Frequently Asked Questions - Twitter

“Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately.” (Twitter.com, 2010)

Twitter is a simple tool that helps connect people together whether you are using it as an individual, business or Charity! It is a great way for charities to stay connected with their supporters, and share information quickly with the people who care.

Twitter is free and has many benefits! Building up a network of Twitter supporters is a useful way to communicate to potential funders or investors the efforts your charity is making and to show how much support you have.

Tweeters (people who uses Twitter) can follow your charity and receive any updates you make.

Twitter can be used to boost your general online presence but it can also be really effective to promote your latest campaigns. You have 140 characters to make a clear and concise massage for your followers to see. You may also include links to external websites.

As well as having the ability to send messages to followers, followers can in turn engage back by leaving you comments. Followers have the ability to share your messages with their followers which can spread your news virally.

Twitter is viral!

Twitter is currently one of the largest online social tools of moment. It has differentiated itself from other social networks like Facebook and Bebo with it’s Micro blogging system. We’ve seen the number of Twitter users increase dramatically over the last two years.

The applications we produce have a number of different sharing options built into them including; email to a friends, text to a friend, post on Facebook and post on Twitter. This potentially means your supporters could post your story to Twitter whilst travelling on a bus. With one simple click they have shared the story to 100’s of their followers.

Further Information

• Twitter 101

Twitter have made it really simple to create an account. Log on to http://twitter.com/ and click on the Sign up now link.

On the Sign up page you will see the following:

• Full name
• Username
• Password

Email Enter your full name as normal. When you create a username you will want to choose a name that is as close to the name of your charity as possible.

People will be able to find your charity by typing http://twitter.com/username

When you have entered these details proceed. Twitter will now try to help you find people who you might know. Enter your email address and password and Twitter will do this automatically. Don’t worry, Twitter can be trusted.

For more help download our Twitter Guide.