Tweeting on Twitter

Twitter is my most recent venture into the online world of social networking. I avoided Twitter assiduously for many months, because the idea of stopping in my tracks to tell the online world what I'm doing (in 140 letters or less) seemed... I don't know -- wacky, maybe?

In case you think I'm kidding, here is what you are greeted with when you go to www.twitter.com:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

But I forged ahead, because more and more people are asking questions about Twitter and whether or not it can help them with fundraising and donor management. In fact, I set up two accounts, one a personal one and one for CJW Consulting. And here's what I am finding:

Twitter is a great way to stay in touch.

I work a lot, so I don't think that my personal posts (referred to as "tweets") are that interesting. However, Twitter keeps my husband and me in much closer touch with very dear friends that live in Florida. We rarely see them and as we are four extremely busy people, it's not easy to be in touch by phone or even email -- but Twitter keeps us up to date with their daily lives.

After a few weeks of personal Twittering, I set up a new Twitter account for CJW Consulting (the account name is cjwconsult, if you're already Twittering and would like to follow us). I wanted to get a feel for how I might use the (free) service to let nonprofits know about our services. Once the account was set up, I searched on various keywords (nonprofit, non-profit, fundraising, etc.) to find existing Twitter accounts that belonged to people connected to the nonprofit community.

I located about 50 accounts and opted to "follow" them. This means that I get sent copies of all of their posts. Many Twitter users, when you choose to follow them, will then begin to follow you in return. The cjwconsult account currently has 21 users following it, with one or two more signing on every day.

To date, we are using the Twitter account to make available discounts on web services to people who see our tweets and sign up for a webinar or web training. We can also, if we choose, use Twitter to advertise our presence at conferences, participation in seminars or webinars (we've been asked to serve on a panel at the Chicago Fundraising Summit later this month, although the timing may not work out for that.)

I can see Twitter being a great tool for nonprofits. In a few seconds, you can send information about an event or a special need. You can drive traffic to your website by including a URL in a Twitter post. You can reinforce your message on a regular basis.

We've really just scratched the surface of what Twitter can do and how it works. If you are interested in more information, perhaps even a webinar about getting started and learning some of the tricks of the Twitter trade, please click on "comments" below and let me know.