Twitter is one of the most popular social networks internationally with 200 million active users. Social enterprises have effectively used this online marketing tool to garner the attention of millions of consumers, media and competitors—likely some of the reasons you are reading this blog post.
In the middle of finishing our Twitter for Social Enterprise book, we have reviewed many interesting topics around Twitter, including using Twitter for personal and business brand development. Over the next month, we'll offer numerous tips and top recommendations from that book.
The first in a series of tips for June, below are recommendations for responsible businesses and not-for-profits leveraging the power of Twitter:
1. Listen carefully. Determine who are influencers in your industry based on leaders of businesses you’ve likely heard of (for example @greenbiz @wwf @greenpeace). Find out more on green twitter users to follow via http://mashable.com/twitter-environmentalists.
2. Follow competitors. On that note, when you are looking for movers and shakers in your industry, whether that's not-for-profit management or environmentally-friendly cleaning products, determine who your competitors are. Online and offline, knowing about their mistakes and successes is important.
3. Find influencers. Follow those individuals and business accounts, who are likely influencers in your industry. For a start, add yourself and find other influencers on Twibes.
Questions to ask when reviewing profiles of influencers: How many followers do they have? How many lists do they appear on? How many tweets have they written? Have you seen them retweeted (RT) by others you know and trust?
4. Get busy. Update constantly; around 1 or 2 times daily is a good number for regular updates. Don’t worry, you can schedule tweets via the Hootsuite client (see ‘Clients’ section below).
5. Use a client. Use a Twitter client on your desktop or mobile to streamline your interface with your work for easy access. Twitter clients include HootSuite, Seesmic or Tweetdeck. For more Twitter clients, see this Tech Radar blog post on February 2011.
6. Tweet events. Create Twitter streams for your events. To categorize tweets during your event, make sure to claim a hashtag stream.
Tip: Don’t ignore the Twitter stream throughout the program, rather, have one employee managing the stream to ensure conversation, and answer any questions or feedback about the event when it happens. Make sure to watch out for negative feedback and address that feedback when it happens.
Sample tweet: Great point! RT @honeyberk Always make sure you have a strategy in place when encouraging employees to engage on #Twitter or FB #sm4socent
7. Stay active offline. Sending a company representative to Tweet at events is beneficial for both the company and employee. Checking-in on Foursquare, Facebook Places or Gowalla is also very beneficial for company speakers or otherwise. Doing something special outside the office? Check-in!
8. Enable donations. Provide the opportunity for potential donors to contribute. Whether followers will be directed toward your Facebook page, website, blog or otherwise, if you’re considering a fundraising campaign, don’t forget Twitter. Take success stories of Twestival or Twit Change for example.
Sample tweet: Have you checked out our donation tool on Facebook? http://bit.ly/sampletweet
9. Connect to your blog. Connect your blog to your Twitter accounts. Create a Twitter widget if possible. This can include either a ‘Follow Us’ button, your latest tweets or a hashtag stream for an upcoming event/ advertising campaign.
10. Connect from your blog. Link your blog to your Twitter account. Tweet each blog post, also syndicate the blog to magnify your reach, for instance on TreeHugger, Triple Pundit or other green media outlet.
Sample tweet: Our latest @Treehugger article: Dare to be a Social Enterprise! http://fb.on/235b2 #socent #greenbiz
11. Connect from your website. Make sure you have Twitter (Facebook, YouTube or other social networks) buttons on your website.
12. Put it on sale. Create specific sales for your social media followers. While you don’t want to constantly sell yourself, Twitter can be an efficient way to promote sales. You can also create a Sales Coupon on places like Twtqpon.
Sample tweet: Visit today for your 20% off Twitter coupon http://bit.ly/greendeal.
13. Have a tweet-up. Meet your fellow Twitter users together at a bar near your headquarters or throughout the country for an even bigger launch party or other event (like for example, having a series of Tweet-up’s alongside a Tweet-up at SXSW).
Sample tweet: 3 cities join #GreenTweetUp tonight to celebrate our eco project launch http://bit.ly/greentweetup #csr #green
14. Hold a chat. Have a sponsored Twitter chat like #agchat #csrchat. Learn who are influencers in your industry, learn from your participants and use those chats like a focus group.
