Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to publish 140 character updates from the web, their mobile device, or from the many open-source applications available. Framework staff on Twitter: Anil: @aniltimeraiser | Jen: @jgrebby | Emily: @emilyhazell | Theresa: @TheresaWetezel | Amanda: @amandabella  Civic Footprint Twitter Launch Strategy Goals:
Key Learning Goals:
Key Messaging: The
key messages published on our Twitter page will surround highlighting
civic engagement stories and work that organizations are involved with,
posts that support artists and young professionals with an interest in
volunteering, as well as social media best practices or tips for NGOs.
Posts may also include key news stories or blog posts that relate to
the work we do. While we recognize that part of communicating through
Twitter means sending some arbitrary messages and replies, the bulk of
our posts will be filled with quality material. Information Collection:
By collecting, listening to, and reading tweets from relevant NGO
Tweeters, it will aid our efforts to support the social media
strategies of the agencies we support. We will listen and respond to
ideas, successes and concerns about social media that help us build our
Organizational Civic Footprint, as well as help others build their
Civic Footprint. Twitter is not a one-way communications platform -
collecting / discussing other's content is just as important as
publishing our own. Information Sharing:
In order to be successful in maintaining a solid group of followers, we
need to regularly contribute meaningful content. Examples of regular
content are: Relationship Management: It
is important for us to build and maintain relationships in this online
space. We will be retweeting interesting and important posts from
relevant organizations as well as regularly responding to "@ replies"
and direct messages from other Twitter users. Identify Influencers -
By maintaining regular conversations on Twitter, we will begin to
identify the online influencers in the non-profit online space. Having
key influencers retweet our posts or broadcast our messages extends the
reach of Civic Footprint. Identifying online influencers will also
help to measure the success of our Twitter campaign, because we can
then begin to build reports based on how many twitter users are message
reached. Lead the way / innovate in the space -
We value technology and social innovation. Our Twitter page is one way
that we can illustrate our knowledge and expertise in social media and
become a resource for other agencies to draw from. Being a Twitter
leader goes beyond simply using the tool; we will research new
applications / platforms and innovative ways that agencies can use the
space, including utilizing multimedia elements such as Twitpic, YouTube
and Picasa Photo Albums. Integration with larger Social Media / Online Communications strategy: Our
Twitter communications align with our larger online communications goal
of building high quality engagement through our Civic Footprint tool.
The Twitter page is one element of a larger social media campaign,
which includes branding all our profiles with consistent colours and
images.
It
can be challenging to produce meaningful content that appeals to many
different audiences within the same Twitter platform. Below we have
identified two content publishing approaches. Approach
1: Weekly content schedule. With a weekly content schedule, we will be
highlighting a specific content theme for each day of the week. We can
declare our Twitter content strategy through tweets and blog posts so
others are aware of our approach. For example: Advantages of this approach -
since we have many different audiences for our Twitter stream, the
content schedule will help the Online Organizer determine which content
to highlight each day, and also help dedicated readers focus in on
material that matters most to them. Challenges with this approach:
You cannot control the posts and material from the Twitter Universe.
It is likely that breaking news and interesting organizational tweets
will be published outside of our schedule. We will have to decide to
either let some posts go, or to publish dated material. Approach 2: Use Tweetdeck to sort groups of followers and collect relevant information quickly. No formal content schedule. Using
this approach, we will create content that appeals generally to the
groups listed about (i.e social media, non-profit information, agency
related posts), but manage the conversations and community through
Tweetdeck groups. Tweetdeck allows information to be sorted by custom
groups, for easy consumption of relevant tweets. Advantages with this approach:
This approach will allow the Online Organizer to filter through
hundreds of followers and respond to specific Twitter users in a
particular group. Challenges with this approach: Tweetdeck
groups are only relevant for consuming information - you cannot send
out particular tweets to individual groups. Some posts may not be
relevant to all users, but it is our hope that our Twitter followers
will find interesting information, and maybe learn something new
through the variety of content we provide. We can also may particular
attention to who we are retweeting and linking to on a regular basis,
to ensure there is a fair distribution of "link love" to each of our
target groups. To
reach our goal of 1,000 followers, we need to actively promote the
Civic Footprint Twitter page and recruit new followers. To do so, we
will cross-promote our social media profiles by inviting our Facebook
fans to join the Twitter page and promote the Facebook page on Twitter.
We will also promote the Twitter page through events and word of mouth
opportunities.
Twitter Best Practices: The Twitter community is comprised of technical and non-technical users, and are often young to mid-career professionals. There are specific "Twitter etiquette" best practices that we will respect and adhere to: 1) Produce meaningful content - linking to news or blog posts, adding Twit pic images and linking to videos. 2)
Give credit: If you come across an interesting Tweet, it is customary
to "Retweet" the original post by assigning a RT at the beginning of
your tweet. The RT gives credit to the original poster. For example,
if @amandabella posted an interesting survey about NGO's and social
media that I wish to share with others, I would Retweet her original
post and add an RT to the beginning of the message "RT @amandbella Great survey results from United Way! www.tinyurl.com/12345" 3) Respond to @ messages or Direct Messages in a timely fashion and in a polite manner 4) Respect grammar / spelling rules, and NO ALL CAP MESSAGES! 5)
Use hashtags. A Hashtag (i.e #civicfootprint) is a way to label or
"tag" messages. Hashtag threads can be followed through tools like
search.twitter.com and almost.at Twitter
is an open-source platform that allows 140 character messages to be
sent from a variety of platforms, including mobile devices, a web
browser, or from desktop applications. The following applications are
useful Twitter tools: Build
a Twitter community with at least 500 followers and regular updates.
To be a leader in the space, we will aim for 1,000 followers with
regular @ replies and interesting posts. Twitter
is still a new technology tool with a level of resource risk. Is it
worth the organization's time and money to build a successful Twitter
space? Knowing that we will be looked to for information on why
organizations should participate and how they should build a profile,
we must also build measurement and reporting into our Twitter
strategy./ How will we measure the success of a Twitter campaign? - Track and record the number of retweets and trackbacks using bit.ly - Monitor the number of Twitter followers User Name: Civic Footprint URL: civicfootprint.ca 160
Character Bio: Building your Civic Footprint through high quality
engagement. Making your Civic Footprint as big a possible through
giving, volunteering, participating. Name:
AG @ Civic Footprint. Transparency is an important value within online
communications. Identifying who is tweeting on behalf of an
organization helps users to recognize who is tweeting, and also gives
the Twitter profile an identity beyond an organization's name. We have
identified our Online Organizer as "AG". Key Followers:
Sample Custom Twitter Designs Dimensions: 80x by 1707x |
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