Twitter for Good: 9 steps for NGOs to get on Twitter

About Dr Saumya Arora

Dr. Saumya Arora is a development professional with cross-disciplinary experience in project management, resource mobilization, donor relationship management, community mobilization and project execution at the field level. She is currently working towards building fundraising and resource mobilization capacity of community-based organizations, apart from developing functional linkages with donors across the world.

Believe it or not, Twitter is revolutionizing communication as we know it. The freedom and power of 140 characters is taking the social media by storm every day. Daily we come across various things which are ‘trending’ on social media, and Twitter has major role to play there.

For NGOs, many are on social media and Twitter too, but few have been able to tap the potential of this platform. Researches and user studies show that Twitter users raise much more funds online than those NGOs who don’t use Twitter. Apart from fundraising, it can also result in increased awareness about a cause, more active volunteer engagement, brand-building, and so much more. So here are the steps to get started with Twitter and make the best use of this platform:

1. Define who you are:

The first thing to do after opening an account on Twitter is to customize your account. Your account will define who you are, what you do, how you do it and so on. You can give links to your website, social media platforms and blogs, apart from short description about your organization.

2. Start following:

Start following people or organizations linked to your own cause. Don’t wait for others to start following you. About half the people you follow will follow you in turn, so ‘follow’ a lot of relevant people and organizations. Observe and analyze what they post and how frequent. Start sharing,‘re-tweeting’ their newsfeed or ‘tweets’. 

3. Start creating interesting content:

Once you have familiarized yourself with the basis, start posting interesting and ‘retweetable’ content. It can be anything, pictures from the field, pictures of staff, updates about your upcoming campaign, or a recent event or the larger picture, any latest news about the sector you work in, anything!

4. Create a calendar:

To make life easier and to ensure relevant content reaches your audience timely, create a calendar for your Twitter handle. Decide what you will post on Monday, Tuesday and so on, for each day of the week. For example, you can share a picture from the field on Monday, a news update on Tuesday, and so on.

5. Use #hashtags smartly:

Hashtag makes your tweet linked to a stream of tweets or content, and it is a very powerful medium to get more attention. But use them smartly, don’t overdo hashtagging, else the tweet will end up looking vague, messy and difficult to read.

6. Give links in your tweets, wherever possible:

To lead the reader to the page where you want to, use links wherever it is possible. You may include links to online resources, your websites, blogs, donation options, etc.

7. Present data in interesting ways:

Using infographics, charts, graphics, pictures and other interesting ways to present your data will increase the chances of your readers retweeting your content. It will also make them read and explore more about your organization, more so if you provide appropriate web-links.

8. Use twitter analytics:

Twitter analytics dashboard sums up all the information you need about how your account and tweets are performing. Using this feature, you can understand what is working for your handle, and you can use the lessons to improve.

9. Be creative:

With so many people and organizations already on social media and Twitter, there is too much noise out there. Making your account and content stand out is going to take a lot of creativity and innovative ideas. So see, observe what others are doing, and then come up with your creative side to add value to your own organization with the help of Twitter.