Earlier this week we featured a somewhat grumpy "take" on Twitter from Ken Burnett of SOFII.
Ken diplomatically pointed out to me that one Laurie Pringle, senior manager of philanthropy at ALS Canada, has commented on his original article, presenting a passionately contrary point of view. He graciously urged me to give her equal time.
Laurie, a fervent believer in Twitter, says: "Sometimes you find the most precious gems amidst a pile of rubble. As long as you’re not wasting loads of time sifting through it, it’s just a wonderful find." Here’s Laurie’s comment in full.
With a further response from Ken, in which he says, in part:
"I fully agree about finding gems among rubble. But surely this is the point. It’s the rubble that gets in the way of the gems. So I want to have as little of it as possible, so I can enjoy the gems more easily …
So I’m not sure why anyone would want rubble. People will drift away from Twitter unless it can become easier for us to access what might interest us. With Twitter that can only happen if people become a bit more selective about what they send …
If they don’t, I think Twitter will go the way of the hula-hoop. That was fun, for awhile. But not many can do it now."
Sorry Laurie … I’m with Ken on this one. If I had a fundraising staff today and we were setting priorities, I’d say to them: "Twitter is dessert … and you don’t get any until you’ve eaten your lima beans."
I think I opened a Twitter account a while back. But I’ve already forgotten. But then I’m even older than Ken.
Here’s what I’ll take as a clue I should re-consider … when my wife and fifteen-year-old daughter stop yawning at the dinner table as I describe my day. Do I lead a pitiful life? Well, certainly I don’t think so. But I’m willing to take into account this little bit of personal market testing before sharing my life’s details with the anxiously awaiting world.
In case anyone is interested, I did own a hula hoop at one point in my life.
Tom
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I guess I’m old too, Ken and Tom. I have been twittering for the last few months but sticking to a business approach to it. I just can’t bring myself to twitter the trivia of my life or “emote” on Twitter, and I’m really not interested in posts of that type from anyone else. I do find a lot of grist for my work….links to pursue, and issues to blog about though and find that Twitter is weirdly efficient for that…at least for me. But I do worry about nonprofits with minimal resources thinking that they have to keep up with social media. My advice is like Ken’s…pay attention to the basics first but keep an eye on the hula hoops.
I happened upon this lovely post as a result of Twitter! Much thanks to @terrymslobodian for pointing me to it.
While I am enthusiastic about Twitter and what we’ve accomplished with it, I would like to point out that I don’t advocate spending vast amounts of time on it for fundraising purposes. Here’s how my day on Twitter looks most days: log on Twitter while eating breakfast 6:30am – 8:30am. If i’m in the office, I’ll check Twitter while I’m eating lunch. Then, if I’m home in the evening, I’ll spend the evening working, watching TV and communicating on Twitter.
Social media is a fun tool that I can use with precious little time and effort. It fits into my “wired life”. It’s not going to fit into everyone’s life the same way, but it’s a good fit for mine and for many, many, others. Why not take advantage of that and connect with all those great people and engage them?
It’s particularly helpful for causes that don’t have large budgets for traditional media. I do find that people aren’t using basic tools that can really help eliminate the rubble and highlight the gems to their fullest potential. Use tweetdeck (or a similar application) and create search terms and groups to ensure that you spend very little time sifting and lots of time savouring dessert!
Much thanks to Ken Burnett for being such a gracious and thought provoking contributor to this discussion.
To reiterate – this isn’t a major source of fundraising. It’s a great way to communicate with new and different people. It’s an easy way to enhance our communications and outreach, that just happens to benefit our fundraising.
I’m getting a bit concerned that people are perceiving me to be a Twitter evangelist. I think it’s a fabulous tool – but it’s just one tool, amidst many, that we should be working with (and testing) to speak to people who might like to get to know our organizations better.
I don’t know if Twitter will last or what it will become. Nobody does. I’m willing to risk a little of my morning blueberry time on it – and I’m having fun doing it.
Happy Friday!
No, Twitter won’t last, but it’s still important. And it’s easier than you think to avoid the rubble.
Yes, there can be a lot of rubble on Twitter, but there are very easy ways to avoid this clutter. By using a system such as Seesmic or Tweetdeck, you can only view Tweets of those talking about your cause by sorting by keywords. By setting these systems up for clients, we have made their experiences more productive and dramatically cut the amount of time spent on these sites.
And though Twitter may not seem like the most efficient way to fundraise for your particular cause, it is definitely efficient at getting people to take a look at it. Anyone who uses Twitter on a regular basis can attest to the huge amount traffic it can bring to your website.
How then will these users be converted to donors? The trick is not treating social media as an afterthought. We’ve all learned to integrate email with our direct marketing efforts. To get the most bang for your buck, social media should also be integrated with these mediums as well.
With this use of analytics and the real-time tracking that is available, these campaigns can be instantly tweaked to get your highest return on investment. And mediums will change. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. won’t be major players forever. But no matter what, you will have the strongest case for support when you deliver a clear, consistent message to supporters on their turf, despite their turf constantly changing.
If you want more information, please download our guide to Twitter for non-profits here: http://direct-intelligence.net/news-blog/.
I hope it helps! Happy Tweeting! @directintel