A Non-Profit Guide to Getting Started on Twitter

Hardly a day goes by without hearing about Twitter these days, for an excellent reason: with more than 200 million active users, it seems as if the whole world has thrown itself at the 140-character holy grail of social media. If your organisation hasn't embraced it yet, don't worry: it isn't too late, and we've compiled a handy guide to get you started.

If you didn't see Twitter coming, don't worry: many people didn't. Many early adopters were excited about the idea of sharing their daily doings with others in 140 characters or less, but the inevitable question reared its head: what is it for? This, in a nutshell is the magic of Twitter. Two years ago, the answer would have been 'nothing'. Today, it is 'everything'.

What is Twitter?

In a world where you're getting inundated with messages, blogs, news stories, YouTube videos etc, there's something immensely refreshing about Twitter. Because - not despite of - its enforced brevity, you have a genuine opportunity to receive and send messages that are heard in the torrent of information. In a society where people are unable to concentrate on anything for longer than a few seconds, Twitter is the ultimate marketing and news distribution tool. Your message, condensed into a short paragraph, is a fantastic opportunity to talk to your supporters and the world at large.

2009 was the big explosion-year for Twitter, but it's looking like 2010 is going to help the social media platform climb to greater heights still. Between its trending topics, and the fact that the big search engines have started paying closer attention to Twitter, it's a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of the rapidly changing internet.

Many charities are starting to dip their toes in the water, too, some with greater success than others. The Dogs Trust (@DogsTrust), for example, has gained nearly 11,000 eager followers, by showing a deep understanding and a natural knack for channelling people's love for the furry four-footers into an interesting stream of information - all via Twitter.

How do we get started?

Twitter is free and quite easy to use. Start by going to twitter.com, clicking on the big green 'Sign up Now' button, and following the instructions on-screen.

Choose your username carefully - it is going to be your most important asset on Twitter. Ideally, you should try to get your organisation's full name (e.g. Alzheimer’s Society or Kent County Council). However, usernames can't exceed 15 characters and can't have any spaces either. If you need to shorten it, try to do it in a way which remains recognisable - 'AlzheimersSoc' or 'Kent_CC' work very well. If your user name has already been taken, consider adding 'UK' to it, or coming up with an alternative abbreviation.

Your photo

The next biggest recognition factor on Twitter is your photo - whenever you do something on Twitter, it will show a small version of your avatar, and once you get bigger, it's what people recognise you by. Remember that the idea of sites like Twitter is to gain a good rapport with your readers, and to initiate a conversation. People are more likely to talk with a picture of a person or a mascot than a company logo. Get creative, and remember: the more recognisable the better! You might consider using a photo of the person actually tweeting, rather than a company logo: people are much more likely to respond well to 'talking' (or should we say 'tweeting') with a person than with a whole company.

On the other hand, you might want to use a logo if your main goal is to improve brand recognition, or if your charity or organisation is a well-known one, like the Dogs Trust (@DogsTrust) or Cancer Research UK (@cr_uk). Either way, remember that this is not a corporate PR channel: in order to engage with your audience this has to be a personal conversation between your organisation and the public, so it makes sense to let your logo reflect that.

Finally, your picture needs to be square. Of course, not all logos work well when squared, but it's best to find a way - Beat Bullying (@BeatBullying), for example, managed to find a good solution.

The background

Less important - but a great opportunity to do some branding - is the background of your Twitter page. You can choose a theme from the ones available as standard on Twitter. For more flexibility, you might want to check out Themeleon, or get your web designer to create your own branded background. (Haven't got a web designer? We can help!)

You can implement your design and colour scheme by clicking on 'Settings' and then 'Design'.

Remember that if you decided to use a photo of yourself to represent your organisation, you can always use a well-branded background to reinforce the mission and goals of the organisation - see our own Twitter page (@raspberryfrog) for an example of that: I'm using a photo of me, but the company branding is reinforced on the page itself, so I get the best of both worlds!

Write a compelling profile

You don't have a lot of ways to make a first impression on Twitter - so make 'em count! Your picture is important, of course, as is your profile page (it's incredible how much more professional a custom-designed background can look), but ultimately, people will make up their minds about whether to follow you or not based on your last few tweets and your biography. You only have 160 characters to play with, so make it good, because this could have a pretty big impact down the line.

There is a fine art to getting your profile right, but the important thing is to make it personal. Bullying UK (@BullyingUK) have a great example of a good profile: it encapsulates what they stand for, why you should support them, and even includes a call to action enticing you to follow their Twitter account - all in less than 160 characters!

Start tweeting

So, now that we're all set up, you can start twittering away. Remember - Twitter is an intimate, personal form of communication. When you're tweeting, don't think radio or newsletter - you're speaking as if you're talking to a friend in the pub. Imagine you're telling something to one person: each one of your followers will be interested in what you have to say, and you're speaking to each one of them individually.

If you're twittering links, say, to something that excites you, something that's relevant to your organisation, or something on your website you'd like to tell your followers about, consider using a link shortening service such as is.gd. This makes the links much shorter - handy, when you only have 140 characters to play with!

Remember that Twitter is not a one-way form of communication. People will respond to you by doing what's known as an @reply. You can see what people have replied to you when you are logged in - and it's considered good form to reply to questions etc. Do remember that your replies can be seen by all your followers, however - not just the person you are talking to - so try to keep a good balance between original tweets and replies. There's nothing quite as offputting as looking at someone's Twitter page, only to realise that they're engrossed in half a dozen conversations: it makes new potential followers feel as if they are butting in on a conversation, and might cause people to not follow you.

Find and follow some interesting people

Twitter is like a microcosm of awesome things. People won't follow you unless you've got something interesting to share - but this works two ways! Find your competitors and follow them, find people who do similar things to you, and follow them, too. It's a great way to stay up to date with the things that are happening in the 'Twitterverse'. Do be careful, however, you don't want to follow too many people. If you follow many more people than who follow you, people might think you're a spammer, and you lose some credibility.

When people follow you, you'll get an e-mail notifying you. Have a look at their biography and their profile - if they seem interesting and genuine, follow them back. Part of the reason for checking, is to try to avoid falling victim to an account which is automatically following thousands of people every week.

Keep tweeting

"Strategy" is a pretty big word to use about a relatively informal and friendly social media site like Twitter, but it's worth having a think about how you want to use your Twitter account.

Try to vary your tweets so it’s more interesting to your followers and you’re likely to attract a wider community of supporters. Tweet news related to your field, curiosities you might want people to see, and perhaps the occasional joke, if appropriate. Remember to check your recent replies, and reply to ones that you feel might be of benefit to your twitter followers.

Feel free to throw in tweets that attract fundraisers, but have a think about how it's done. You can just straight-up ask for donations, of course, but a more subtle approach - like a friendly reminder that you are, in fact, taking donations (as illustrated beautifully by Bullying UK) is a less in-your-face way of asking for further donations.

Consider using so-called 'Hashtags', like #CharityTuesday to attract new readers and followers, and promote the following of people you've found interesting on Fridays with the #FollowFriday hashtag.

Ultimately, your twitter success is largely dependent on how well you're able to engage with your audience… The great thing about Twitter is that nobody has the 'right' approach, so experiment, and find a model that works for you!