Twitter tweets and how to spend your time

[Debra J. Berg]

Stuck in an airport last week and always trying to make time count, I'm now about two-thirds of the way through "Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet and a Time". I'd be curious whether anyone else has read it and successfully incorporated Joel Comm's ideas. He really knows his "tweating" strategies, but I'm wondering if it's worth all the investment of time and interruption he suggests necessary to make it work. Should one be so tied to one's Blackberry? Time is money after all.

I know that I need to engage more people everywhere for NICENetwork and Twitter seems to help one do that. And Joel makes Twitter seem the logical avenue to that end. But now that I've been away from the book for two days, I'm wondering if I would really follow through? Maybe I'd be too lazy. Or maybe I'm too stuck in my daily routine. I honestly don't know if I'd even remember to keep tweeting a certain number of times a day (a requirement for successful relationship building and visibility. He even suggests setting alarms on your cell or calendar as reminders to keep tweeting.) Or, maybe the opposite would happen ... I'd get so engrossed in following on Twitter that I'd become overly engrossed in what's happening in everyone's life. I could forget to focus on my Outlook "to do's" list. It all sounds a bit obsessive-compulsive to me right now.

While reading Joel's book, I also wondered "does this man have any normal relationships?" "Where did he find time to write this book... between tweets?" And will we read about him in some future People magazine article about how he became the poster child for 12-step "tweeter" programs.

I'll probably try Twitter this summer to see if I can manage inserting it into my life. One can always stop tweeting, right?

[Debra J. Berg]

Julia, I'm so happy you found Twitter useful. I appreciate your interest in how to help the NICENetwork. What most people don't know right now is that there is a comprehensive plan behind NICE that will take 6 months, at least, to roll out. Of course it also includes article marketing. As is the case with all "power of one" initiatives, it can never be done alone or without funding, so we are also working on that as well. I do have several great volunteers on my team now. People don't see all that's happening other than this forum. Just know that we are ramping up for great things in the future with an exciting marketing strategy. Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin as well as other web-based tools are part of it. There's also an update to The Power of One and another book in the works. I have to say we've also had our challenges as with any start-up... some of them technical. But we're forging ahead.

If anyone has an article that pertains to (their) an initiative that explains what they've done whcih could help others in building theirs, we will gladly allow you to post it. This discussion forum is about content so it is not Twitter-like. We look forward to providing as much content as possible on this site to help others do what you've done... or even to learn how to avoid the pitfuls you've encountered. If you do, or provide a link to it, please just place it under the correct discussion forum (or even create a new related discussion) to help others when they search. Thanks!

[Julia Neiman]

So last night after feasting on baby back ribs and seeing fireworks from our yard, a friend offered to show me how to use Twitter. I didn't realize that you can use it from the computer - silly me, my age is showing. I thought it was a service for cell phone users because most folks I know access it from their cell phones. Anyway, I can really see the benefit in using Twitter over other networks. It's really fast and you can hook up with like-minded people within minutes. Also, it gives you access to people who would otherwise be inaccessible like the Hollywood types that use it. All of our local news anchors are on Twitter. There are so many sites out there and not enough hours in the day. An internet marketing person I spoke with suggested using social networking as your front office - you should hire a good front office person to do that work for you. Now that the website for my private practice is set up I've started submitting Ezine articles to drive traffic to the site. I'm writing my own articles and ghost writing for others to make money.. Twitter should be considered front office. Dan has the right idea about assigning Twittering to the volunteers. If you have the money, you can hire someone to post on a variety of the networking sites. Debra, article writing would bring more traffic to the Nice Network. You'd immediately be put on the experts page at Ezinearticles.com as I was. It gives you higher visibility. The internet marketer provided me with a long list of sites to submit articles and suggested which 5-7 are best if you're interested.

[Debra J. Berg]

Dan, Thanks for clarifying. I recently I asked the LinkedIn Web 2.0 Nonprofit group a question about Twitter and received 11 immediate positive responses from some major players.I think I've been swayed by the comments ... still not sure how to fit it all in but I'm going to try it. I HIGHLY recommend reading the book Twitter Power to set up your site correctly before doing anything else!

