7 Twitter uses for nonprofits

Twitter has become a valuable communication tool for development professionals and nonprofit organizations. Aid workers can raise the profile of an issue through the platform or engage with influential people like power couple and philanthropists @BillGates and @melindagates. But there are even more uses for it, according to Social Media for Nonprofits CEO @ritusharma1. She’s seen organizations use the online social networking service to do everything from pressure lawmakers to abolish the death penalty in some U.S. states to call out a heart association to correct inaccuracies in its video. “There are many people who are using [Twitter] effectively, and most often when I hear someone complain about Twitter’s efficacy I find that they are not familiar with it and are not following some best practices. It is more a human error or training issue than a challenge of the platform itself,” Sharma told Devex. Here’s a few ways to use Twitter to your advantage: 1. Raise awareness about an issue. These hashtags will be familiar: #BlackLivesMatter #LoveWins #JeSuisCharlie. But there are many more that have brought attention to a particular event or issue that may otherwise have lacked it — as in the case of the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria, which caused a global outcry and reached United States first lady Michelle Obama, for example. 2. Expand thought leaders’ reach. Development professionals follow their own organizations’ Twitter accounts, a colleague working on a mission in another part of the world, or even celebrities they admire. But there are people who gain a huge following based on their expertise. For example, @KenRoth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, frequently tweets information and news about global human rights issues — and has 157,000 followers on Twitter. 3. Demand attention and accuracy. Sometimes, using Twitter effectively is about quantity. In 2010, a Los Angeles marketing firm changed its logo after a campaign, using the hashtag #losethecig, got 500 retweets in a span of two weeks. And using the hashtag #ExijoSaber, the U.N. Development Program in El Salvador in 2012 asked the public what government information they wish they had. The campaign gathered 40,000 tweets, and the message did reach public institutions, with some officials responding to the questions online. 4. Recruit. Many of you likely follow the main accounts of international nonprofit organizations like Save the Children or World Vision. But did you know many have a separate Twitter handle for job advertisements? Check this out: @Save_UK_Jobs, @MdM_France, @WorldVisionJobs. 5. Coordinate disaster response. Petajakarta.org uses Twitter to crowdsource data on flooding in the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. Citizens need only tweet to @petajkt about a flooding situation in an area they have come across, add a picture if possible, then turn on their mobile phone’s location services or add a geotag component to their tweet using the hashtag #banjir, which means “flood” in English. This tweet will then be used as reference in a crisis map of the city on the Petajakarta.org platform, which can be used by citizens and even the government for monitoring, flood management and disaster response purposes. 6. Raise funds and launch campaigns. Tools for nonprofit fundraising are everywhere, be it using mobile applications or social media like Facebook and Twitter. Those familiar with #GivingTuesday must know this by now, but there are others, such as using hashtag #donate by @GoodWorld. Some nonprofits have also proven Twitter to be an effective platform in launching campaigns. Charity: water, for example, built momentum and launched its birthday pledge campaign on Twitter, encouraging individuals to essentially “donate” their birthdays by asking friends and loved ones for donations to fund clean water projects in places the organization is active, instead of giving them personal gifts. The World Wildlife Fund also tapped its followers on Twitter in 2015 for a campaign that continues to elicit response on Twitter today. The organization, in partnership with creative agency Wieden + Kennedy London, worked on 17 endangered animal emojis, then asked its followers interested in joining the campaign to retweet WWF’s post to sign up. By joining, users agree to donate 0.10 euros (11 cents) for every tweet that makes use of any of the 17 animal emojis. 7. Engage. Twitter is meant for more than providing updates. It’s a platform that allows engagement with people who may have previously felt unreachable — whether a celebrity, a high profile politician like @POTUS, or nonprofit leaders like @carolynsave of Save the Children USA or multilateral bank chiefs like African Development Bank President @akin_adesina. Devex Professional Membership means access to the latest buzz, innovations, and lifestyle tips for development, health, sustainability and humanitarian professionals like you. Our mission is to do more good for more people. If you think the right information can make a difference, we invite you to join us by making a small investment in Professional Membership.