Tweet Inspiration

When you're stuck for something to tweet, take a look down the list below and something should inspire you!

Feel free to add more suggestions as comments too.

Tweet:

1. 'Did you know?' facts about your cause
2. An upcoming event
• When is it?
• Where is it?
• Who will be there?
• What's it for?
• What's the aim?
3. Your aims & objectives
• How much money do you need to raise?
• What is your mission?
• How do you intend to get there?
• How did you get started?
• Why did you get started?
4. The people involved
• Trustees, your president or chairman, celebrities
• Founders
• Friends & Supporters
• Sponsors
• Say hello to new followers
• Say thank you to re-tweeters
• Facebook Fans
  
5. News
• Breaking news - what's just happened?
• Are you in local or national press?
• Has someone else tweeted about you? 
• Articles relevant to your cause
• Articles relevant to your location
• Articles relevant to your followers
6. Website
• Your website address
• Updates to your website
• Link to Facebook page
7. Images
• Post publicity photos via TwitPic or YFrog
• Old photos
• Press images
• Artist impressions
• Photos of people
• Photos of events
• New logo or branding
8. Fundraising
• How much do you need to raise?
• How much have you got so far?
• How people are raising money
• easyfundraising link
• easysearch link
  
• How people can help
• Link to donation website or page
• Link to online shops
• How much was raised
9. Ask a Question, then reply
• 'What do you want to know about us?'
• 'What would you like to see on our website?'
• 'What events would you be interested in attending?'
• 'How would you raise awareness for us?'
10. Use #hashtags 
• Get involved in #charitytuesday
• Recommend for #followfriday
• Or even #followmonday (#followtuesday, #followwednesday...)
11. Use occasions
• Say Happy Birthday
• Merry Christmas
• Happy New Year
• Happy Easter
• Happy Valentines Day
12. Help others
• Fundraising ideas
• Re-tweet other causes' messages
• Useful websites
• Useful blog posts
• Useful software
13. Be personal
• What kind of day are you having?
• What's the weather like?
• Are you going anywhere?
• Have you been anywhere?
• What are you doing today?
14. Ask followers to help spread your message

I am not suggesting that you take this list, sit down at your computer and tweet all of it in one go - as this will probably lose you some followers! But if you haven't tweeted for a while and have a bit of 'tweeters block' take a look down the list, choose one and tweet away.

Boost awareness with Twitter

Now that your website is sorted it's time to start getting people to visit it.

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool. It gives you 140 characters to tell people what you are doing, what you're looking at, how you're feeling, what you're thinking about. It's a quick and easy way to update your site and keep people informed without having to write whole blog posts.

I have previously covered how to use Twitter so I won't repeat it here, but here are some suggestions on ways to make the most of your Twitter account.

1. Find people

Spend some time searching for people who will help spread your message or that you want to speak to. If you are looking for sponsorship follow local businesses. Find people involved with the cause that already tweet who will re-tweet your messages. Find your local press to help promote events.

2. Talk to people
You can either send people a private message (Direct Message) or you can tweet @ someone, which everyone can see. Twitter is about building relationships, so spend time talking to people - even if it has nothing directly to do with your cause!

3. RT people
In Twitterland RT means re-tweet, and there is a button available for you to quickly RT a tweet you find interesting. This is a quick and easy way of getting useful news and information to your followers.

4. Don't spam people
Don't write the same tweet over and over, yes you want people to visit your website, but telling them to visit your site every 5 minutes is one of the quickest ways to lose followers! If you add a news article, tweet that with a link to the article. Every now and then tell new followers about your aims. This doesn't mean to say you shouldn't repeat ever, for example if you are running an event tweet about different aspects of it, who will be there, when does it start, where will it be, what's the theme. Remember different people will be on Twitter at different times.

5. Keep it up
You don't need to tweet once an hour, but you should try to keep it regular, one good tweet a day is better than 24 'visit my website' tweets. To begin try spending 10 mins a day writing a tweet, finding one tweet to RT and looking for new people to follow. As you get to know Twitter and can see benefits you may decide to spend more time on it.

