This is the first in a series of three blog posts targeted at people and organizations that want Twitter to eventually become a successful fundraising platform but are new to the technology. The series will outline eight simple tips for making an organization’s initial engagement with Twitter most effective.

Finding success on Twitter can be attributed to a mix of two overarching strategies: making intelligent use of the technology, and abiding by the social norms of the Twitter community (having good «Twittiquette»). The Eight Top Tips discussed in this series provide an overview of how to make use of these two strategies.

1. Start early. Your first foray onto Twitter should not have as its focus a capital-raising campaign. It’s important to build your network – and social capital – first.

Find people on Twitter interested in your cause. Follow them, and create content worthy of them following you. Of course, you may have existing supporters who are already using Twitter, but you’ll want to reach out to others. You can search for users to follow by keyword, and also by location.

Begin posting content-rich tweets that are closely-related to your organization’s mission, and make sure your followers know how to engage with you:

Announce your presence, and include a link to your website in your Twitter profile

Share statistics and stories, or announce and report on events

Post tweets with links to your website or blog, or use a service like Giv.To to direct supporters’ attention to interesting third-party content

2. Build your network organically: post regularly, but not too often.  Take measures to ensure your account isn’t marked (officially or unofficially) as spam.

It’s easy to imagine a for-profit organization who overly-promotes their wares via Twitter getting called out for spamming. By having a targeted network and providing value in your tweets, you can avoid having your outreach lose its novelty and become as annoying as direct mail in your supporters’ mailboxes.

3. Retweet others’ updates when they are relevant to your followers or could garner goodwill.

How to: SaveSeaTurtles [a fictitious organization focused on protecting endangered wildlife] might retweet messages in any of the following ways:

• «RT @turtleluvr – I had the best time today on the beach clean up. We’ll save lots of marine lives!»
• «Twelve dolphins found dead today in Japan – injested trash. So sad! We must clean the oceans! RT @DavetheDolphin»
• «Fundraiser tomorrow at the pier: 8pm. Via @LocalSMBAssoc»

These tweets are examples of the following principles for successful retweeting:

Continue the conversation. Retweeting is a great way to show that you’re a member of a community – not just pushing your own message, but engaging with and spreading someone else’s.
Make and strengthen connections. Retweet a stranger’s relevant message and you might get a new follower; retweet a supporter’s message and you reaffirm their worth to the cause.
End the isolation. Don’t be afraid of mentioning another cause or organization; signalling that you’re interested, informed, and plugged-in builds credibility with your supporters.

Stay tuned for the other two posts in this series!