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Category Archives: Twitter
December 14, 2012, 12:46 am
How Social Media Helped Livestrong Weather a Tough Time
As online community manager at the Livestrong Foundation, Brooke McMillan has been the social-media face for an organization that has spent months at the center of an unrelenting crisis.
Last month the organization announced that its founder, Lance Armstrong, was stepping away from the group’s board and that his name would no longer be part of the organization’s official identity. That decision came after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a detailed report about Mr. Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancement drugs and the Tour de France stripped him of medals he won.
Ms. McMillan says the constant storm of criticism of Mr. Armstrong meant she was spending time on social networks like Twitter and Facebook almost around the clock—largely working to nurture and protect an online community that still cared about the organization, despite its founder’s transgressions.
“We’re…
November 21, 2012, 4:17 pm
Donald Trump’s Tweets About Nonprofit Executives Prompt Outrage
Donald Trump, the real-estate mogul and television personality, has taken aim at two high-profile charity leaders, criticizing them on Twitter for collecting too much in salaries and not spending enough on programs.
The tweets pointed to “reports” about the financial practices of the United States Fund for Unicef and the American Red Cross and have been widely shared by some of Mr. Trump’s 1.9-million followers.
The problem is that the figures are false.
Snopes, a site that checks the validity of Internet-based rumors, labeled the information included in Mr. Trump’s tweets as ”mostly outdated and inaccurate,” saying that the information may have come from a chain e-mail that was first sent in 2005.
Reports are out there that many CEO’s of charities are getting overpaid, while their causes are seeing very little…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2012
…
September 27, 2012, 11:04 am
What Is Keeping Nonprofit Leaders Awake at Night?
The Chronicle asked its followers on Twitter to share what is worrying them most right now in their professional lives. We asked them to reply with the hashtag #charityinsomnia. Here are some of their answers.
June 13, 2012, 10:58 am
How Young People Learn About Nonprofits Online
To reach people in their 20s and early 30s, the most important thing nonprofits can do is to make sure their Web sites are easy to read on a mobile device and not overly cluttered, says a survey of more than 6,500 young people released Tuesday.
About 65 percent of respondents said they liked to learn about a nonprofit through its Web site, compared with 55 percent who said they turned to social networks, e-mail newsletters (47 percent), print (18 percent), and face-to-face conversations (17 percent).
Other findings from the survey, conducted by two consulting companies, Achieve and Johnson, Grossnickle, and Associates:
Keep e-mail newsletters short and to the point. Members of focus groups conducted with the survey said they were more likely to read short, focused e-mails than long messages. About 65 percent of young people said they wanted e-mails to give them news about the…
February 14, 2012, 2:16 pm
Valentines From the Nonprofit World
We asked our followers on Twitter to share their best romantic messages in the language of nonprofits.
Below is a running list of some of the responses from the nonprofit world and the Chronicle staff. Join in and post using the hashtag #nonprofitvalentines.
December 14, 2011, 4:53 pm
Six Nonprofits Get an Early Crack at New Twitter Brand Profiles
Twitter has given six nonprofits an early chance to test out its new brand page design, which seeks to give users more effective ways to promote their work.
The American Red Cross, Create Jobs for USA, Global Citizen Year, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Kiva, and Room to Read, now have pages that feature new banners and space to display a promoted tweet with a video.
And these early adopters say they expect the new layout to help them connect more effectively with followers and others who see their Twitter pages.
“If they come to our Twitter page for the first time, it’s a great way to take a peek at what we are all about in a more curated way than there has been in the past,” said Shauna Carey, communications associate at Room to Read.
The organization this week promoted a tweet that encourages supporters to contribute to the organization’s “holiday wish list” campaign. …
December 9, 2011, 2:26 pm
Twitter’s Redesign Offers New Options to Nonprofits
Twitter has unveiled a redesign to its site and tools that offers many new features that could affect nonprofits, including the addition of special pages that allow organizations and companies a chance to promote themselves.
The new brand pages, which will be free, will allow organizations to promote a tweet to display at the top of their pages. Photos and videos can also be attached to those messages. The brand pages also provide more space for organizations to promote their messages and won’t display advertising from other groups or companies.
Twitter has already selected 21 large for-profit companies to test the pages–including Coca-Cola and Chevrolet–but those brand pages can be viewed only if your account has been upgraded to the new Twitter layout.
Other new features included in the new release that may affect your organization:
• New labels. The current links…
November 9, 2011, 8:24 am
Animal-Welfare Charities Among the Most Popular Online
Posting frequently on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks and designating staff members to focus on social media are key to gaining online visibility.
Those are just some of the conclusions in the newest nonprofit social-media report from the Internet entrepreneur and philanthropist Craig Newmark.
Mr. Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects, a blog about nonprofit work, examined the Facebook and Twitter accounts of five big organizations involved in eight causes to see which ones did best attracting attention. (For more background about how big charities use social media to raise money, see this survey from The Chronicle.)
Among his findings from eight weeks of data collected this fall:
• Animal and environmental organizations post most often on social networks. Animal groups posted an average of 14 times on Facebook and tweeted 134 times a week, while …
September 22, 2011, 9:15 am
How Nonprofits Can Avoid Politicking Online
As the presidential election season heats up, a Washington advocacy group has outlined how charities can ensure their Web sites don’t violate IRS rules banning organizations from politicking.
Charities should be careful to not endorse political candidates on any part of their Web sites, separate their sites from those of affiliated advocacy organizations, and almost never link to a page with political content, according to a new paper from the Alliance for Justice, a Washington nonprofit.
The 34-page paper, “Influencing Public Policy in the Digital Age: The Law of Online Lobbying and Election-Related Activities,” includes a question-and-answer section with rules governing social-media interactions.
“No one had ever heard of—or even imagined—things like Facebook or Twitter when the rules were written that govern advocacy and political activity for nonprofit…
August 8, 2011, 7:55 pm
Nonprofit Offers Twitter Account to Contest Winner
One of the keys to social-media success is acknowledging that an organization can’t control its message.
Water.org has decided to push that notion to the extreme.
The nonprofit—which was started by the actor Matt Damon to raise money for water sanitation in developing countries—is playing host to an online contest in which it will cede control of its official Twitter account for one week to one of its most ardent supporters.
The contest, which runs through August 31, is open to any person or organization in the United States with a Twitter account. The winner, who will be chosen via a vote by the charity’s followers, will then have the keys to its @water Twitter account—and its more than 430,000 followers.
Mike McCammon, chief community officer at Water.org, says he hopes the winner will be an individual with strong ties to his organization and its cause.
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