Social Ch@nge

Theory is good, but real-world examples are better.  I recently interviewed Danielle Brigida, Associate Operations Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation.  The NWF has done a great job of rolling out Twitter as a social media tool – both as a listening post and a place for conversations.  Danielle explains…

1) Why did NWF decide to start using Twitter?  Was it championed by an individual, or did it “bubble up”?

Two years ago, I was tasked by my boss to “join social networks.” I had started out managing the National Wildlife Federation’s Facebook and MySpace profiles and more, and discovered Twitter while attending the 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference. I didn’t fully understand it, but I did see potential for NWF because I knew we had interesting and meaningful information to share. I signed NWF up and started tweeting random wildlife facts and links to NWF action alerts and more. I didn’t really know how to start the conversations yet–but I knew that NWF could be a reliable resource for anyone who wanted to follow us.

NWF’s Twitter account was always fun and useful, but I soon wanted a more personal voice, so I created my own account @starfocus and encouraged other people at NWF interested in tweeting to do the same. I knew it would give a personal voice to our programs and I hoped it would open up conversation more and encourage people to feel connected to the organization.

Things did bubble from there! We have two programs on Twitter, @campusecology and @greenhour, along with numerous staff members. @NWF still serves as our main touch point. I think it is great to have people and programs also serve as Twitter accounts because conversations can be more personal and targeted.

2) Do you have a Twitter strategy?  How do you ensure there’s a steady stream of meaningful information, as opposed to lots of “noise”?

Initially no, there wasn’t much of a strategy. As Twitter has grown within the organization, we just fell into a groove that generic, NWF, wildlife-related content would be tweeted through the NWF page. Our Campus Ecology and Green Hour programs get a bit more specific. As for the staff’s personal accounts, I encourage anyone who is interested to tweet as much as they want to about what they do at NWF or what they’re interested in. We develop our own networks of like-minded followers and those followers get connected to the people of NWF on Twitter and throughout other social networks.

On my personal account, and when tweeting for @NWF, I simply try to listen and answer questions–while also asking questions! This has proven incredibly valuable to me and I believe to the organization. When it comes down to it, NWF does fantastic work, but we can do even greater work if we are serving what people need and also connecting with them in the most effective ways.

3) How do you use other online sites/social media in conjunction with Twitter?

I am active on Digg, Mixx and Reddit and will occasionally tweet stories to encourage support. NWF also has a Ping account so we can update Plurk and identi.ca as well. I also make sure to post National Wildlife magazine articles on a number of social networks and will point to them through twitter. I use twitter to push people to our social media hubpage– which right now lives at http://online.nwf.org/socialsites and will hopefully encourage them to at least follow us for a while and see if there is potential to grow the relationship.

4) What benefits has Twitter brought to NWF?

NWF has gotten a lot of value from Twitter. We use it as one of our top listening tools because we get to join in the conversation and also get a glimpse of how we are doing our jobs. We have mended relationships because of Twitter, we have made new friends because of Twitter, and we have helped spread important messages and increased our online activism all because of the way this social media tool leads people to things that interest them. We hope to be very available to anyone who wants to follow us in the future.

5) What piece of golden advice would you offer to a non-profit considering using Twitter?

Start slow, listen and understand the space before you jump in. Don’t follow too many people initially–but follow people who share your interests or who are local to your area. Grow organically and be authentic. Talk to people like they are your friends, not like you are trying to advertise. I think the most important thing you can do is be real and ask for help when you need it.