"I feel like a stranger in a foreign country and I don't understand the language and I'm not wearing the right hat."
Over ten years ago someone in an Internet Skills Workshops for Nonprofits I was teaching, said that. It was during a discussion about moving from fax machines to email. It has stuck with me. I thought about this today again and how hard it is to translate or explain ideas/concepts when someone has not experienced it. That is the case for Twitter, words alone, no matter how good of a translator you are, won't do the experience justice.
There has been an amazing conversation about twitter on the social web over the past couple of days. It prompted me to ask my readers, "What are the six signs that Twitter isn't for your Nonprofit?" I wasn't asking to be a naysayer or cranky, but because I've submerged too much into Twitter culture and needed the view from the nonprofit office eye level. I got some terrific ideas in the comments, especially these pithy points from Pistachio.
DO NOT engage with Twitter if you don't want to invest time, attention and resources in making real connections there.
DO NOT encourage your staff to Twitter if you don't want them to share information quickly, connect to one another more deeply, and discuss your nonprofits work with the broader public.
DO NOT even try it unless you are open to serendipitous returns. If you establish rigid goals and "pursue" them with Twitter, you may as well just flush the toilet. Be open to spontaneity. Go with the flow.
DO NOT approach Twitter with the aim of accumulating and controlling an audience.
DO NOT mistake Twitter for software.
DO NOT Twitter without love.
Sue Waters and I batted around some ideas in the comments and pointed me over to her "How To Get My Twitter Magic Back" where she asked for help from readers. She got incredibly useful feedback about Twitter use processes and how to make efficient and effective depending on your goals. These two posts are brilliant.
Twitter, What's Twitter?
When I teach workshops, I start with a pop quiz to get a sense of who is in the room and what they know. A year ago, when I asked "Twitter?" no one would raise their hand. Last March, after SWSX, maybe 1/5 of the room would raise their hands. Now, depending on the location, I often see as many as half the room.
Twitter Life Cycle by CogdogBlog (Essay here)
So, if you need some good primers on Twitter, here's a reflection I wrote back in March that includes some pointers to basic introductions. Or maybe you would like a collection of stories about how Twitter has been used for network collaboration. Nancy White has collected them here. Or check out Twitterstories.
Delving to the World of Twitter
For those lucky people who live in San Francisco, the next Net Tuesday is about Twitter and Nonprofits. The speakers are Nate Ritter, talking about how he used Twitter as a help center during the San Diego fires, and Jeremy Pepper, the Director of Communications of the Point.
Beth Dunn, who also commented, when back wrote a post about the human face of Twitter. Chris Brogan mentioned in the comments
I quite agree. Twitter has put quite a human face on the web, and I’m grateful for that. Hard to explain to people still struggling with using it or not, but I’m happy as hell to have found it, and glad that you’re part of the story. : )
Beth reminded me of a quote from Jeremiah Owyang, "The Tools Come and Go, but Strategy Sustains." We brainstormed an adoption progression - in the abstract.
If you were working with a nonprofit as an internal or external consultant, and they asked, "Should we be on Twitter?" What questions would you ask? What counsel would you give them?
What are your goals? What do you think Twitter can do to help you reach those goals?
If you are mostly interested in listening (to a community that is active on Twitter), then that might indicate that Twitter would be worth some of your time. If you're more interested in Talking (getting a message out, advertising your brand/events), just be sure you're willing to listen first, and in an ongoing way.
As with a lot of social media, you really have to ask:
1. Who am I trying to reach?
2. Are they there (active and engaged on Twitter)?
3. What do I propose to do with/to them once I find them?
4. Do I have the time, resources, and sustained interest to stay involved?
Using Twitter is like having a sleeping baby in the next room. You have to keep one ear open all the time - the pie chart of your attention is always going to have that one slice that says BABY on it.
Posted by: Beth Dunn | December 21, 2007 at 06:44 PM
@Beth Dunn -- "using Twitter is like having a sleeping baby in the next room" ... nice!
@Kanter -- excellent post. I love Pistachio's list. Makes me think of something Doc wrote a couple days back:
Posted by: iwilker | December 21, 2007 at 08:01 PM
Ian,
I love that quote.
But that's a real culture shift.
What advice do you give to organizations on how to change the culture to make this change. Are there organizations that shouldn't change? What are the implications of not making this shift?
Beth
Posted by: Beth Kanter | December 22, 2007 at 07:09 AM