Answer: It depends.
On what, you say?
Well, for starters, the type of nonprofit. Social welfare organizations, grassroots political activists—anyone with a message or a cause—can potentially harness the power of Twitter to spread the word like wildfire. Case in point: #iranelection. When used wisely, it can be mind-bogglingly effective.
However, I’ve noticed a trend among other nonprofits—arts organizations, in particular—to use Twitter, frankly, wrong. The difference seems to be a drive to sell v. raising awareness.
Trying to sell (tickets, memberships, etc) on Twitter is misguided. Well-intentioned, sure, but it’s almost certainly a waste of your time. And if you’re new to Twitter, don’t mistakenly think you can tweet once a week and it will increase your box office revenue—you’re fooling yourself.
Here’s a little math problem to demonstrate why: I follow 8 people, which by most standards is pretty darn low. On average, each of them tweet 3 times per day. However, the home page only has room for the last 20 tweets, pushing anything else to the next page. This can vary depending on what application you use, but the principal remains the same. If each of those 8 people tweet 3 times per day, I have 24 tweets, 4 of which I’ll probably never read. This is the internet age, and really, who goes to the older posts unless they’re looking for something specific?
The point is—if you don’t have an intern/web guru/slave dedicated to updating your tweets several times a day (with content, not a sales pitch!) you will get lost in the flood of information.
Remember, Twitter is not for advertising.
Let me repeat: Twitter is NOT for advertising.
It’s for engaging and connecting with your audience, be it under served kids, music lovers, or conspiracy theorists.
But, you say, it’s the next Facebook!
Sorry, not yet. At least as far as advertising goes.
Here’s the hard truth: if you aren’t actively engaging your followers, they will stop following you. Kids these days can smell a pitch from a mile away. Or worse, you’ll be reported for spamming if all you do is tweet events and prices. Worse still, your organization could be banned—yes, BANNED—from Twitter.* Why? ‘Cause it’s not supposed to be used that way.
How embarrassing would that be?
Want some advice? Study the people who are doing RIGHT:
Museum of Modern Art: http://twitter.com/MuseumModernArt
LA Chamber Orchestra: http://twitter.com/LACOtweets
*Don’t believe me? Take a gander at Twitter’s SPAM policy:
Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:
- If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
- If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);
- If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
- If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following;
- If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
- If a large number of people are blocking you;
- The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
- If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #
- If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic
- If you repost other user’s content without attribution.
- If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.
Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true; accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.
Twitter reserves the right to immediately terminate your account without further notice in the event that, in its judgment, you violate these Rules or the Terms of Service.