Peter Panepento, Web Editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy
Also blogs at GlobalErie
During the fall, the WeAreMedia project is discussing the content in the tactical modules on the wiki. The Tactical modules get to the nitty gritty, but with a lens of how many hours does it take. Each module discussing ideas and content that will progressively take more time to implement. Last week, talked about the first module, which was about Listening and focused on what you can do a few hours a week.
This week we've had a lively discussion about Module 2: Participate in the Conversation. We got lots of suggestions on some easy ways to jump in and participate. I put a call out for a mini-case study, for someone to add it or agree to an email interview.
I've been observing how he uses the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Twitter Feed to participate. He just doesn't post links pointing to blog posts on the Chronicle's blog, but asks questions, responds to readers, and pointers to other links.
1. How is the Chronicle using Twitter to participate?
Our use of Twitter has evolved considerably over the past few months. We started out using Twitter to point followers to new content on philanthropy.com and to get a sense of how folks in the nonprofit world were using it for their own social networking efforts. As I became more familiar with Twitter, though, I began to realize that it was much more than just a tool for pointing to content. I saw it as a great way to pose questions to folks in the field, to find sources for stories, and to give our followers a better sense of the personality behind the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Now, Twitter has become a vital part of my daily online life. I spend a lot of time starting discussions, responding to questions, and looking for fresh perspectives. On top of that, Twitter has been able to provide us with experts for live discussions, story ideas, and links to other important discussions about philanthropy.
2. How do you find conversations on Twitter that you want to join? (Summize? Just reply to your @ or other)
I've been actively searching Twitter for folks who are involved with philanthropy -- be they charities, professionals who work for charities and foundations, consultants, and those who simply care about social change. When I see posts that relate to these topics -- or am pointed to people and organizations who are using Twitter -- I follow them. I also look at who they @ to try to find others who are worth following. I'm quite active in reading the feeds of those we follow -- and I'm always open to finding new perspectives and voices. The reciprocal results have been fantastic. We have nearly 600 followers now -- and we had fewer than 100 people following us just a couple of months ago. It has been exciting to watch the network grow and to see how the conversation has expanded.
3. What is the benefit of having a conversation? Has it brought you readers? Generated article ideas? Crowd source your research? And give you give a specific anecdote that illustrates this.
The conversations have been incredibly valuable. We have been able to find experts to participate in our weekly live discussions, sources for stories, and have used it to generate real-world responses to questions.
For instance, when we ran a recent story on nonprofit jargon, I asked our followers for their least-favorite nonprofit jargon words and used those responses as the basis of a post on our Give & Take blog.
But perhaps my favorite example thus far stemmed from a direct message I received from one of our followers about a month ago. The executive director of a small charity messaged me to get my feedback on a direct-mail fund raising letter he had drafted. I'm not qualified to provide such feedback, but he and I communicated through Twitter and ended up putting his draft letter on our Prospecting blog and asked our readers to provide him with feedback.
The response was fantastic.
The executive director was thrilled with the feedback and is working on a new version of the letter, which I'm sure will raise more money for his charity than his original draft. And we were able to engage our readers in a new way on our Web site. In time, I hope we can do a lot more of this type of content -- having folks in the field use our site to get feedback from their peers. And it all started with Twitter.
4. What do you think is the art of conversation on Twitter?
I'm not sure we've mastered the art yet. Writing something meaningful in 140 characters or less is a challenge -- and I think it's helping to make me a better writer.
The key is to economize words -- and to ask questions that you know can be answered in short bursts. Our query for jargon words, for instance, was a perfect Twitter conversation. It was a simple question, it was fun, and it was something that could get answered quickly and succinctly.
5. Advice to nonprofits?
My advice is to use Twitter as a two-way conversation. Don't expect to get much out of it if you simply push out links. To get value from it, you need to ask questions and be willing to respond to others. And you need to actively follow others who share your interests. Like any social media, it requires a commitment. But if you are willing to put in the time, you will likely find results.
The WeAreMedia Module 2 could use one other case study - something about how a nonprofit has used the tools to participate in a conversation on blogs or blog post that describes the art of blog comments as conversation in a nonprofit context. If you have a story that you'd like to share for the wiki, I'd be happy to interview you. Just leave me a comment.
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