8 Features of Accessible Websites (Part 2)

This is the third post in our 'Social Media 4 Non Profit' series, and the second part of 8 Features of Accessible Websites.

Last week we looked at:

1. making sure your website works in any browser
2. that it can be navigated & used without a mouse
3. that text can still be read when resized
   
4. that audio & visual content is available in alternative formats

This week, I have a few questions for you to ask yourself.

5. Is a list of all pages available?
Somewhere on your website there should be a list of all of the pages on your site so that visitors can, at a glance, see all of your content and click directly to the page they want. This is often called a Site Map, or could be a Table of Contents or similar.

As well as helping with accessiblity, it also lends a hand to helping boost your search engine rankings, as each page has a guaranteed link back to it. Plus it can help the little 'Google Bots' discover every page on your site to give you a greater chance of being found.

6. Do your links make sense out of context?
Imagine you are skimming through a website and all you can see (or hear) are the words that link somewhere else.... now if all you get are 'click here', 'this link', 'read more', 'here', you don't get much of an idea of where you will get to if you do 'click now'.

Try to make sure that your link text tells people where they are going. For example, in the following sentence 'Find out more about us' link the text 'about us'. Link news article headlines to the full article, rather then (or as well as) a 'Read More' link.

7. Do images have descriptions?
For every image that adds to the content of the website, for example a diagram or map, you should have 'alternate text' and/or a long description available that tells people what's going on in the picture. This is needed for people with poor visibility as the description will be read to them, for people who may have images turned off, or if for some reason your image is no longer available. Again, it can also help with search engines as Google can pick up the images on your website to display within their image serach results.

8. Is your code valid?
A little bit on the technical side, but valid code is good practice and will make sure there are no mistakes. A missing comma or end bracket can mean your site won't work at all. There are checks you can run on your website to see how valid your website code is.

Again it will also help with search engine positions, making sure the search engines have the right information available, it helps with browser compatibility, and all of the accessibility guidelines I haven't yet mentioned.


This isn't the be-all and end-all guide to accessibility, but it's a step in the right direction and the very minimum you should be doing to ensure your site is accessible. For more information on the full guidelines visit the W3C Website.

8 Features of Accessible Websites (Part 1)

Welcome to the second part of our 'Social Media 4 Non Profit' series.

This week we'll be looking at accessibility, making sure that when you do drive traffic to your website your visitors can get to the information they need. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) launched a Web Accessibility Initiative with the aim of ensuring that all web content is available to users regardless of technology, disability or ability. This had lead to the development of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG.


In this post we will highlight 4 of the 8 features that we feel are most important for ensuring your website is accessible.

1.Your website works in any browser
Accessibility doesn't necessarily mean that users can't use a mouse or need bigger text, it can be as simple as making sure your website works in a wide selection of web browsers. All browsers render your website slightly differently, and even a few pixels can make a huge difference to the accessibility of your website.

As an example, we developed a website that had white text on top of a blue menu background. In Firefox and Internet Explorer it looked great, but in Safari the white text had dropped from the blue menu background onto the white page background so users couldn't navigate from the home page, making the site unaccessible to anyone using an Apple Mac.

2. Your website can be navigated and used without a mouse
Some of your visitors may be visiting your website without a mouse - either they are unable to, or their mouse may be broken or they may be on a mobile device, so you need to check that your website can still be used. Try going through your website using the TAB, SHIFT+TAB and ENTER or RETURN keys on your keyboard. If it can't be done visitors who cannot use a mouse will not be able to access your website content.

3. The text on your website can still be read when made bigger
Again, this isn't just for people who have problems with their sight, but also for people who are using a netbook perhaps or have changed their browser settings. Each browser allows users to set their preferred text size, so you need to check that your website will still be legible if the text size has been doubled and that menus are still usable.

