Let me first start off this post by stating what a pleasure and honor it is to have John Haydon from CorporateDollar.Org provide me with such a great guest post. John is amazing and if you are not reading his blog, shame on you. It is one of the best and I read it daily. “John Haydon’s social media marketing approach leverages his 15 years of corporate sales and marketing experience.” John’s approach to using social media as a marketing tool is just incredible. I hope you enjoy John’s writing as much as I do.
By John Haydon:
Small non-profits often ask me questions about using Twitter, but the one I get most often is this:
“Do usernames matter if you use Twitter primarily for fund raising? In other words, is it best to use my name or the name of my non-profit?”
Up until now, I’ve been giving non-profits the same advice that I shared during the “expert chat” session on Philanthropy.com.
“Twitter is a social medium with a tremendous amount of connection and relationship. The Twitter culture is connection and community. And who do people want to connect with? Other people.
It’s best to be who you are – just be sincere. Use your face in the avatar (and not one done at a photo studio. Use your name as the username on Twitter.”
Sounds like good advice – for most small non-profits and charities. But what if your non-profit is on the front lines of a news-worthy event? What if your non-profit needs to update supporters with up-to-the-minute news during a fundraising event?
What if you absolutely need to broadcast?
The problem with these “high output” events is the unnecessary collateral damage:
- Your current Twitter relationships with will be turned off by this sudden broadcasting.
- Users that find you in a search will choose not to follow you if they see a high amount of broadcast posts.
- Any new connections won’t won’t get the attention they deserve.
The solution? Two Twitter accounts.
Having an additional broadcasting account on Twitter is an easy solution to a difficult problem. This allows you to continue to network and develop relationships AND broadcast messages. However, it has got to be done right to be effective. Here are a few tips for success:
- Make it clear to other users that the second account is only for broadcasting. Create a user name that makes this clear. For example, “PovertyHorn” or “GreenBlaster”.
- In the settings tab, enter the URL to the “news” page of your non-profit’s blog.
- Create a background page with your non-profit’s logo or event name in the sidebar. Include two sentences telling other users about the frequency and type of news they can expect by following.
- In the bio field, enter: “Up-to-the-minute news on PovertyNow.Org”.
- Only follow your other account with this new account – don’t follow anyone other Twitter users. Twitter folk will be curious about this one user (which is you) and will be more likely to follow you in addition to the broadcaster.
If your website doesn’t have an RSS feed for news, get one – or get a blog. The last thing you want is a broadcaster account that needs to be manually updated.
For more Twitter tips and information about John, go to his great blog CorporateDollar.Org
Very interesting indeed.
This technique looks very promising. Will suggest to some prospects.
Rajeev Edmonds´s last blog post..Pros And Cons Of A Multi-Author Blog
@Rajeev,
Yes – let me know how it works out. There’s a lot more involved to get it right, but people should keep tweaking in order find what works for their organization.
John
Good advice as always!
It is always good to look at how your twitter followers want to get your tweets.
Cindy King´s last blog post..How Good People Skills Also Grow Your International Business
Thanks, Cindy!
Yep – it’s all about being useful.
John Haydon´s last blog post..I Was Unprepared For The Philanthopy.com Chat
John, this is fantastic. A business can use this just as easily as a nonprofit, too.
Michael Martine´s last blog post..10 Social Media Tips from 30,000 Feet
Great post! Just met with a local non-profit here in MD and talked about Twitter. Shared this with them today. Thanks!
@Michael – Thanks for the kudos! As with any social media approach, organizations should start with their strategy first, then cascade down to tactics like this one.
@Jon – Glad it was helpful. Ping me at Twitter.com/johnhaydon if I can help out in any other way.
John Haydon´s last blog post..I Was Unprepared For The Philanthopy.com Chat
John, good point on establishing the two Twitter accounts. I had never thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. Regarding the workflow of actually using Twitter, what do you recommend for nonprofits. Should they work right from Twitter, or use something else like Twhirl or Tweetdeck to manage these two accounts? Joe
Joe,
Great question! Any app can be used, but I don’t know of any that will allow you to be logged in with two accounts at the same time.
