The Charity Place

Serious fun from SXSW - the Social Media Nonprofit Poetry Slam

I've just been catching up with this session - run yesterday at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas - via the Twitterstream and the links to various blogs that people have shared in their tweets.

Conducted entirely in rhyme (yes, really), the session was moderated by Beth Kanter, with contributions from:

• Danielle Brigida - National Wildlife Federation
• Wendy Harman - American Red Cross - National Headquarters
• Carie Lewis - The Humane Society of the United States
• David Neff - American Cancer Society [Judge]
• Katie Paine - KDPaine & Partners [Judge]
• Holly Ross - NTEN [Judge]

Unsurprisingly, Twitter is mentioned heavily - along with a range of other social media - in the examples shared by the panel.

Beth has kindly shared a comprehensive range of content from it here, on her blog - including the slides, transcripts of the poems recited by each of the panelists, along with a variety of links to help you get a fuller picture of the nonprofit case studies, experiences and insights that the session pulled together and shared.

And here's a video (via the NTEN blog) of the panelists in action:

Looks like a lot of fun, whilst making a serious point about how charities - and brands in general - are re-evaluating their traditional views on metrics, measurement and ROI to account for a different style of engagement with supporters through social media. 

It's really quite clever to deliver a session on measurement and metrics in such a unusual and engaging way - reflecting how social media enable nonprofits to engage supporters in helping them meet their challenges in new and innovative ways.

Beth also shares some reflections from the session on her blog here.

So, what's the big deal about Twitter?

You might have noticed that I quite like Twitter and, if you've been reading some of the posts on this blog or following me on Twitter, you'll probably know that I think it can be a powerful addition to a nonprofit's toolbox - with all manner of uses.

Because of this I'd meant to blog specifically just on Twitter for charities and nonprofits - including an easy 'how to get started' guide - since the spring, but I always ended up feeling like there was already so much information out there that there wasn't any need for more.  Conversely, I'd come across at least one interesting Twitter-related story or service, or gain a new insight, every day and find I almost had too many reasons to blog about Twitter that I got to the point where I didn't know where to start, or what level of detail would be relevant to most people. The result: I didn't write the posts.

So, why write about Twitter now?

I realised over the last few months, partly through organising NFPtweetup in November, that although I may be connected to a number of people in the nonprofit sector that use Twitter and who are pretty Twitter literate (twitterate?), there are still many more who have never heard of it, are not sure what it is, don't know how to use it, or understand how it might be relevant to them, to their professional role or their organisation.

At around the same time (the latter part of 2008), I also became aware that Twitter was about to become more important; that its reach was about to extend beyond the somewhat niche audience of techies, bloggers, entrepreneurs and media types that had been the early adopters of Twitter, and into the mainstream.

How is Twitter entering the mainstream?

Celebrities and politicians started to use Twitter, which sparked interest from outside the Twitter community and from the traditional media (not just tech journalists); from gossip columns, tabloid press and broadsheets - and, most recently, even international television news.

The US election really started to put Twitter on the map - both John McCain and Barack Obama had Twitter profiles hard at work as part of their campaigns, and Obama's use of social media, in particular, was dissected across the web, by bloggers, marketers, fundraisers and clued up journalists.  Not long after that, our national treasure, Stephen Fry, started tweeting, followed by various celebrities, including Britney Spears (you can't get much more mainstream than Britney Spears), John Cleese and, most recently, Jonathan Ross.

Ross (who tweets as 'wossy') has been getting a fair bit of media attention recently, too, in the wake of the 'Sachsgate' controversy, so the press have been very keen to report on how he has been filling his time during his enforced sabbatical, by following his Twitter stream. In fact, over the last month or so, barely a day has gone by without Metro running a Twitter-based story in their new column, 'The Ridiculant', Jonathan Ross or otherwise.

And when Britney Spears started tweeting, it was covered by all the usual celebrity columns and magazines, which meant that readers of 'Now' magazine heard about Britney's house move via Twitter.

According to a recent report from The Telegraph, even the Church of England's Bishop of Buckingham, The Rt Rev Alan Wilson has become a fan of Twitter and has been enjoying following @wossy's tweets.