Tip: Make sure you monitor these conversations well and have personal conversations with numerous influencers before moving forward. Having a great group interacting is pivotal for the success of a chat.
15. Check-in with strategy. Constantly check your social media strategy to make sure your objectives are being met—monthly and quarterly.
16. Track links. Use http://bit.ly or http://ow.ly to measure the success of each tweet. Then, you’ll be able to determine how successful each tweet was, which will help you determine ways to write tweets that will get more clicks.
17. Count Followers. Follow your Twitter follower numbers with applications like http://www.twittercounter.com.
18. Reply and @Mention. If your Followers or colleagues @reply you to recommend or try to connect, engage with them as soon as possible. Making a good impression and offline relationships is what social media is all about!
19. Create and Read Reports. Read monthly and quarterly social media reports from HootSuite or PeopleBrowsr. Make sure to review those who have tweeted about you most and which are your most popular links clicked.
20. Keep following. No need to follow every user who follows you, but follow users when they are interesting and pertinent to your industry.
21. Use hashtags. Make sure you use Hashtags to categorize your tweets and to be found easier.
Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.
This article was also published on the NTEN Blog.
As Facebook reaches 600 million users in January 2011, social media continues to attract attention from not-for-profits internationally. We are glad to see NTEN’s continued focus on community management because at Carbon Outreach, we believe community management is fundamental to successful online marketing.
Whether you decide to in-source or outsource community management, we recommend discussing the following items with your community manager to make sure your not-for-profit is making the most out of your marketing and digital advertising.
1. Put your ear to the ground and listen. What are your competitors speaking about? Where is there room to become viewed as a thought-leader in your industry?
Tip: It truly is amazing what information Google and Bing.com holds. Don’t stop there; also check Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Your not-for-profit should learn from the successes of others.
2. Do your homework. Are you new or seasoned at social media marketing? Even for social media gurus, the area is constantly changing. So keep up! Read Mashable.com and other social media news outlets.
Tip: We are in the process of writing a series of books on social media for social enterprise. Register for complimentary beta versions here http://carbonoutreach.com/books.
3. Tie together networks. Are you publicizing across networks and cross-promoting your networks? Doing this effectively ensures more active and connected users.
Tip(s): Always make sure your online communications materials (such as eNewsletters) can be shared via social media easily. Make sure to cross-post to multiple social networks if you are sending out communications about an important subject.
4. Empower visitors. How can you empower your community? When devising strategies to reach out or communicate with your community, how can you empower them? Successful community management is not just about driving up donations (though that’s important), but also driving conversation and behavior change.
Tip(s): Twitter campaigns are a great way to drive donations around a specific event or campaign. Like TwitChange or Twestival, community managers can encourage users to donate money and a tweet.
5. Define your target audience. Where does your target audience reside, how old are they? What are their interests? The more information you know, the more information you should provide your community manager, which will help him/her to connect not just with an audience but the right audience.
6. The more targeted the better. Who is your target audience for this particular campaign? Does this audience match our overall target audience of consumers and donors?
Tip: This is especially useful for targeted Facebook Ads. Within Facebook Ads, community managers can target by age, gender, interests and other information. In Facebook Ads, make sure to segment your target audience making each ad even more valuable.
7. Make time. Does your community manager have enough time to manage your community and/or specific campaign? Depending on the objectives of your campaign, community management can take hours daily. Being a community manager should not just be one of their many responsibilities, because to be an effective community manager it takes time and skill.
Tip: Make sure to estimate how long your community manager should take on tasks throughout the day. Do you really need a full-time community manager?
8. Plan for success. How do your social media objectives work to support your medium to long-term marketing objectives? Social media plans should support overall marketing plans.
9. Improve touch points. Learn where your customer or donor touch points are, and then improve them. Constantly improve your donor experience online through good design principles.
Tip: Possible touch points include website, eNewsletter, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr. Remember your online presence should engage visitors and potential donors!
10. Expand touch points. How do customers currently learn about our products or services? How would you like to get heard about among your target audience?
11. Give props. Don’t forget to thank your community, partners, sponsors and donors. On Twitter @mention, on Facebook @mention. These are your most important fans!
Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger.
Wondering what we mean by social enterprise? We are speaking specifically about green business, not-for-profits and corporate philanthropy programs.
