How to Use Twitter Better

Home school your way to a more successful Twitter presence. Here’s a baker's dozen of resources that can help you wow the socks off your colleagues. I humbly suggest bookmarking this page right now.

Beginner

• Twitter in Plain English (YouTube)
• How to Use Twitter
• Twitter 101 for Nonprofits (Slideshare)
• 20 Tips for Nonprofits Using Twitter

Intermediate

• 40 Twitter-iffic Event Day Ideas
• 10 Ways Your Nonprofit can use Twitter
• Social Media 4 Nonprofits (includes Prezi)
• 40 Twitter Tips that Turn Newbies into Students, Experts into Pros
• How to Use Twitter for Business

Advanced

• 3 Tips to Improve Online Marketing
• The Business Impact of Twitter
• 4 Ways to Use Twitter for Customer Service and Support
• How to Gather and Use Twitter Metrics

What other great tips, tricks or best practices have you found or started using for Twitter?

A Chat With Judi Sohn

As some of you may know, my podcasting history extends back before I started posting on the Connection Café. For several years I published a podcast called the 501c3Cast which gave me some amazing opportunities to meet entergetic, smart, community-focused people in the nonprofit sector. One of the friends that I made when producing the 501c3Cast was Judi Sohn, the guest on this month’s employee interview. I’m excited to share this conversation with you because Judi was always someone that I had hoped to have as a guest on my original podcast. I’m grateful to have her as a coworker and fellow NPTechie.

At Blackbaud, Judi is a Senior Client Success Specialist on our Common Ground team. You’ll find her active on the Convio Community and throughout the nonprofit technology community. Prior to working at Convio, a Blackbaud company, Judi worked for Fight Colorectal Cancer. Judi is a former board member of NTEN and a Salesforce MVP.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and please give us your feedback and questions below in the comments.

Connection Cafe Podcast 8 - Judi Sohn

Download audio file

3 Ways to Get Creative About List-Building

Keeping your email list alive and kicking is one of the keys to a successful online marketing program. It's critical to develop a sound strategy for growing and maturing your house file and to always incorporate best practices in your day-to-day management. But attrition is inevitable, so I want to share a few creative tricks to give your list building an extra boost.

Here are three types of campaigns that will not only keep your constituents engaged, but encourage them to generate new supporters from their own network of family and friends.

1. Pledge or Petition Campaign

Constituents and prospects show their support by signing a pledge or petition and then forwarding information about the campaign to their family and friends. To sign the pledge, request that they complete a simple online registration form, providing your organization with contact information and the opportunity to continue the dialog.

2. Social Fundraising

With the integrated social tools now available through modern fundraising solutions such as Convio Common Ground®, your supporters are empowered to tap into their networks to raise awareness for your cause, start conversations, fundraise through sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn and even promote peer-to-peer fundraising events. Donations and sign-ups are automatically captured into your house file.

3. Download Campaigns

An email with a downloadable offer, such as a tip sheet, research report, resource guide or case study, offers the reader something of value in exchange for their contact information.

For more house file tips and best practices, download our Grow Your House File with a List-Building Campaign tip sheet.

I want to be like J-Hud

Better Together: Today's post is written by Amy Braiterman, principal strategy consultant at Blackbaud and author of the Friends Asking Amy Blog.  As the smart minds at Convio and Blackbaud converge, Team TR is excited to welcome Amy into the P2P braintrust as an additional resource for our clients.  She supports customers with their P2P fundraising programs using a process she refers to as “data-driven strategy.”   Amy’s data driven strategy analyzes how effective event participants are using online fundraising tools and takes those results to develop an event fundraising plan. 

I want to be like J-Hud: Inspire Your Participants for the Fundraising Journey

You’re probably wondering why I’m referencing Jennifer Hudson (J-Hud) in a post about inspiring and motivating event participants, so let me explain. I had an epiphany the other day. Fundraising is like weight loss. We all want it and we want it immediately. But, just like weight loss, achieving fundraising success requires planning and hard work. Even though there are lots of short cuts on the market, to help you lose weight fast, they never seem to live up to their promises.

So, what does this have to do with event participants? The weight loss industry does a great job motivating and inspiring individuals to buy their products. We spend more than $58 billion dollars a year on weight loss products and services. I have to admit that I contributed to that total.

For the last few years Jennifer Hudson has been WeightWatchers' spokesperson. The team has created several inspiring commercials, but I think they got it right with the first one. The campaign was built around a simple and powerful statement: I Can. The commercial features J-Hud saying “before WeightWatchers my world was can’t…, but on WeightWatchers I can”. This is an awesome message. My life was I can’t, but now I’m empowered and my life is I can. This is exactly what we need to do for event participants.

In the nonprofit events world, we’re great at sharing mission information or providing fundraising tips like how to raise $500 in a week. Let’s add another tactic into the mix and take a cue from our weight loss friends. In your next email or newsletter, include a story about an individual’s or teams’ fundraising success. Motivate your participants by sharing stories about what their peers are doing. Turn them from I can’t to I can. Plus, this is a great way to recognize your participants. They’ll be excited to be featured in your email and you might motivate them to do more.

How are you motivating your participants? Are you currently sharing peer success stories?

If you’re interested check out the commercial. It’s a great message.

 Interested in Learning more from Amy?  Sign up for her free webinar on How to make Social Media Impactful, Actionable and Profitable

Innovate. Advocate. Engage.

Hot off the press! Convio's new quarterly magazine has hit the virtual stands! NP Engage is our new publication slated to release each quarter featuring nonprofit trends, highlights of our latest and greatest thought leadership pieces, popular blog articles and more! The first edition covers the importance of constituent engagement and nurturing your relationship with your supporters.

Our second edition will have a new look to go with our new Blackbaud colors! So stay tuned for the NP Engage volume 2 in Mid-July!

Check out the first edition of NP Engage now!