Using Chris Brogan's Archimedes Principle To Leverage Nonprofits on Twitter Suggested User List

Chris Brogan's Archimedes Effect is from his book Trust Agents (co-authored with Julien Smith).  The principle is about leverage.  I've been asking myself how can we leverage the addition of nonprofits and charities on the Twitter Suggested User List?

I got up really early this morning PST time to fly to the East Coast for some trainings I'm doing. While waiting for my plane this morning before dawn,  I scanned my Twitter stream thinking that a jolt of caffeine and Twitter would wake me up while I did my morning 20 minute information grazing routine, finding good stuff, retweeting, bookmarking and sharing.  I came across this tweet from @socialcitizen

I followed the ant trails to the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog post today asking the question, Should Twitter Recommend More Charities?  and referring to a post last Friday by Sean at Tactical Philanthropy breaking the news that Twitter had added charities to its list of suggested users.

Sean listed the new users:

The new “suggested users” are:

• Social Edge
• Skoll Foundation
• Matt Flannery
• Kiva
• Acumen Fund
• charity: water
• GOOD
• Kjerstin Erickson (FORGE founder)
• Jacqueline Novogratz (Acumen Fund founder)
  
• Room to Read

Sean also described a wonderful example of the Chris Brogan's leverage principle by Social Edge which immediately sent out a message to all their new users pointing them to a list of 100 other social entrepreneur focused Twitter users.

There's been a lot of discussion about the Twitter suggested user list which includes a wide mix of celebrities, news outlets, and more.  Sean points out the value of being on the list:

In June the New York Times wrote about the “suggested user” list saying that Twitter was now a “king maker”. They said being listed could add 500,000 followers and pointed out that social media titan Jason Calacanis offered $250,000 to be listed.

I was going to write something about it because I was reminded of the discussion that we had not two weeks ago in response to Seth Godin's post about the non in nonprofits

Godin used (as Tom Watson said it), "the Ashton Kutcher Metric of Social Change - not yet proven, only a theory!"   I am assuming Tom was talking about the number of followers on Twitter as a measure of impact.   If you look in the comments, there was a lot of discussion and on nonprofit blogs about whether number of followers is a meaningful indicator or can be translated into value for nonprofits.  There was a comment about how a smaller number of passionate followers might be worth more to a nonprofit than millions who select them off a general list.

As I was waiting for my plane, I discovered a fantastic and funny post by Alexandra Samuel on social media analytics and metrics about the greatest peril of social media: analytophilia.  It's about obsessing on raw numbers and constantly checking the number of Twitter followers or retweets or Facebook insight clicks.  She recommends that you don't just look at numbers, but ask questions.  I've been advocating this approach for a long time and in many different blog posts.  Take for example, "Using Metrics to Harvest Insights About Your Social Media Strategy."

They started to board my plane and I glanced down at my Twitter account and noticed that something strange happened.  My followers had doubled since the last time I looked!  I had to wait until I could get on the Virgin America wifi to follow the ant trails.  I discovered that I was on the Twitter suggested users list!   So, this sent me over to my new typepad metrics dashboard to see what the impact might be.  I think I'm going to have to track this over a couple of months and set something up on google analytics.

If I was one of the nonprofits on the list, I'd be tracking conversions via a Twitter landing page.  That's what I plan to do. 

The Chronicle has been crowdsourcing suggestions of nonprofits to be added to the suggested list.  I'm going to take a slightly different approach.  I'd like to provide a list of lists to nonprofit twitter users and charities.   I'm adding these to my Twitter landing page.  If you have a list of nonprofit twitter accounts you'd like to add, please leave a comment. 

And metrics geeks, how should I track this?

And, to bring this post full circle, I'm giving a way a copy of Chris Brogan's Trust Agents. Leave a comment!

Comments

[Claudiu]

Hi Beth,

Going for a Landing page it really makes things much easier to track, however I wouldn't stop here. Just focusing on quantity and big numbers we already know it isn't the way to go. So here is what you can do to measure the impact of your twitter and facebook efforts:

1. Use campaigns variables. I noticed you aren't doing this. In other words allow Google Analytics to see twitter not as a simple referrer but rather as a social media website. You will be able to see for example which of your blog-posts have the biggest impact on twitter and will also give you a clue how much does it engage your users (place comments, subscribe to RSS, etc)

2. Use event tracking in order to see the impact of your effort in order to promote other twitter accounts. You'll be able to see exactly how many visits you generate for their twitter accounts.

Things can go even further, but I don't want to get too boring on this. I'm thinking of tackling this maybe on a blogpost or something. If you need some help to implement what I have said above just drop an email and I'll gladly help.

[Chris Marsden]

I love the idea of a list of lists of followers for the twitter landing page. I've been kicking around what to put on one for some time, and that seems like a great way to promote friends/passions without a huge list on #FF. I've also been thinking about a way to change the sidebar for when people click through links to my main site from a tweet or RT. This will allow that landing page type personalization and get them straight to the content they came from. Doesn't really change the metrics of it, but it should up the conversion for RSS/newsletter subscriptions.

[Laurie]

Hi Beth:

I'd like to see @alscanada (ALS Society of Canada) added and thanks for this blog!

