Geeking For Good

Rumour has it that Twitter Lists have now been rolled out to half of all Twitter users. I believe that the Lists functionality will provide non-profits with some great opportunities for outreach and engagement, not to mention enhance the Twitter experience for organisations and their followers.

Below are just a few List building ideas for non-profits:

1. Your organisation’s chapters and campaigns. If your organisation is federated, with multiple state- or city-based chapters, group these together in one list with any campaign-specific accounts. This will help you and your followers keep track of what is happening across all organisation accounts at a glance. No more hunting through the timeline or Twitter search for the latest news!
2. Related international organisations and campaigns. As above, keeping track of what’s happening will keep you and your organisation connected globally.
3. Organisations that are somewhat related to your organisation. If you work for an animal welfare organisation, you could follow organisations relating to animal therapy. Organisations focussed on poverty abroad could follow organisations that deal with issues relating to poverty, like health or microfinance, both abroad and in your own country.
4. Celebrities, politicians and others with a high profile. Whether you know they are supporters of your cause or not, keeping track of high-profile people could help you easily recognise and act on tweets that relate to your cause.
5. Media. As with celebrities, keep track of what journalists and bloggers are tweeting about. You never know when an opportunity to discuss your organisation could pop up.
6. Volunteers. What better way to keep volunteers engaged than to know what’s going on in their life and keep in contact? You may want to keep this list private.
7. Retweeters and people who have contacted you. As above, this can help you keep track of those people who are influenced by your organisation. An added bonus of this is you can work out just how many of your followers are actively engaged with you online. For example, if you have 1000 total followers, and 300 people in this list, you could gauge that your influence is quite high. Nurture these relationships, as these people – your most important Twitter assets – are reacting to and passing on your messages.

   Now, these lists could take some time to set up and maintain, but I see them as an essential part of non-profits’ social media activities.

   What lists will you be setting up? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Lauren on Friday, October 30, 2009 | Social tagging: community > nonprofits > social media > strategy > twitter