John
John Haydon´s last blog post..Grant Griffiths Shoots Dorothy, Sells Toto On Ebay
I find it effective to use 2:
one I use as a News Feed: http://twitter.com/SecuritiesD
one I use to interact and go “off topic”: http://twitter.com/brucecarton
Bruce Carton´s last blog post..Securities Docket News Wire for Dec. 3, 2008
Great post! I have learned a lot from John, especially about Twitter. I use two Twitter accounts, one that is personal (professional life) and one for my organization.
This has led me to meet people that do similar social networking and marketing things I do for my nonprofit. Great tips John!
Melisa´s last blog post..Go Shopping for the Volunteer Center
Melisa,
You are very welcome! Please keep pinging me anytime you have questions.
John
John Haydon´s last blog post..I Was Unprepared For The Philanthopy.com Chat
Great advice! I’ve seen the dual Twitter account put to good use and think it works well to maintain separate relationships instead of bruising good ones.
At events, I’ve found that what works for me isn’t having two Twitter accounts but truly live blogging. I use CoverItLive because it works well, is fun, and allows for all kinds of interaction while I’m typing away keeping people not physically there up to speed with the great speaker or session, etc. This is useful for me because I’m not at a rally, Twittering from my mobile. That’s where I see the two Twitter accounts really proving their worth.
Amy Sample Ward´s last blog post..So you’re interested in social media…
Amy,
Very cool – I wasn’t aware of coveritlive.
Thanks!
John
John Haydon´s last blog post..Video Post: Website vs. Blog – Search Engine Rankings
If you have an existing news feed with people you are following, do you suggest “unfollowing” all but yourself (the new feed)? I like the idea of just following yourself but harder when you already have people you are following. Might alienate the unfollowed?
Bruce Carton´s last blog post..Securities Docket News Wire for Dec. 3, 2008
Bruce,
I wouldn’t recommend that for the reason you mentioned.
John
John Haydon´s last blog post..I Was Unprepared For The Philanthopy.com Chat
I have to admit that I was resistant, at first, to the idea of two Twitter accounts – mostly because I thought it might make it hard to keep track of the people I very much want to follow closely.
Already we’re starting to see some smart and effective use of dual accounts, however, and you have capped it off with sound reasoning here: changed my mind completely! I think this works very well if
(a) a clear connection is made between the two accounts – and reiterated occasionally, perhaps, for the benefit of new followers -
and
(b) the motives are pure,
and
(c) the Twitter user has a clear vision of which account is for what purpose. (Don’t want to muddy the communication waters, right?)
Thanks for laying out a workable plan!
Wow! I thought I knew what I was doing but, John’s thorough roadmap just made my life easier.
I guess I never liked the automatic post-to-Twitter tools, due to their impersonal and generic footprints. However, an RSS feed makes perfect sense for a broadcast account.
Actually, I post so seldom to my broadcast that Twhirl has been sufficient. However, as things ramp up, RSS will definitely be necessary.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog post..Flat Earth Wagon Wheel
Mitchell,
Thanks for visiting! It sounds like you’re right on track. That’s the whole thing with this social media stuff – try it, tweak it, learn.
John
John Haydon´s last blog post..Video Post: Website vs. Blog – Search Engine Rankings
I came here through a link in a question on linkedin. Here are my thoughts about having multiple accounts:
I prefer to keep a single account for my business and conversation. This serves me good enough basically for 2 reasons. 1) My business reflects my personality and vice versa. I prefer to keep them intact and synergetic
2) because I don’t tweet every second of what I am doing. I prefer to keep my followers informed about latest trends, technology and tips in my profession. I try to limit conversations (interesting or informative to others) with my friends. If they get to personal conversations, I switch to D msgs.
I use # tags to log tweets relevant to specific topic like #blogtraffic. To do this, i create a tweet channel for the topic through http://tweetchannel.com and prefix tweets relevant to the topic with #channelname. The logged tweets can be found at the http://tweetchannel.com/channelname . This saves me from managing multiple twitter accounts.
The only disadvantage of having one account is, I get a little conscious about my tweets because I pull my tweet stream RSS to other social profiles.
If I had more businesses in non-related fields, I would create a different profile for each field.
You can find me on twitter @ShriNagesh
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