I'm betting that Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry will mention Twitter on @wossy's show, when he returns to our screens this Friday (perhaps they'll even tweet live?).  If they do, it's bound to mean that Twitter becomes even more widely adopted.

Regardless of whether they do or do not, Twitter hit the International headlines, including a spot on BBC News, last week when the pilot of US Air, Flight 1549 had to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River. You would have had to have been living in a cave to have missed the story of how 'citizen journalist' Janis Krums, took the first picture of the remarkable scene with his iPhone, posting it to Twitter, from where it spread across the world before the traditional news networks had even picked the story up (not the first time Twitter has been credited with this power).

Why is all of this important and relevant to charities and nonprofit organisations?

Twitter has 'come of age'.  It has enough users now that it's become an established part of the landscape, it adds so much value to so many people and organisations, it is permeating the offline world more and more now and it has already outlived one of it's competitors.  It feels to me that it has either reached, or is fast approaching, a tipping point - and a point at which those that have dismissed it up until now as a fad or a 'niche network for geeks' should consider being more open-minded about its potential.

So, my advice is, if your organisation hasn't genned up about Twitter yet, or you have just tinkered around the edges with it, 2009 is the year to reconsider it seriously as part of your strategy. At the very least, you should be starting to explore and learn about how it might be able to help you achieve your objectives, so you are closer to being able to leverage what it has to offer you in the future.

According to data from Nielson Online, Twitter was the fastest growing social networking site in the US between September 2007 and September 2008, achieving a 343% growth rate (Facebook came in at the number six spot, growing 116% over the same time period).  Although, Twitter has only a tiny percentage of the users that Facebook has globally, the Nielsen data shows the potential for that to change, which means it's conceiveable that Twitter might prove to be a much more important and valuable channel through which to engage with supporters and stakeholders in the not too distant future.

Don't get left behind!

Whether you are already using Twitter, or thinking about trying it, there is a whole range of things you could be doing in this first quarter of 2009 to move your organisation forward.

To help you do that, I'm going to write a series of Twitter posts, specifically for nonprofits, that cover everything from getting started with setting up a Twitter profile, to building a community, and leveraging your networks to produce value for your organisation.

Much of this will be informed by real questions that charities and nonprofits have asked me, or posted on Twitter or at The Charity Place, over the last few months, including the feedback received from the first NFPtweetup.

I won't be reinventing the wheel, as there are already plenty of great resources about how to use Twitter all over the place online and it would be daft to duplicate them where they already exist. Rather, I will pull as many of them as possible together in one place for easy reference, and attempt to do so in as logical a progression as possible - adding insights and stories from my experiences, and the experiences of other nonprofit professionals, along the way to keep it as fresh, accessible and useful as possible.

How you can help

As I post, it would be great if you could add your thoughts, experiences and anything you think I've missed, in the comments on each post.  That should mean we end up with a really thorough set of crowd-sourced resources for the sector.

Look out for the first post, tomorrow, on getting started with Twitter...  If there are any burning questions you have on this, do post them now so I can build them in.

Twitter: Where did Obama go?

Over a week ago now, I noticed a post on, Valleywag pointing out that, after having tweeted throughout his campaign for the Presidency, Barack Obama's Twitter account had since gone surprisingly quiet.

The article suggested that his 'followers have been pumped and dumped — Twittered into contributing money and time, and then passed over for more presidential means of communication'.

I can understand why they might feel that, too.

A few days earlier, this was one of the things I was careful to draw attention to in the article I wrote (annoyingly, the link always shows 'Page not found' on first click through and needs to be reloaded before you can see the article) for the CharityComms website, which ended:

'If you actively engage people anywhere through a social platform, you will have become an important part of their online world and your absence will be noticed and commented on if you suddenly disappear from the landscape.'

The 'radio silence' of the Obama Twitter account has provided the perfect case in point to prove this and, because it has such a high profile, we can see how people have responded and learn from the insights this provides.

There are important lessons to consider carefully here if you already using social media or considering dipping your toe in.

