately began sharing their insights and reflections on the Internet via the Global Citizen Year Fellow's blog. Complete with photos and videos (fellows were given Flip cameras to facilitate new media sharing), these stories brought Global Citizen Year to life.
In their early blog posts, the fellows focused on predeparture excitement or asked people to make a contribution to the Fellows Fund. Posts from their in-country training periods relayed lessons learned from experts in social enterprise and leadership. Soon, their posts transitioned into stories about the fellows meeting the homestay families with whom they would be living for seven months in rural communities across Latin America and Africa.
Similar to the Pepsi Refresh Project (and in contrast to UNICEF), Global Citizen Year is a destination website, and their strategy shows how multimedia works well as an integrated part of this setup. Tweeting, for them, is not just a way to extend with new information, but also a way to integrate and bring together the different types of media and the different platforms they were posting on. Videos, blog posts, and pictures could all come together in a short Tweet—with an embedded link to a longer article hosted on the Global Citizen Year blog. Interested followers who clicked through could then easily find more blog posts from the field, more media, as well as official information on the mission of Global Citizen Year and specifics on applying to be a fellow, donating to the organization, or otherwise getting involved.
The fellows at Global Citizen Year provide followers with a unique chance to watch the evolution of an individual through a powerful year in his or her life. From the challenges of learning a new language to the problems facing community farms in Senegal or local entrepreneurs in Guatemala, the GCY fellows' Tweets provide a window into the experiences of high school graduates immersed in a developing nation and the transformation sure to take place over the course of their Global Citizen Year.
Importantly, the fellows' ability to convey their experience is thanks in huge part to using Twitter via mobile. When we hosted the 2010 fellows at Twitter headquarters before they headed off on their year-long endeavors, this was one of the issues emphasized. Depending on which country they were going to, many of the fellows would be able to tweet via SMS. The others could easily do so with their smart phones. The result proved what it means to be a global citizen. I can be at home (or out and about in San Francisco on my own mobile device), following the updates of these fellows in five countries. Through their photo essays, videos, and blog posts—all collated in simple Tweets—I learn about their daily activities and their changing lives as the year progresses.
Examples of Twitter's use in the field become even more critical in crisis situations, where Tweets can serve as valuable news broadcasts to the world. Twitter allows anyone to be a journalist and an informant to the larger world, and provides a megaphone to amplify the message. In the wake of the Haiti earthquake, Craig Kielburger, founder and CEO of Free the Children, found himself tweeting while he worked with partners on the ground in the days following the earthquake.
His powerful reports from the ground placed him on a short list of the most-followed individuals on the ground in Haiti post-earthquake. The organization has said they owe the rapid growth of this network to social media platforms like Twitter—where their disproportionately young supporters are particularly active. In the next chapter, we'll look at further examples of Twitter's use in the Haiti earthquake—to learn how, as reported in the New York Times, “Twitter is transforming the nature of news.”
by Kelly Creeden, director of strategic partnerships at Free the Children
Throughout history, young people have always been at the forefront of every movement for social change.
Free The Children (FTC) is a by youth, for youth organization founded on the belief that young people have the power to change the world. FTC's model begins in North America, educating young people about local and global issues and empowering them to take action for social change. FTC's programming—which is focused primarily on youth, with a strong emphasis on educators, families, and the corporate world—is built on three guiding principles: Educate, Engage, Empower. Together, these principles work to change attitudes and priorities in North America, helping young people reach out to their friends across the globe through fundraising and awareness campaigns, resulting in sustainable change.
The model then extends to the developing world. The FTC team implements the Adopt a Village program in rural and marginalized areas in Haiti, Kenya, China, India, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka. On Twitter, @freethechildren maintains a strong connection to youth around the world by regularly tweeting about project updates and events and promoting their supporters' events and initiatives. FTC's founder, Craig Kielburger (@craigkielburger), uses Twitter to impart a more personal perspective of the work of the organization.
In the wake of a colossal tragedy, this didn't change.
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 15 kilometers from the capital city of Port-au-Prince, devastating the people of Haiti. Two hundred thousand people were feared to be dead and millions more were left homeless. At the time FTC had a ten-year history working in Haiti; they had built nine schools, a nutrition center, and sanitation facilities and helped support teacher salaries and technical training for students. Nearly two thousand children in Haiti attend FTC-funded schools. When the earthquake struck, FTC immediately responded with a strategy focused on protecting children.
