Subject: The future of Twitter
I was asked recently what I believe will be the Twitter trend in the nonprofit sector for 2010?
My response was simple and two pronged; my first prediction is that we will see the rise of the tweeting individual. So far, within the UK nonprofit sector Twitter has grown to be a medium a whole host of Charities are using to communicate with one another and let other people working within the sector the great work they are doing.
I believe this year will see Twitter continue to grow and we will see people who are users of the services we supply who aren’t part of the sector engaging with charities and vice versa.
An example of this I recently tweeted my dissatisfaction at lack of recycling facilities in Camden London, in response I received a tweet back from my mp informing me of where my nearest recycling depot is located.
My second prediction is that live conference tweeting, like the social media commentary used at Navcas Whose Voice Is It Anyway conference and the KnowHow NonProfit/ Voice 4 Change England, Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Understood event will become commonplace. This gives the event organisers a great live record of the event and creates a buzz online and interaction with those who cannot attend the event.
Does anyone else have twitter trend predictions for 2010?
I think you're right that tweeting from conferences will continue to grow in popularity, as it has already done over the past couple of years. However, there are still a lot of very traditional conferences around where there is little or no tweeting, and where it's neither encouraged nor is there any wi-fi available, or 'official' Twitter reporting from the conference organisers. This is not necessarily a criticism, as I don't believe conferences are obliged to facilitate the sharing of the content beyond the attendees - although it would be nice if they did! I just think we're some way off that culture being totally mainstream, partly because conferences make money out of people having to pay to be there to access their content.
beautiful world and Just Giving have been running a free event called NFPtweetup since November 2008, as an alternative. It has always focused on sharing knowledge and learnings between charities, making it as widely available as possible via a whole host of social media, including Twitter, a wiki, Facebook, blogs and presentations on Slideshare. It is a completely different model and I hope it's helped to change the landscape a bit.
This aside, there does still seem to be somewhat of a divide between the people that 'do' digital comms as a matter of course, personally and professionally, and those that only do so under duress for their job, and prefer just to use Facebook for talking to their friends. Not everyone wants to be a social reporter and put their opinions out there to be discussed - it's a matter of personal choice. There are also still many people that like to attend conferences to learn, rather than to facilitate other people's learning. That's why I personally think an official Twitter stream should be provided, ideally, so it doesn't rely on good-natured, connected delegates!
In terms of significant trends for Twitter in 2010, I think (and hope) we're going to see:
- More charities using social media more strategically, as part of an integrated fundraising, marketing and communications strategy - evidenced by social media, and other digital channels, being incorporated into campaigns of all kinds, as a matter of course, and the experience being seamless across all channels from the point of view of supporters and potential supporters
- More social media managers being recruited to oversee and run Twitter activity - and other social media - in a joined up way. At the moment, social media either tends to be 'owned' by one department, who struggle to maintain activity alongside all of their traditional channels, or even run by interns in some cases, which can mean activity isn't very representative of the organisation as a whole and can also be sporadic in frequency and quality
- Charities investing time in building communities of support online, using Twitter and other social media, and developing a better understanding about how their activity encourages people to share campaign messages, find out more about the charity, engage in the many different methods of support - from helping to raise awareness, to campaigning, volunteering, fundraising and giving - and what value this is in achieving their missions
- More innovative social media mash-ups, integrating photos, video, micro-blogging and geo-location data, providing a really rich experience for supporters and potential supporters to engage in.
Be interested to hear what others think, too.
Oh, and if you're not already, do follow me on Twitter!
Hi Rachel
Some great points Rachel, I hope you are right about social media experts/managers being recruited to run social media platforms. I think that will only happen if the enablers eg the CEO's of Charities realise the reach and profile that social media campaigning can provide.
I agree about the official Twitter stream being provided by the conference organisers and hoping for enablers, we do not want to be causing delegates undue stress through forced tweeting 
In regards to growth of this trend our sector has traditionally about supporting one another in addition to the groups we serve. This will hopefully see conference tweeting grow faster than in the commercial sector.
Cheers,
Damien
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