Almost sealed and settled, we are at the tail end of launching our, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" book #fb4socent. With over 150 pages of tips, tricks and top recommendations, both beginner to advanced user will learn effective ways to create personal and business brand development, especially focused on community management and campaigns that garner media, customer and donor support.
Be one of the first 250 to receive your complimentary copy today! Visit the Carbon Outreach website to register for your copy. Otherwise, our book will launch on Amazon kindle on May 16. In New York City? RSVP to our launch party on May 16.
Without ado, below are applications recommendations for either or both individual and business pages.
1. [Individual profile] Branch Out. This is a LinkedIn-style social networking application to help you discover business opportunities through friends. There, you’ll be connected with 3 million+ job listings.
2. [Individual profile & business page] Causes. According to Facebook, “Causes empowers anyone with a good idea or passion for change to impact the world. Using our platform, individuals mobilize their network of friends to grow lasting social and political movements.” Since starting this application, it has raised over $30 million for 25,000 not-for-profits internationally.
3. [Individual profile & business page] Poll. Similar to the “question” feature, this application enables individual users and pages to create and share polls. Currently, there are over 2.3 million users of this application.
4. [Individual profile & business page] Twibbon. When creating your campaign to raise awareness, change legislation or educate, Twibbon is a great way to expand your reach virally. This means you can upload a small logo onto your Facebook profile picture, as well as create a small logo for participants to upload in their Facebook profile picture. Some successful Twibbons include “No to Prop 8” and, “Pray for Japan” currently garnering around 50K uploads each.
5. [Business page] Constant Contact Labs. This application helps Facebook users interested in your business or organization to join your Constant Contact contact lists.
6. [Individual profile] Marketplace. Facebook Marketplace lets you sell, give away, buy, rent, ask, or search for anything you want. You can also support charities by selling for a cause. Marketplace makes it easy to see what your friends have posted and what is available in your area.
7. [Individual profile] Networked Blogs. Import your blog feed to your profile or public page - Promote your blog on Facebook and to discover new blogs. NetworkedBlogs is a community of bloggers and blog lovers. Join the fun, add your blog, and connect with others who read and write about subjects you like.
8. [Individual profile] Slideshare. Upload your presentations, documents, PDFs, add mp3 audio to make webinars or embed Youtube videos into them. You can also import your SlideShare.net presentations into Facebook.
9. [Business page] Video. Facebook Video allows you to publish your personal videos on Facebook and send video messages to your friends.
10. [Individual profile & business page] Petitions. When you add the “Petitions” application, you can create and sign petitions on issues you feel passionate about.
11. [Business page] Eventbrite. Are you organizing an event through Eventbrite? This application gives you all the online tools you need to bring people together for an event and sell tickets especially within Eventbrite.
12. [Business Page] Twitter. Use the Twitter for Facebook app to: find and follow your Facebook friends who tweet, post your tweets to your Facebook profile or Facebook page, encourage your Facebook friends to follow you on Twitter.
13. [Individual profile] StumbleUpon. Explore the web like never before, flipping from page to page across more than 500 topics like you would go through your favorite magazine. Get recommendations tailored to your unique preferences so you only see what you want and less of what you don't. You'll only see content already filtered by like-minded users who share your passions and interests.
Contributors:
Contributor: Erica Grigg is Partner and Director of Marketing and Digital Marketing at Carbon Outreach. Erica has trained hundreds of social enterprises, not-for-profits and corporate social responsibility executives on social media tools including Twitter. Erica recently co-authored, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" in June 2011. Erica speaks internationally on responsible business and marketing issues, and blogs for Treehugger. Follow Erica on Twitter @ericagrigg or LinkedIn.
Tim Watson is Chief Technology Officer at Carbon Outreach. Prior, he spent over a decade with Microsoft, AdCenter and MSN and specializes in online advertising. Tim also co-authors the, "Facebook for Social Enterprise" book. Tim writes frequently on SEO, online advertising and not-for-profit technology on the Carbon Outreach blog. Connect professionally with Tim through LinkedIn, follow @sociallytim or e-mail tim@carbonoutreach.com.
Aliza Burns is Marketing Analyst at Carbon Outreach. Prior, she worked with several prominent not-for-profits after graduating from George Washington University in 2009. Find out more on LinkedIn or follow @alizaburns.
