The following post was written by our Manager, Training and Outreach Leanna Hill. We are so happy to be welcoming her back to our team after her year away on maternity leave.
Just a week back from my year long maternity leave, and I find my Twitter skills have become a bit “rusty”. As I prepare to write this blog post, I head to our Volunteer Victoria Hootsuite account and try to post a tweet…It’s harder than I think it will be! Trying to apply what I’ve learned in the past, I search for “non-profits” to figure out what the current hashtag (#) naming convention is.
Does this all sound vaguely familiar, but confusing? Is it utter gibberish to you? Are you on the verge of entering the Twitter-sphere? Maybe you’ve signed up for a Twitter account for your organization, but haven’t yet gotten much out of it. Maybe you’re just thinking about it.
The truth is, Twitter is here to stay (well, in social media terms, anyways) and it’s actually pretty useful once you get going.
Twitter is used by non-profits in a number of ways – to engage supporters, share successes and stories, find relevant resources, and to support other non-profits. Of course, the outcomes are what we’re interested in when investing in a new tool. Will Twitter bring in donors? Will it help you find volunteers or attendees? Well, yes. If used correctly.
What our organization has found, and is backed up by what other social media bloggers say, is that Twitter is a tool that supports and builds relationships and information sharing. It doesn’t replace a fundraising or marketing strategy, but it certainly can support one. There is a knack to using Twitter, and the scene is regularly shifting, but once you learn the basics it makes a lot more sense (and can even be fun!).
If you could use some hands-on learning about Twitter, we’re happy to be offering a Twitter Essentials for Non-Profits workshop on Saturday, October 19th from 1:00pm-4:30pm. Check out our website for more information and to see some of the tweets that help us to build community: www.volunteervictoria.bc.ca