A small convoy from FTC, including Craig Kielburger, travelled to Haiti to assist with early response and to carry out rapid needs assessments. During this time, Twitter was crucial for reporting the situation in Haiti back to North America. Because of Twitter, @craigkielburger was able to provide up-to-the-minute, on-the-ground coverage of the earthquake aftermath and relay crucial needs to multiple media outlets. Meanwhile, some news broadcasters had to fight for a single satellite signal available only in Haiti's airport. Thanks to Twitter, @craigkielburger was able to provide young people, other supporters, and the public an immediate opportunity for insight, engagement, and impact. As a result, FTC's early response to Haiti included initial shipments of $1.6 million of emergency supplies and $2 million worth of medical supplies shipped to camps for internally displaced people, hospitals, and strained communities. For the long term, FTC is fully implementing its Adopt a Village model and is committed to getting children quickly and safely back in school and equipping communities to be healthy and sustainable. Young people across North America are fundraising to assist with this effort.
Connect Your Target with Your Writing Strategy: Crushpad, Twitter, and Finding Your Followers
Throughout the writing process, it is important to ensure that your tweeting stays in line with your Target. The Twitter account for @fledgling—which represents the unique charity endeavor embarked on by Twitter, Room to Read, and Crushpad—gives some insight into what this means.
In the fall of 2009, Room to Read and Twitter launched The Fledgling Initiative together with Crushpad, a local winery that caters to clients who want to make their own wine. After working with some individuals associated with Twitter, Crushpad had proposed a company-wide winemaking endeavor for Twitter. Slowly, the plan began to emerge: Twitter and Room to Read would join together to make a specialty wine created and sold by Crushpad. All proceeds from the sales of the wine would go to Room to Read. The year-long process would be engaging and interesting for the employees at all three organizations and would specifically build bridges between employees at Twitter and employees at Room to Read. Crushpad would serve as the backbone of the operation, making sure things ran smoothly. Along the way, events associated with the project would be a formative part of the experience. During the ten to twelve months of presales—during which period the wine would be available to the public in presales but not yet bottled—employees from Twitter, Room to Read, and Crushpad could take part in a number of winemaking opportunities, including vineyard visits, grape punch-downs, pressings, barrel tasting parties, and bottling events.
The Fledgling Initiative launched in September of 2009 with a simple website cobranded by all three organizations: Twitter, Room to Read, and Crushpad. FledglingWine.com stated its mission: to sell wine for the benefit of Room to Read; every case sold could buy sixty local language books and promote literacy in the world's poorest regions. The video explaining the initiative started with Twitter cofounder Biz Stone, and the prominent text on the website came from Twitter cofounders. On FledglingWine.com, alongside a passage from John Wood of Room to Read were these official words from cofounders Biz Stone and Evan Williams:
As a company that's only one percent into its journey, we're always thinking about our long-term impact on the world. The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter's mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change. This initiative is just one piece of that approach. Take part in this mission and pre-buy our limited bottles of the wine. You can follow along with our wine-making activities on Twitter and at some points even participate in its creation. For each bottle you buy, $5 will be donated to Room to Read, a transformational non-profit that brings books, libraries and ultimately literacy to people in the poorest areas around the world. The efforts of Room to Read will benefit literacy, and in doing so they'll allow Twitter to grow. Because if you can't read you can't Tweet!
The Twitter account to go along with it would have to fit the unique partnership and the needs of the accounts' followers. When creating any Twitter account, it's important to remember who the followers are, as the demographic should help inform the nature of the account. For @fledgling, it was understood that the followers would be buyers, employees of all three organizations, and other interested parties. All groups technically fell under the category of potential buyers, so it seemed important that the focus of the account be the wine—with the support of Twitter and Room to Read coming in as secondary elements.
The Target was clear—it needed to be an information account sharing updates about the yearlong process of winemaking, with seasonal focuses on sales and fundraising, as appropriate. The emphasis was placed on the wine, with the idea that buyers would want (mostly) updates about the actual production of the wine itself—with the charity element less emphasized. With this strategy in mind, Crushpad was the best fit to do the majority of the tweeting. Noah Dorrance, former marketing director at Crushpad, explained his rationale for this behind-the-scenes Twitter account talking about the wine's production: “Being involved in the wine industry is kind of the new American dream. By letting people in on each step of the winemaking process through Tweets, photos, and video, we felt we could give followers a portal into the magic of winemaking and something cool to talk about. This made the donation a pleasant bonus to buying a great bottle of wine.”
