5 recommendations on how to tweet from our association’s Twitter account

Twitter is one of the social media with a greatest outreach. It is said there are many political scientists and journalists using it, but far from being a tool for the minorities, Twitter has achieved a huge social outreach in recent years. It has become known for controversy and discussion, but the truth is that this social network characterized by simplicity, immediacy and synthesis is very much used by all sorts of organizations. Here I give you 5 recommendations for when you use your association’s Twitter account:

Don’t reach out to the whole World, it’s unnecessary. A non-profit organization doesn’t need Twitter to reach out to the whole population; instead it should focus on its closest environment. It’s closes environment now and, if lucky, its future potential environment. In fact, if it’s done properly, only people closest to the organization will follow your organization on Twitter, either because they support your cause or because they are part of the organization.

We could say there are only two reasons why a non-profit organization wouldn’t want to use Twitter. One would be if your organization doesn’t have a close environment and the activities it dies don’t need to be shared. The other is if a vast majority of the people in the organization or its environment don’t use this social network. For generational reasons, more than due to age, Twitter may not be useful for organizations of elderly people, whereas Whatsapp is likely to be extremely popular.

Decide what you tweet and when. You don’t have to tweet every single day. Nobody’s forcing you. Tweet when things happen around the organization. It is advisable to agree on a strategy to decide what you tweet and when. For instance, you could use Twitter to announce activities or explain these activities after they’ve happened, or when you start an interesting project. You don’t need an ambitious plan for social media. Simply agreeing on a few templates to tweet regularly can be enough.

Make the most of this tool. Depending on the type of organization you are, you can adapt the tool to your needs. If you want to start a reflexion, it is a good idea to include links to relevant documents and reports; if your organization works to disseminate popular culture, posting a photo of your cultural activities is both nice and easy. Look at what organizations around you do, copy their techniques and resources. You don’t need to take a course, just be on the lookout and give it a try!

Use a scale economy and as those who already use Twitter to tweet. Who should tweet in the organization? The answer is simple: anyone who already uses twitter personally and is involved in the organization’s daily activities. The best is for a couple of persons to have access to the account and tweet from their mobile phones. This will allow them to tweet live when the organization is doing an activity. Don’t worry!! We’re all good people and won’t tweet too much nonsense. If we do, everyone will have a good laugh before the tweet is quickly deleted.

Take care of your environment and people, and congratulate them! Don’t just say how wonderful your organization is and how important you are for the community; make sure you also mention similar organizations that do interesting things that motivate your environment. Congratulate them! Twitter is also a great tool to thank those who do a good job. With Twitter, just as in life, it is useful to praise people and hug them. You’ll receive back in exchange!