How To: Make the Most of Twitter
We all have Twitter accounts, but are you actually getting the most out of it? How many new donors have you acquired through your Twitter? Do followers, other NGOs and fresh supporters, interact with your tweets?
If not, follow these simple rules to maximise your Twitter presence!
Add images
Tweets with images receive an 18% higher click-through rate.
So when you consider that 55% of people who interact with a charity on social media go on to make a donation, sourcing good quality images = extra donations to your charity.
Images for Twitter should be 1024 x 512 pixels or a 2:1 aspect ratio and high quality.
Use images from former campaigns, or stock images can be free and great quality - just make sure they’re available for commercial use and look out for images that require citations!
Top Tip! Don’t link images across social media platforms! The way you share the image matters. Upload your picture directly to your tweet and you could see a 64% increase in retweets!
Tweets including Facebook links were 47% less likely to be retweeted.
Plan your Content
Everything you tweet should be related to your cause, or be of benefit to your followers.
Have a simple content planner set up, and every time you have a brainwave or find a good article add it in. Review this planner once a week and schedule which tweets you’ll push out for the coming days.
Having a wealthy bank of material and a planner means on days that you are swamped you can still post good content!
Schedule your Tweets
There are certain times that are best to reach a bigger audience, lunch hours, commuter hours and weekends. Any time that you would leisurely be on your own phone - your supporters are too!
But - you have a life! No one can be expected to tweet away morning, noon and night - so schedule your tweets. This is much simpler than you think! I'd recommend using a personalised browser like TweetDeck. You just have to log into you Twitter account via TweetDeck, and then schedule a tweet by following these simple steps:
Click the blue ‘New Tweet’ button
Write the tweet
Attach the picture (if applicable)
Click ‘Schedule Tweet’
Click ‘Tweet at’ button under text box
Will appear in the right hand ‘Scheduled’ column
Interact
Use the search feature to search hashtags relating to your cause. Read what people are tweeting about, this:
A) gives you insight into the content your audience wants
B) allows you to interact with people who are already invested in your cause
Be sure you reply, RT (retweet) and interact with supporters who tweet at you - it deepens your relationship, and if they’ve made the effort to speak to you, you should acknowledge that!
Dogs Trust Ireland maintain a good balance of replying, retweeting and posting their own content.
Make Donating Easy
1 in every 4 tweets should give followers the ability to interact with your organisation, be that promoting an upcoming event, sharing information about your services or a fundraising ask.
60 percent curated (RTs and responses)
10 percent promotional (asks) - these tweets should directly explain how donors can donate to you.
You can also ‘Pin’ a tweet. This holds a chosen tweet at the very top of your profile - so when someone clicks into your Twitter, this will be the first tweet they see. Pinning a donation call-to-action tweet will let donors know how to support your cause right away.
To Pin a tweet:
Choose the tweet you want to pin
Click the three little dots under this tweet (this is the ‘More’ button)
Click 'Pin to your profile page'
Click ‘Pin’
Analyse your Performance
Twitter give you hoards of information and data on how your account is performing via Twitter Analytics.
To sign up for Twitter Analytics visit analytics.twitter.com and log in with your Twitter username and password. Then every time you log in, up-to-date analytics are available from the task bar!
Here you’ll be able to see how many people have viewed your profile, how many people have seen your tweets and everything is broken down on a month-by-month basis so you can keep an eye on performance. They’ll even tell you which of your tweets performed best - so you can continue to make changes and become a highly efficient tweeter!
A few simple changes can make your Twitter a huge asset to your charity. Try implementing the above tips in your next few tweets and, keeping an eye on your analytics, watch your supporter base start to grow.