The Fledgling Initiative was an unusual one, and there were multiple players who could have taken the lead with the @fledgling Twitter account. As such, it was important to carefully consider how to best connect the Target of the account with the purpose of the endeavor, ensure that the Writing connected with the Target, and make sure that the Writing best met the needs of the followers.
A Meditation on Twitter for Global Good
by April Rinne, director of WaterCredit at Water.org and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader
I often find myself viewing the world through a Twitter lens. I go through a day imagining if every aspect of it could be tweeted. Depending on where in the world I wake up that day, I might ask myself: How long is the wait for a taxi/bus/tuk-tuk to the office/school/store? What's headlining the local news today? Which community kiosk or pump has water this morning? Does the health clinic have its new supply of vaccines yet, so I can take my family there? Are there road blockages, construction or other delays on the roads? Is a particular fruit available at my favorite market, which is far away and I'll only visit if it's there?
I have used Twitter around the world. I've used it professionally to engage the microfinance community and institutions around the world, increase awareness of the global water and sanitation crisis, and highlight the work of in-country partner organizations. My most memorable experiences related to the power and potential of Twitter as a force for good have come about in travels to far-flung corners of the world. The Twitter lens looks much different in places where web access is scarce, or for a person living at the base of the economic pyramid who can't afford it. This also underscores the massive potential of Twitter via mobiles, which are far cheaper than computers.
My first “Aha!” moment using Twitter came in November 2008, six days after Obama's election as president. I was in rural western Kenya and given the surprise opportunity to meet his grandmother Sarah. Because Kenya didn't have a Twitter short code at the time (and I didn't have a smart phone with me in the field), I texted a friend in the United States who tweeted my news by proxy. Later, having retweeted that from the nearest village Internet connection, I discovered scores of new followers: people near and far had somehow found me and thought that what I had to say was worthwhile.
Since then I've had many other poignant experiences revealing both the utility of Twitter and the limitations where it does not exist. In the Himalaya, without mobile or internet access, I resorted to taking photos of the Tweets I wanted to send and then reposting them several days later.
For individuals and organizations in the developing world, there are myriad practical uses for Twitter that don't necessarily exist elsewhere. For example, it is estimated that worldwide, two hundred million hours are spent each day collecting water, and up to 25 percent of a poor family's income may be used to purchase water. Imagine if it were possible to target, track—and tweet—the availability and price of water in urban slums? And how easy would it be to couple that with helpful information about sanitation and hygiene? Or imagine if successful microfinance platforms like @kiva were deployed at the grassroots level and Kiva clients could Tweet among themselves and with the broader community. A farmer who'd taken a loan for seeds could get information about weather, a fisherman who'd taken a loan for a net could get information about the market price for fish, a tailor who'd saved up for a sewing machine could get information about fabrics, and all of them could get information about financial management and planning.
Twitter's value is profound on multiple levels: individual, organizational, transactional, governmental, societal, and more. For non-profit and cause-based organizations, its utility is broad and its impacts—whether focused on fundraising, information-sharing, or reputation and visibility—can be nothing short of phenomenal.
At the same time, however, a lingering question remains in my mind: How do we bridge the gap between non-profits and social enterprises' use of Twitter “at home” and use by the people and communities around the world that they serve? One key link in doing this is SMS.
SMS is ubiquitous in the developing world. Poor and more affluent people alike understand the power of texting and employ it constantly. Mobile penetration rates certainly help this; indeed, there are more cell phones than toilets in India (a sad comment on sanitation there, but that's another topic). While SMS offers principally one-on-one communications, Twitter's “follow” design makes it much better suited to disseminating information. Fulfilling Twitter's original SMS vision with a global footprint would likely bring great benefits worldwide.
Top Questions on the “Write” Step
Q: Who should write the Tweets?
A: Finding the right person to do your tweeting is an important part of making sure your strategy on Twitter works, for both your organization and your followers. As discussed in Chapter Two, it is essential that the person in charge of tweeting (say, your social media manager) be a part of the process of deciding what Target your account should have.
