What is a good tweet?
Last week we wrote about how to setup a Twitter profile and build up a network. Today we're looking at how to apply Twitter and what you should write (or tweet) about.
Listen
Many organizations use Twitter as a news reel for their own updates and news items, the same ones that are written about in their press releases and brochures. But this approach fails to see the original point of twitter, namely, to use the medium first and foremost as a tool for listening. The unique thing about social media is that it isn't a one-way-channel but rather a multi-user dialogue, in which you can better get to know the people outside of your organization. What are others saying about your organization? What do they think about the topics that you are working on, be it the environment, health, catastrophes, aid, homelessness, etc. The kinds of answers that used to be gained by sending around surveys can now be found by following discussions in social networks.
Maintain relationships
Social media expert Beth Kanter explains that successful tweeters spend 70% of their time maintaining their networks. Only 30% of the time should be used to promote their own organizations. Nonprofits who are successful on Twitter, such as the American Red Cross, spent months just building their network and leading dialogues without posing a single fundraising call. Only when the earthquake struck in Haiti was this network then asked for donations. The effect was a success: within the first week, the organization collected $22 million in donations over an SMS post that was spread via twitter.
Thank and Re-Tweet
Thanking followers is an important part of relationship maintenance, whether it's public (by writing @profile-name) or directly to the user. The latter is a message that is sent directly and exclusively to the twitter follower from you.
Read the tweets and links that circulate within your network. Comment on and share the links (called retweeting) or click "reply" to contact the author themselves in order to ask a question or to thank them for a helpful tweet or link.
Offer your network something extra, by passing on interesting resources or links from other places in the internet, such as a good blogpost or a humerous citation. I've received hundreds of cool technology tips, exciting articles and inspirational videos from my twitter network that I otherwise never would have known about. Because you are limited to 140 characters in your tweets, there are short-link software services such as bit.ly that help to keep it short and sweet.
Organize
To sort and organize your links, you can use the hashtag function: #tagword. Hash tags are especially useful at conferences. All the participants use the same hashtag and can thereby follow what others are writing about the same workshop or presentation, an ideal opportunity to put a finger on the pulse of the conference.
And last but not least: be sure to use an informal and authentic writing style. If your tweet is eloquent enough for a press release, you're probably doing something wrong.
Next week: how can I use twitter without working overtime?
(Translated by Becky Crook)
