What is Twitter Charity Tuesday?

 

What is Twitter?

(If you are already on twitter, skip to the next section)

Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that allows you to send short text messages 140 characters in length,, called "tweets", to your friends, called "followers."

Twitter is different from other social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace:

 

Speed

With only 140 characters to write, Twitter is the fastest, simplest way to send out updates ("tweets") to people ("followers") who have expressed interest in your organization.

 

SEO

Every conversation is indexed by Google and other search engines, ready to become real data you can manipulate and learn from.

 

Momentum

Twitter is designed to build relationships and spread information among strangers. The ability to quickly establish a mass of "followers" is what makes it so powerful. Twittering is informal, collaborative and promotes quick information sharing that provides relief from email and builds communities based on common interests.

With 10 million users, Twitter is an ideal tool for organizations to attract new friends and reach out to existing ones, by providing a regular stream of fresh insights into your social cause and updates on your projects.  But, like any social networking tool, you cannot just sign-up and drop out, you need to know how to use it effectively.

 

What are Hashtags?

The hash (#) sign is used to mark a word as a keyword, called a “hashtag”. Hashtags, such as #CharityTuesday, were developed to help Twitter users mark messages and create groupings on Twitter so other people can quickly find information about specific topics.

They became popular during the San Diego fire, when Nate Ritter used the hashtag #sandiegofire to chronicle his updates of the event. Since then they have been used to track specific events in real time on a regular basis.

You can follow updates on hashtags in real time at Hashtags.org. In order to have your hashtags tracked, start following @hashtags on Twitter. It will follow you automatically and track your use of hashtags.

 

What is Charity Tuesday?

Charity Tuesday takes place every Tuesday, when Twitter users are encouraged to tweet about their favorite charities and causes. And it has become Twitter’s No.2 most popular topic.

Encourage your supporters to post Tweets that include the #charitytuesday hash tag in support of your project or about a special event.

 

For example:

Learn more about JGooders for #charitytuesday! Visit http://www.jgooders.com

or just

#charitytuesday @JGooderscom

 

Is your organization group using #charitytuesday to promote its efforts on Twitter? If not, you are missing out on lots of free publicity!

 

Further Reading:

Five Twitter Tips for Beginners

How to Recruit (and Keep) Great Volunteers

 

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