In more complex cause campaign initiatives that bring together multiple interests (like The Fledgling Initiative), thinking about the expectations and needs of the followers can help in deciding who should be in charge of the Writing so that it best ties in with the overall campaign Target. The topic of who does the tweeting is top of mind for celebrities and other high-profile individuals who often outsource their tweeting. After Conan O'Brien was famously fired from NBC's The Tonight Show, he kept in touch with his fans (who were used to seeing him every night on television) by joining Twitter. Quickly, @conanobrien created a storm on the service by creating one stellar, hysterical Tweet a day, and making headlines by following only one individual. As such, it should perhaps be no surprise that when he came to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco in April of 2010 he said that he did all his own tweeting (with the help of his team, who make sure he's actually funny).
Ryan Seacrest professed a similar stance when he visited Twitter headquarters in November of 2010, the same week he launched the Ryan Seacrest Foundation to enhance the lives of seriously ill and injured children. He proudly—and emphatically—told us that he wrote his own Tweets. When asked about his opinions of other celebrities who did pass off their tweeting duties to others, he responded that it was definitely something you have to be careful about—because followers want your voice. The question is a sticky one. “For the first time in history, any individual has the power to broadcast out to an audience, without having to go through a media company,” explained Omid Ashtari, in business development at Twitter focusing on media and entertainment. “More importantly, it's an audience willing to listen, as they opt-in to get information from each person or company. Many high-profile individuals have figured this out and take great advantage of the power of Twitter, whether for their own personal gain or to aid in their philanthropic missions. The audience is savvy, and users who are not authentic are drowned out and their audience stops listening.”
Who Should Do the Tweeting at Your Organization?
By John Carnell, CEO of BullyingUK
Thanks to Twitter and the power of its users to spread messages and tell each other about cool things they encounter, hundreds of thousands of people now know about our anti-bullying work at BullyingUK. Twitter has allowed us to put a voice and personality behind our organization's brand. As CEO I feel it's my duty to tweet. We have volunteers helping out on some of our other Twitter accounts, but I think to get our message across to the general public it needs to come from the very top of the organization. Where else is the heart and soul of the organization than at the point where the decisions happen? For best results, Twitter should be used by a person who has the power and authority to make decisions. Twitter users expect a reply within fifteen minutes if they can see you're online (you sent out a Tweet recently); if you fail to reply or give some excuse about needing to get advice from a higher-up, then you have really lost the magic of Twitter—the ability to very quickly respond and react to the general public on their terms, not ours. My advice would be, if the CEO won't or can't tweet, then it should be a senior PR person or someone from the volunteer coordination team. It must be someone with experience of the general public and who has a clear passion for the subject matter. If all else fails and it has to be given to a junior member of the team, then that person should have the full backing of the organization. They are, after all, your voice on Twitter. You gave them the power, so you can't blame them if they mess it up on your behalf.
Q: Who should send the Tweets?
A: Although you might think this is the same question as “Who Should Write the Tweets?” it's definitely not! I often get asked whether someone else can or should send the Tweets on behalf of the account's “voice.”
When I worked with Sean Penn's staff to explore onboarding his organization, J/P Haitian Relief Organization, one solution they suggested—and that works well—is to have a trusted advisor who regularly travels with the celebrity do the tweeting, and have the “voice” sign off. I would argue, though, that this is not necessary. If you're on your phone, or connected to the Internet, you can use Twitter. It really is that easy.
If you are convinced that you need to hire someone, however, Chapter Six provides tips about how to make sure they are in tune with the strategy your organization sets for itself on Twitter.
Q: How often should I tweet?
A: We all love directions on exactly how to excel, and talking about how often to Tweet is a favorite—and highly contested—question I hear in trainings and workshops. I did a random survey of Twitter employees and Twitter aficionados to see what they thought. This is what they said:
@tiger: I Tweet rather a lot at times.
@neongolden: I follow Biz's suggestions of “as often as you eat,” and try to limit it to 3x daily.
@sacca: I try to not set any firm schedule or any frequency goals as I think that would dilute my Tweets. Sometimes, there is nothing to be said.
Other times, I can't help but share my ideas, reactions, hopes, and curiosity with my followers. When I Tweet, I am asking my followers for their most scarce resource—their attention. I want to deliver something of value.
@kanter: When I have something of value to my network that can help them change the world by doing a better job of effectively using Twitter to support their mission.
@johnwoodRTR: 2–3 times per day.