4. Audio content is also available visually (and vice versa)
Surprise, surprise - it's not just those with hearing and sight disabilities that would like alternative content formats. Maybe speakers are broken or a computer doesn't have a sound card, providing a transcript of an interview or subtitles to a video clip can help everyone. Likewise someone with dyslexia may prefer to listen to an interview rather than read it, so either provide an alternative format or ensure that the content can be easily read by screen readers.

It's all about your audience
We could go into much more detail about accessibility (and it may be a future series perhaps!) but this post is intended to highlight 4 of the basic areas that should be considered. Your target audience (for example a non-profit dance group will have a totally different audience to a charity supporting blind people) will determine how far you need to follow the guidelines - just remember it's your audience you need to please!

If you feel there is anything I have missed or should add please comment below, all feedback is welcome and it would be great to make this series a comprehensive information resource.

6 Things to Include on a Charity Website

Last week I blogged about our involvement with the TREAT Trust Wales and decided to write down some tips to help other non-profit organisations make the most of the web.

The first step in any social media/marketing campaign is to make sure that when people get to your website they get the information they need. The following information is what I would expect to find on a charity's website.

1. Tell us about your mission

Tell us what you hope to achieve. What your aims and objectives are and how you intend to fulfil them. It should be short & to the point so that we can pick up the message at a glance.

2. Show us a donate button

The main aim of getting people to your website is generally to donate some money - so make this as easy as possible! Provide a button that will take people directly to a page or website where they can make a donation. Whether you use PayPal buttons or JustGiving, make sure it is easy to find.

3. Tell us how we can help

If donations aren't the only thing you are looking for, make sure to include a section telling us how we can help. Whether volunteering, arranging an event or signing up to easyfundraising, for example, this information should be easy to get to and explanations or 'call to actions' should be included.

4. Show us what will money be used for

This is likely to be included as part of your mission, but it is worth mentioning again! Explain how you intend to use the money raised to reassure supporters that funds will be well spent.

5. Tell us what's going on

Show us that you are an active charity and let us know what you are planning or what you have done. If you are working on a project, let us know about progress, where money is being spent and how people, animals or communities are benefitting. Try to make sure it's kept up to date.

6. Help us stay up to date

Remind supporters how they can stay up to date, whether this is via a newsletter, Twitter or Facebook, and make sure that sign up options are easy and accessible.


There is much more you can add to a charity website, but these are the key points to help reassure and convince supporters that they should help you - and make it quick and simple to do so.

If you run or manage a non-profit website, let me know if you have any comments or questions and I'll do my best to help where I can.

Leave a comment on this post, contact me on Twitter or Facebook.

Don't foget to subscribe to future posts to make sure you don't miss next week's post.

Social Media for Non-Profit Organisations

In June we received a phone call from Melanie Davies of TREAT Trust Wales asking if there was any chance we could help out with their website. Not entirely sure what this would mean we arranged to meet up to find out exactly what they had in mind.

Once we met Mel and her husband Mike, and heard all about the trust and their plans to build a state of the art rehabilitation and therapy centre in Swansea, we were keen to get involved to help raise the profile of this worthy cause.

So, we wrote a proposal outlining changes we could make to the website, including ways that their website could bring in some additional funds, plus suggestions on how to use social networking websites to spread the word and increase awareness. They were delighted with our ideas but weren't sure where to begin. We have so far updated their website, set up a Twitter account and facebook page for them. Helped them sign up to the Amazon associates program and easyfundraising.

It's still early days with TREAT, but already there are people who now know more about the trust than they did last week, and we have already generated additonal cash for the trust.

Unfortunately we can't help every charity or good cause that gets in touch, but we can share some of our ideas with you to help you make the most of your online presence. So on this blog starting next Wednesday we will post some ideas and suggestions on how to improve your website, make use of social networking sites and even generate some cash towards your charity, cause, group, club etc.

If you have a question or topic you'd like us to cover leave a comment on this post and we'll do our best to help. If you do take any of our advice, we'd love to hear from you and feel free to link to your website, twitter account or facebook page.

See you next Wednesday?