I’m a salty Twitter veteran of 8 whole months. So I definitely do NOT claim to be a social media expert. But it also doesn’t take an expert to skillfully execute the basics. It does, however, require the right perspective – the donor’s perspective.
What do I mean? Fill your tweets with the messages donors want to see: Interesting teaser copy for a story about someone you helped today (have a link to full story on website). Creative ways donors can get involved and help. Notes and comments from the beneficiaries of your mission. And so forth.
In other words show how donors are making a difference. Show what their money does.
I read and scan a lot of tweets each day. Some based on keywords I monitor and others are organizations I follow. And for those that I see, the vast majority of tweets by nonprofit organizations are missing the mark . . . in my opinion.
It’s not much of an exaggeration to say this is the prevailing tone of the tweets I see: “We’re great. We need help. Send us money.” And that approach isn’t donor-centric.
OpGratitude (short for Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit that provides support to our military veterans) is an example of a group that I think does an above average job of tweeting. I could share more examples but I’ll stick with this one for now.
They partner with businesses for a variety of creative ways to help the troops. And when you click through you clearly see what your donation will “buy.” And they talk about what it means to the troops to receive this help. I’ve even read some messages of gratitude in tweets that are quotes from the troops. So we hear from the people we’re helping. That’s neat.
OpGratitude seems to understand what their donors care about and what they want to read. And that’s what they tweet about. Here’s just one example from today:
Via @NutraPlanet: Operation Combat Care — Support Our #Troops This #Holiday Season: http://bit.ly/5o38y #SOT
