Using Twitter for Campaigns like #GivingTuesday

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If you’ve been following the #TwitterSmarter chat for at least a year, you’ll know that every November, we dedicate a week to talking about Giving Tuesday. It’s the biggest day of the year for nonprofits and social causes, and we love chatting about how nonprofits can use Twitter to amplify their fundraisers and other campaigns. This week, we spoke to Camber Clemence from GiveWP about using Twitter and Giving Tuesday. Here’s a summary of our chat.

Guest: Camber Clemence
Topic: Using Twitter for campaigns like #GivingTuesday
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.

Q1: What is #GivingTuesday?

Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s a global movement that encourages people to give back to their communities and causes they care about.

Q2: What are the benefits of using Twitter to amplify a fundraising campaign during #GivingTuesday?

One of the biggest benefits of amplifying your campaign on Twitter, is that you get to engage directly with your donors, as our guest pointed out. What’s more, you can also check in with supporters, share milestones, and even widen your reach with branded hashtags and promoted tweets.

As our friends from VirtuDesk added, Twitter is a great place to build a community around social causes. It’s an ideal platform for nonprofits to leverage.

Q3: How can nonprofits utilize Twitter for proactive campaigning during #GivingTuesday?

Camber’s biggest tip is to be strategic and not to let it overwhelm you. Nonprofits are always short of help, and social media often takes a back seat. If you know you can’t allocate the required resources to doing a social campaign properly, then it’s best not to do it at all. But of course, it’s even better if you can run a comprehensive campaign, because chances are, a large chunk of your target audience is already active on Twitter.

Identify your target audience, and think about what kind of content you want to share, when, and how you’ll post them consistently. If you need to schedule content, ensure that you have the right tools to do the job. Thoughout the campaign, engage with your supporters and showcase your brand’s personality fearlessly.

Q4: Should nonprofits use a branded hashtag in conjunction with #GivingTuesday?

It’s optional, but branded hashtags are a great way to establish your brand. That said, don’t crowd your post with too many hashtags either—two is the optimum, and every hashtag should ideally be in Camel Case (capitalizing the first letter of each word) and shouldn’t read inappropriately when placed together.

Madalyn also supported using a branded hashtag. As she said, a branded hashtag is more likely to appeal to donors who want to endorse your campaign.

Q5: How can nonprofits thank donors and share campaign updates through Twitter?

Listen. As Camber mentioned, social listening is a great way to know who’s talking about your brand and can help you engage with them swiftly and appropriately.

If you have recurring donors, use Twitter to thank them and share what an impact they’ve made to the cause. It’s a lovely way to thank donors and encourage more people to support the cause.

Of course, Giving Tuesday is the perfect day to be on Twitter and share the progress of your fundraiser. You can do a visual progress bar or a thermometer that shows how close you are to achieving your target.

Pavel also recommended doing thank you videos. It’s a really good way to showcase your appreciation—and videos generally perform well on the platform, propelling your tweet to a broad audience.

Q6: How can you tell an impactful story with just 280 characters?

Storytelling is an art. Twitter is no exception. Instead of thinking of it as a single tweet, be strategic about your campaign as a whole and even your entire Twitter presence. Every tweet you ever post should be a small part of the bigger story you’re trying to convey. That way, when you’re posting a single tweet, you’re not trying to cram everything into one, but instead trying to place a piece in a bigger puzzle.

This is easy to do if you know who you’re talking to. As Camber pointed out, understand what your audience wants to see on Twitter. That way, you can tailor your message to show up at the right time at the right place. Check out this article for more insights about telling a story with few words.

You can also use media to extend your story. As Howard suggested, consider using an infographic to go with your tweet. Videos work well, too. So do threaded tweets, images, and GIFs.

Q7: How can Twitter Moments help during #GivingTuesday campaigns?

Twitter Moments are great for compiling a series of tweets, regardless of who posted them. A nonprofit can collate all tweets that use their branded hashtag and use that Moment as a way to drive more engagements and awareness for their Giving Tuesday campaign.

Besides, as Benjamin added, when your Moment includes tweets that have gotten a lot of organic engagement, it’s a subtle way of showing others how successful you campaign is. It’ll also help drive your reach.

Q8: How can supporters help nonprofits gain more visibility on #GivingTuesday?

The most effective way to show support is to tell others why you support a nonprofit or a cause. Why we do things is a powerful motivator and evokes strong emotions. When you share your why, it helps others resonate with you. They’ll be more inclined to learn about and support your cause.

If you’re not comfortable talking about it, give nonprofits more feed time, instead. This means retweeting, engaging, and actively showing your audience that you care about this cause. It adds to the campaign’s social proof.

Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Camber, have a look at this Twitter Moment that Joana put together for us. If you like this summary, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us next Thursday at 1 pm ET for #TwitterSmarter. We also have an after-chat on Twitter Spaces at 5 pm ET. See you there!


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About me, Narmadhaa:

I write all the things—marketing stuff to pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.

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