I haven’t been answering too many questions lately about Twitter, because everyone is so focused on Facebook! So I appreciate this opportunity to talk about Twitter.

First off, ANYONE can “retweet” your Tweets. And you WANT them to! If you tweet, and I see it, I can retweet it. I can retweet it plain, or I can add my own comment, like “please support this great organization!” at the end.

Keep in mind that if I do this, I am not tweeting AS your organization–nobody can do that unless they have your login information (and of course, you want to keep that private!). But anyone can @reply or RT your tweets. This is how everyone shares links, photos, videos and other information on Twitter!

Now, placing a website link on Twitter. You can put your website URL in your Twitter profile–it asks you for several things like your location (City/State), gender, brief “about us” statement and your URL. So you can definitely put it there, and that way if someone clicks on your profile to learn more about you, they’ll see your URL and be able to click on it.

Unfortunately, there is no way to put your URL anywhere on your Twitter page itself that people can click on it. Even if you make a custom Twitter background, you can put the URL there, but it’s just going to be part of an image–it won’t be clickable. That is just a limitation of Twitter. Who knows, it may change someday!

Fundraising on Twitter! Big question. I think I will tackle this further in another post, but the keys would be:

Be specific, just as in any other social media. Twitter is timely, so ask for things that you need NOW, like TODAY. For example, I often ask for supplies (batteries, paper towels, etc.) right before the lunch hour, because people often drop by the store on their lunch break to pick up supplies and drop them off. Asking for specific things at specific times makes it easy for people.

Say thank-you. Twitter makes that easy, too–you can call out certain people and thank them!

Again, as with other social media, you need to have a relationship with people on Twitter BEFORE you start asking. Twitter is not a broadcast medium, it’s a a conversation, even if your sentences are only 140 letters long!

On his blog, The Fundraising Coach, Marc A. Pitman writes:

That means there’s no magic secret–you have to put in the time to listen more than you talk, build relationships with people, and then ask!

That being said, an enormous amount of money has been raised by nonprofits on Twitter! Read about Tweetsgiving, which raised more than $11,000 in 24 hours!

You can also read a great post by Beth Kanter about fundraising on Twitter–I would suggest you subscribe to Beth’s Blog if you’re interested in nonprofit social media as well.

Here are a few other great links to post you might want to read about Fundraising on Twitter:

1o Tips for Successful Twitter Fundraising
Twollars.com (interesting idea…I wonder if it works?)
Micro Fundraising on Twitter: Red Kettle Campaign, Wellwishes cracks $2,000 mark (another from Beth Kanter’s blog)

I’ll collect more stories of success and good ideas, and I’ll share them here! Readers–do you have good ideas? What has worked for your organization?

Twitter has changed the dimensions and arrangement of the Twitter page layout. So the old template I had up here in August will NOT work anymore. You can still use it (if you created a background with it), but it isn’t going to look right. Twitter is in the process of rolling over ALL accounts to the “new Twitter.” So instead of one wide column on the left and a skinny one on the right, you will see two equally sized columns.

Here is the NEW Twitter background template–download the free PSD file here!

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I’ve had several people asking me lately how to create a custom background for your Twitter page. You have a few different graphics options within Twitter when you set up your account (and you can change it at any time), but they are all pretty generic. You may have seen some great Twitter backgrounds as you’ve peeked around Twitter. I particularly love @sharpiesusan, @hoanghuynh, and @thebizguy.

It’s a great idea to have your organization’s contact information right there at the top left area of your Twitter profile. Website, cute photo, phone number, etc. should be where people can easily see and find them. The bummer is that Twitter doesn’t allow you to use HTML in those areas, so those links won’t be clickable. Your background image can have text on it, but it has to be just that–an image.

So you have a couple of options if you want to create a special background for your Twitter page! You can create one yourself using a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop, or you can create a free one on several different websites. (Be aware that these websites will “brand” your background by placing their own logo on it).

I’ve created a custom twitter background template that you can download and use to make your own background. It’s a PSD (Photoshop) file, but you can open it in a few other types of programs as well. Once you’ve customized it to suit you, then upload it from within your profile on Twitter.