Social media offers huge opportunities to genuinely connect with your supporters in a way that most other media is not able to replicate. As a user of Twitter, I know that it really feels like being part of a community: If you ask for help or advice, it's unusually forthcoming, people are very supportive of each other, and — once you've built relationships with like-minded others — you are missed if you don't tweet for a while, and even asked if you're okay when you haven't been around for a day or two. 

Most other social platforms have similar cultures.

For charities, it is important to understand that the connections you are making with your supporters using social media are with real people — not just user names or avatars — and real people have feelings.

One of the reasons social media is so powerful for charities is its ability to bring supporters closer to your organisation and your work, but with this comes a degree of accountability.  This is particularly true if you have asked something of them — money, time, attention, engagement — and they have given it.

Another thing to bear in mind is that social media create a culture of meritocracy, where you connect and engage with others based on how much you give, mutually respect and share.  Those that only use their Twitter profiles to promote themselves, don't engage and don't give anything back, don't get too much of a positive response, quickly find that they are 'unfollowed' and and can even be considered 'spammers'.  It's important that you keep adding value to the environment.

There will be many that will continue to follow Barack Obama regardless of whether he tweets regularly again or not, simply because he's the President elect and because they're interested to see what he'll do next — many, because they'll be looking for an opportunity to criticise.

If you're a charity, this is not as likely to be the case.  If you do not stay active in your social communities, you are more likely to lose followers and connections than Obama is.  However, like him, you will also undoubtedly lose some of the goodwill and engagement that you spent time and energy building up; all of which will diminish your opportunities to generate income, awareness and greater support of your work.

Social media is a great leveller, and individuals can make a lot of noise now — positive and negative — using them.  For charities and nonprofits, the challenge is to make sure you give your supporters the information and motivation to create as much of that positive noise as possible.  Don't let fear of negative buzz inhibit you either: If you concentrate your efforts on filling the space with positive buzz, there generally isn't the space or the appetite for anything else.

The Obama effect

While browsing on Kiva earlier on, I couldn't believe my eyes at first when I noticed that someone created a 'Team Obama' in the communities section.

Not only that, the Team Obama community - set up on 4 September - has already loaned a total of $107,625 to date, to a variety of entrepreneurs all over the world (before you reach for your calculator, that's an average of $73.71 per person).

I was even more interested to note that this community of 1,460 individuals has made 3,806 loans.  That means, the average member has given 2.6 times - in just over two months.

There are a lot of charities that would be extremely happy to have donors as committed, and giving as frequently, as that.  Of course, these are not strictly donations, but loans, and the lenders will get their money back in time (although many will then loan it to another entrepreneur).  I would doubt, however, that the motivation is any different between the two.

From what I can tell, this community was set up not by the Obama campaign, but by an individual supporter, or supporters - just normal people who have been inspired and motivated by Obama's vision for change and have bought into the shared responsibility of achieving it.  It's all summed up in their statement:

'Everyone, everywhere who understands that Barack Obama combined with our individual efforts through Kiva will help make this world a much better place!'

I found myself reflecting on how often charities succeed in creating the kind of passion and conviction that Barack Obama manages to stir up in people, and how much more they could achieve if they followed his example and made people feel excited, empowered and united in the way that he has done.  It's even more remarkable when you consider that he has motivated people to do good to the point that they are proactively seeking out ways to do that - right across the world.

Is it worth building your own online networks?

You probably had a look at MyActionAid when it was launched by ActionAid last February – perhaps you've even used it?

It’s a brilliant platform for events and community fundraising – a bit like an own-branded version of Just Giving – and you can see how it has the potential to be so much more; a social networking platform for ActionAid to engage with its supporters, for them to engage with each other, to take ActionAid’s messages to their social networks and bring their friends into the fold.

Adding different ways for people to engage aside from fundraising – I'm thinking campaigning in particular – and further integration with other platforms would add value to the experience and make this site a really rich way to engage with ActionAid, its work and its community of supporters.

It’s great to get some insights from their experiences and to find out a little about their future plans, including making widgets available to integrate with supporters on Facebook.

I always want to hear about how this kind of initiative is working, and I’m impressed that they're citing ‘double the giving rate compared to presence on other sites’. That's got to make doing something like this well worth the effort, surely?