Jumping feet first into Twitter - a social media case study

SmallAct (the folks behind the social media management software, Thrive) put on a webinar last week to talk about how associations can use social media for engagement.  The guest speaker was a staffer from the American Podiatric Medical Association and she talked about the strategies that their organization had employed to find success using social media tools.

The main takeaway for me was that there’s more than one way to generate growth in your number of social media followers. At NPower, our growth in followers has been organic. Our goal has been to put information out there that is relevant to our friends in the nonprofit and technology communities, to help promote the good work of our clients and friends, and to engage in conversations and sharing where it seems to fit. To that end, we’ve followed and been followed by a good number of people, and the list continues to grow. The AMPA took a more direct approach.

Using the Thrive software, the staff at AMPA frequently search Twitter streams for keywords that are relevant to their association and the work that they do, and scroll through the results to find opportunities to directly engage with new people. For example, a search for the term “feet” might bring up a tweet about someone’s chronic foot pain (because, let’s be honest, people will tweet about anything). An AMPA staffer might then reply to that tweet and recommend that the individual search their database to find a recommended podiatrist in their area. This targeted approach might gain them a new follower who, with further engagement, could become a supporter. It’s an interesting tactic, and might be something for your organization to try if you’ve got the staff time available.

In general, the webinar spoke to the key elements of successful social communication strategy: engagement, engagement, engagement. Social media is about conversation, and finding ways to generate discussion or solicit feedback from your constituents will help them to feel more engaged with your organization and well-positioned to be a champion for your cause.

-Mandi Moshay