If you want to create one on a free website, a couple of good ones are www.freetwitterdesigner.com and twitbacks.com. If those don’t suit your fancy, there are lots of other sites; just search around on Google.

Another thing–if you don’t have Photoshop, but you’re familiar with it or want to try to learn, but can’t afford the pricey program (it’s really expensive!), check out a program called ArtWeaver. It’s a free download, safe software, and it works pretty much exactly like Photoshop! We’ve installed it on the computers at our adoption center and they use it to crop animal photos and do all that stuff. It’s a great free little program!

Let me know if you have problems with the background template or other questions about Twitter backgrounds (or anything else!)

Click here to download the custom Twitter background template. (UPDATE 3/2011 – don’t download this file. the dimensions are no longer correct for the new Twitter layout)

Thanks for all you do for animals.

If you’re joining us from TAFA, welcome! I know I talked to quite a few people who are a bit lost when it comes to social media, although you know it’s important and something you need to do. This reinforces my commitment even further to The Social Animal, to make it a resource for animal welfare professionals, to teach you how to use these tools.

It seems that the most mystifying social media tool for everybody is Twitter. Some people think that Twitter is really hard to grasp, but it’s really fairly simple. Here is a glossary of Twitter terms (only the basics) so you can get a handle on the vocabulary.  You feel a little silly at first saying the words… (“I tweeted!” sounds a little too close to another childlike proclamation) but it’s all part of the fun.

So what can you USE Twitter for? Chances are you’re not interested in telling people what movie you saw last night, how cute your boyfriend is or what you ate for lunch. But Twitter must be good for something, or millions of businesses and nonprofits wouldn’t be using it, right?

Here are some reasons I use Twitter.

• I don’t always have time to blog
• It’s happening in “real time“
• I can get answers immediately to just about any question I would ask
• People on Twitter are mobilized and plugged in. if you ask them to do something to help you (provided you don’t ask all the time) they WILL. Examples: calling legislators, taking an emergency foster, spreading the word about important news, last-minute volunteers
• To drive traffic to our main OK Humane web site

I’ll give you some examples of how I use Twitter on behalf of the Central Oklahoma Humane Society (I’m @okhumane on Twitter if you want to follow me). These are actual Tweets (messages) that I’ve posted on Twitter, and what my intended use was.

processing 5 adorable chi x puppies and their sweet mama at our clinic this morning. Available for adoption in about 6 weeks! (self-promotion)

@kyhumane Yes, the puppy mill legislation passed out of committee! Now onto the full senate; if it passes, it becomes law! (conversation/participation/advocacy)

@skinnyhorse Glad you’ll be at the Social Media Seminar at the HSUS Expo; I’ll be presenting and can’t wait to meet you! #TAFA (networking)

New blog post: HB 1332 Passes Out Of Senate Appropriations Committee http://www.okhumaneblog.com
(announcing new blog post)

PQA opponents are showing up in droves at the Capitol…will YOU show up to support Oklahoma dogs? http://www.okhumaneblo … (call to action)

Interested in puppy mill legislation in Oklahoma? Join the conversation http://is.gd/pHRc
(education/being a resource)

So there you go. And you STILL have no idea what I ate for lunch!

Soon I’ll put a video on this site that will walk you through how to set up a Twitter account and modify your settings. Check back soon!

What are you more likely to send to a friend? A message about a mother cat and her kittens in need, or a company sending you a message about its latest product? People connect with issues in ways they never will connect with companies or products. And with animals, we have the distinct advantage of being able to show cute pictures of our “causes”!

So seriously, we need to all get with the program and learn all we can about using Twitter. It may be “the latest thing,” it may be a fad–for surely some even better tool will come out in a few months. But this trend is here to stay: the trend of social networks, the trend of people connecting with people in ever-unfolding ways.

I’m going to write a lot more about Twitter in the next few days, and of course, show you exactly how to set up accounts and get started with Twitter. But for now, I’d like to share this video with you so you can get the overall idea of what Twitter is all about.