I'm also a bit curious as to why the twitter recommendations are so USA-centric. I'd think that in today's day and age, twitter could scan the country that an account holder has and in addition to popular US notable persons and organizations, they could identify people and orgs from the users home country (at least for the countries where there are large user bases?)

Happy Tuesday!

[Jason Inman]

Would love it if you added Convoy of Hope: @convoyofhope to the list! And thanks again for Twitterville!

Oh, and while your at it, go ahead and get us added to the Suggested Users list, well only if you find it to be beneficial ;)

Love what you do!

[Alison Law]

Beth,
Thanks for this post! Please add @loveyourbody to your nonprofit Twitter list. @loveyourbody is the Twitter account for the Eating Disorders Information Network (EDIN) located in Atlanta, GA.
All the best,
Alison

[Tara]

I have to throw our name out there too then. Please add @CleveFoundation to the list. Twitter account of the Cleveland Foundation, impacting lives in Northeast Ohio and the rest of the nation! :)

And you should definitely be one of the suggested users. They were spot on!

[Avi Kaplan]

Have you seen TweepML? I haven't used it, but it might be a good format for sharing your suggested lists.

[twitter.com/davethecfre]

@ACHIEVA - ACHIEVA

[DShan]

Great idea!

We'd love you to include Chicago Dramatists on the list. They're a small playwright's network in Chicago that produces original material.

A Steady Rain, by Keith Huff, started at @ChiDrama and is now mounted on Broadway starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman!

@ChiDrama

[Kirsty McLullich]

@VisionAfrica would definitely appreciate a mention on your list of nonprofits. We support 15 different children's projects in Kenya.

Congratulations on being a suggested user - the great info you provide definitely merits your place there.

[Shawna Gnutel]

Seriously don't know what I would do without your help Beth! We're an umbrella organization for charities and nonprofits in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. At the moment, preparing a breakfast panel of local social media experts for a Social Media 101! ...then we can start tracking our efforts. Twitter, so far, has been amazing for up to the minute information and sharing.

[Ed]

Also, the individuals on the suggested user list
can bring attention, by tweeting about causes and events.
Most don't want to follow an account that's all N/P's all the time.

I try to do this in the spirit of http://twitter.com/twitter/status/4633069724
Twitter HQ obviously agrees (one of them tweeted that shortly after I private messaged it to @Ev)
But I am told they are inundated with requests.

What I have found to be most effective in bringing attention
to worthy causes and efforts, is honest, evocative wording.
In other words, it goes beyond "spraying the crowd".
All followers become aware, and the interested have a link
before them.
Encouraging a culture where folks reach out and share that link
with a friend whom *they know* would be interested, (and
will likely reshare), has been my best use of the SUL.

Good health to all,
Ed

[Frank Pesci]

Beth,
Really getting a lot out of your blog posts!
Can you please add @bmsmusic? Brookline Music School is the oldest and largest cultural institution in Brookline, MA (just outside Boston).

Best,

Frank

[Cat W.]

Beth,

Thanks for this post. I've been hearing for some time now that you are "the" person for nonprofit social media, and it's very clear you love what you do and are very insightful with all of it. Involvement in my organization has a tendency to be seasonal, so we use social media to stay in front of our constituents year-round. I, too, tend to get caught up in the numbers and struggle with ways of measuring our impact. I look forward to reading more!

Cat (@cat_montreat or @cewillia)

[Jeff Stern]

I'm surely biased, but I'd like to see @lifeandscience, my place of employment, on the list. It's my colleague @10ch who tweets for us.

[Sam the video man]

It all really depends how its used. Content is king and when something can be pushed to the masses then it will catch on. Good read!

[twitter.com/contactjr]

Beth, StartingBloc (@StartingBloc) is a pretty awesome organization here in NYC. They put on the Institute for Social Innovation, a five-day workshop that educates emerging leaders (typically between the ages of 21 and 29) in areas such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. These leaders then maintain ties with each other via StartingBloc's alumni network.

Awesome to see you doing this. Thanks!

JR (@contactjr)

[Jeff Paul Scam]

Today internet business through internet marketing is common , organizations promote their products and services and reach a bigger range of customers through it .

[Amy Sample Ward]

Agree with Avi that TweepML might be worth checking out as a tool for what you want to do with your recommendations.

I've used a landing page (http://www.amysampleward.org/welcome/) for a long time now as a way of welcoming people to my site that click through from my Twitter profile and have had a positive response. People don't always want to jump right into conversations (blog posts) that they don't know are coming so the landing page in my situation was kind of a half step into the blog, a minute to explain and welcome and invite before they clicked through to the blog.

Very interested in your tracking experiment - will be watching for more!

[Beth]

Yes, been using a landing page with recommendations of one up twitter
users to follow for some time now- and replaced it with lists a couple
of months ago - and now can add Twitter lists
http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/Beth+Kanter+Twitter+Landing+Page

Great minds think alike!

[cyril]

hi Beth, thanks for this post.
Sure Start project, a five-year initiative by PATH, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works towards educating pregnant mothers in India about safe child birth. Sure Start promotes safe child birth in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in India.

Please see if you can help us in giving this program more visibility through a blog post on your blog

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Sure-Start-Project-by-Path/178629192101
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pathsurestart