Since not everyone has access to the Web 2.0 Nonprofit group, I'll just give a few examples of some great input from them here:

"We've been pretty clear with our fans/supporters that we're doing social media on an experimental basis, and we don't know ahead of time what may be expanded and what may be discarded. This has allowed us to be flexible in what we do."

"I get more website traffic, email newsletter subscribers, and people signing up for my webinars from Twitter than Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and this LinkedIn Group combined. Nonprofits shouldn't even hesitate... and Tweeting takes a fraction of the time as MySpace and Facebook. My lowest ROI is from Facebook. :( "

"I'm thinking that Twitter is mostly for networking with the 'big wigs' of the region, that would spread the word, not so much be our immediate supporters. It's easy to talk to reporters, politicians and local celebs this way."

"As far as small success stories, I've made friends with a few bloggers that post about our events, made personal relationships with a few volunteers that have participated a bit more than they normally would have, and talk to other nonprofits in the area we work close to keep us on their minds."

"I know and appreciate twitter mostly for internal knowledge sharing and knowing who is about what kind of business.Twitter for fundraising can be interesting, look for #twestival #tweetup. You migth find some interesting stuff. "

"Charity Water raised $250K using Twitter:
http://twestival.com"

"I gave a Webinar today about Facebook and YouTube. 45% of the attendees found out about the Webinar from Twitter, 5% from Facebook, 10% from TechSoup.org, and the rest from friends. That's great ROI!"

"I like the comment about limiting the number of people you follow. You may choose some national and local people but YES to the donees/members for sure. this is a way you get to listen to them.
If you use a twitter management tool like seesmic, you can sort what comes in by groups (that you can set up) so you can look at that first and not miss what your members are saying.
Imagine being able to announce (anything) to hundreds of donees and potential members/event attendees/etc. for free! The closer your twitter bond with them, the better. I like to think of it like public relations."

"You could spend six hours a day on Twitter, finding interesting people and orgs, tweeting and retweeting interesting things, or you could do it for half an hour. Or for an hour per week. You can't be sure what might come of it. We use Twitter for lots of stuff. There's a great post on Mashable.com about nonprofits that use the service. I'm partial to it because The 1010 Project came in at #1, but it's a useful way to check in on the strategies that many of us are using."

It sounds worth trying.

[Daniel Bassill]

Debra, you might have mis read what I intended to say. I'm very active in on-line social networking, and reach out to people in numerous forums where tutoring/mentoring, volunteering and/or philanthropy is being discussed. I also host my own forums for those who are willing to join.

I was speaking specifically in regards to Twitter. I've been encouraged to use it by a couple of different sources and it probably would be valuable in connecting me and my organization to others that I don't yet know. However, the trade off would be that work which needs to be done in my office every day, is not being done when I make these extra commitments to on-line outreach.

I'm not giving up on it. In fact, I'm looking for ways to recruit some of our volunteers to take on the Twitter role, at least for now.

[Debra J. Berg]

Dan, I appreciate your comment very much. It's encouraging to know that you can do what you do as effectively as you do it without Twitter. I'm sure there are people I'll never meet unless I do the social networking thing, but as you point out there are already people that cross your path who need direction. Do you sacrifice those for the unknown? At some point, everyone with an idea or product to sell has to come to a decision about time and social networking, even those involved in nonprofit work today. Support and online traffic can be eventually be pulled from these sites. It's really tempting when you view the numbers potential but I'm still wrestling with it all. Input coming from someone with your experience is truly helpful to me and others.

[Daniel Bassill]

I spend so much time now networking with people who are involved, or who could be involved, or to get them involved, that I don't have time to do other work that needs to be done in my office. Thus, I've resisted tweeting because of how much more time it demands in order to be effective. I think the successful organizations will recruit volunteers to be 'net evangelist' who carry the message of the organization into different sectors. This is the only way we can be in all of the places we need to be on an on-going basis. My participation here in NICE is part of that strategy. Your efforts to build a network of people who support the ideas of volunteerism and service, is a benefit and supports my own efforts. Finding some people who will stake out territory on Tweeter may provide the same benefit.

[Julia Neiman]

I am asking the same questions that you are about tweeting. It seems to take up so much time that I'm not sure I want to get started. Then again, I don't own a blackberry or even a fancy cell phone and I don't have the money to buy one right now so I guess I'm saved from having to make this decision.