@charitywater and @scottharrison: We tweet 1–5 times a day. Every day we post a “pic of the day,” and we regularly share news and RT supporters.
@jennadawn: Once a day unless I'm traveling or in a conversation.
@troy: 5–10 per day from @calibersf; 3–5 per week from @jpeg (my dog); 3 per month from @herbcaen; as necessary from @support; and every Twitter/support Tweet gets RT from my admin @tholden.
@briggles: Once a day.
@nancybroden: I tweet at certain times of the day—morning (at breakfast), afternoon (lunch) and in the evening, generally while watching TV and just before bed. In each session I generally produce 1–2 original Tweets, and retweet about 5–8 Tweets by others.
@shinypb: Whenever I'm overcome by the beauty, wonderfulness, ridiculousness, or frustration of a situation.
@netik: I tweet once or twice a day, but if I'm at a conference or music event, I'll tweet once or twice an hour to coordinate conference events and to meet people.
@delbius: Varies depending on the number of people asking me questions on a given day, but non @-replies are 1–7 per day generally, with the bell curve being around 1–4.
@sprsquish: I average out to a few times an hour.
@jess: A few times a day.
@thx4beinawesome: Once per quarter.
@danadanger: 1–3 times per day, not counting @replies.
@mischa: I try to stay around 8 to 10 times a day. Although there is no one answer, and it varies dramatically depending on what you're tweeting about, suffice it to say that tweeting more than @thx4beingawesome (who Tweets once a quarter) would be a good idea;)
Q: Can I delete a Tweet?
A: Your mother might say that the proper question here is not “Can I delete a Tweet?,” but rather “May I delete a Tweet?” Indeed, functionality clearly allows for Tweet deletion, but is this a good idea? Does it even help, given that many people will have already seen the Tweet you now want to delete?
Although deleting is not ideal, I do it on occasion. Particularly when I notice a spelling error or inadvertently send a Tweet before completing it, I find that immediately reposting a “better” version of one Tweet after deleting the original is fine. People who already saw the first one likely already got the message (despite your spelling errors or lack of punctuation), and posterity will now see that you can spell and that you did have a fully formed Tweet in your mind when writing.
Q: Should I geotag my Tweets?
A: Many individuals have their Twitter accounts set to show the location from which they send each Tweet. This can be extremely interesting—and useful. Should an organization show their geolocation status to their followers in their Tweets? The question really depends on the amount of travel involved in the account holder's tweeting. Take John Wood's personal account, @johnwoodrtr, and the Room to Read main account, @roomtoread, as two examples. Given that John Wood travels two-thirds of the year to interesting places all over the globe, reading his locations adds an element of added interest to his Tweets. He tweets about his runs at least once a week, and the simple addition of a geolocation tag can turn what seems like “yet another” Tweet about John's weekly jogging efforts into something fresh. Today he's jogging in Bangalore? But he was just running in South Africa just a few days ago! Similarly, I've always been fascinated by Jane Goodall, whose Jane Goodall Institute tweets from @janegoodallinst. At seventy-six, she still spends three hundred days a year travelling the world. She, for one, would be aided immensely by geolocation.
In contrast, Room to Read's organizational account, @roomtoread, is run by Rebecca Hankin, director of communications and marketing. Rebecca spends most of her year in San Francisco, so if she had her account set to include geolocation in her Tweets, it wouldn't be terribly interesting to readers. Worst than that, it could become boring.
Q: Should I send automatic feeds for picture, video, or blog posts to Twitter? If I do send automatic RSS feeds, should I do so on all my social networks or just one?
A: You should definitely be alerting your readers on all your social media platforms about new content at your dynamic website, and doing so via an automatic RSS or through manual updates works fine. Keep in mind that if you do choose to do so through automatic RSS, you should ensure that your headlines are not the same on all your networks. For instance, if you have a new blog post called “A Day of Learning in Brazil's Favelas,” you don't want the exact Tweet or Facebook status update duplicated with the same words in all the venues where your RSS is sent automatically. Also consider that open rates and click-through rates may be different depending on whether the update is sent automatically or manually posted, and you'll want to compare the results. Play with this until you find the right balance: making sure your readers are getting all the new updates without wearing yourself out by constantly sending out manual updates.
For more tips on integrating Twitter with your organizational blogging efforts, see http://twitter4good.com/resources/blogging/