Twitter 201 for Non-Profits

Twitter 201 How to use Twitter for fundraising, public relations and branding

#NPSTwitter201

Katherine Boury, Red Cross

@kdboury, @SeattleRedCross

Suna Gurol

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

@sunag, @HutchinsonCtr

What is Twitter good for?

• Great for reinforcing brand

• Getting your message out

• Finding your voice

• Communication strategy

• Storytelling

• Easy to get started

• Followers are social instigators

Branding is key

Some how-to’s / best practices

• Connecting FB & Twitter – yea or nay?

• Hashtags useful? Yes. Helpful for events, disasters. #HelpJapan, #wasnow

• Acknowledging and following other organizations, partners, supporters

• Responding to negative tweets

• Photos – yea or nay and how?

Fundraising examples

Using mobile - Text to Help – 90999• Japan (#HelpJapan)

Unplanned benefits:• Get Slizzard

Campaigns:• Holiday Giving• RaceforaRide

Awareness:• TopChef

Relationship building• SeattleWineGal

What else is it good for?

Clearing up misinformation

• Donating goods (Red Cross)• Emergency housing (Habitat for Humanity)• Health care treatment (FHCRC)• Who are you? (Swedish Hospital)

Event logistics

• Shore Run/Walk, Climb to Fight Breast Cancer

A tool, but not the only tool for PR

Tools

• Hootsuite http://www.hootsuite.com

• Twitter for mobile

• TweetDeck http://tweetdeck.com (warning - drains your battery on mobile!)

• UberTwitter for Blackberry (also drains battery!)

• Seesmic http://www.seesmic

Analysis – what to expect when you are expectingAnalysis is key to knowing what is working

Simple tools for free

• TweetAlarm - http://www.tweetalarm.com/ • Tweetzi – search http://tweetzi.com/• MS Analytics for Twitter

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26213

Tools not for free

• Cision, Radion 6, Rowfeeder

It’s not all a bed of roses – cautionary tales

• Inappropriate volunteer

• Overly controlling 3rd party entity

• Consultants

Good people to followUs of course! @HutchinsonCtr, @SeattleRedCross

And….

@chrispirillo

@melissatizon – Swedish Hospital

@shaunacausey – Nordstrom (formerly from ComcastCares)

@prsapugetsound

@moniguzman – formerly PI Big Blog, Intersect

@evonnebenedict – King 5

@king5seattle

@JenniHogan

@SMCSea

Questions?