5 great timesavers for your nonprofit fundraising Twitter account

Using Twitter to help grow the networking capability of your nonprofit fundraising organization is a topic I’ve touched upon previously on the blog, for example this post about tagging/keyword reach and this one about creating a simple to use audio video file which can be turned into a tweet. Hopefully you are beginning to experiment with using twitter more efficiently and tracking the progress of your account – at the end of the day the most important thing for nonprofits and any business for that matter is contact/communication. Make sure you are strategically building a twitter campaign rather than just sending out tweets ad hoc and hoping to build a following as a result.

Today I have a few more tools all from just one source – Socialoomph.com which will help you use twitter more effectively and very importantly save you time while making Twitter easier to manage.

• Tweet Scheduler Many of us can’t always be at our computer or smart phone exactly when a tweet needs to be sent. This simple tool allows you to schedule tweets for when you’re busy elsewhere or even sleeping. Don’t let time zones reduce the impact of your tweets.
• Extend your twitter profile The general area on your twitter profile is very limited for content. This tool allows you to write far more extensive overview of your account/organization and even include extra pictures or links.
• Thank your new followers automatically Rather than have to check daily for new twitter followers and compos a thank you/welcome message – this tool allows you to send out an automated response to welcome somebody aboard. Big timesaver – but remember to keep it fresh and also include new information about your organization as needed.
• Purge your inbox When you start getting busy on twitter just managing your DM inbox can be time consuming, this tool will allow you to automatically DMs after a week or a month depending on your preference.
• Better keyword tracking You can set up an automated alert or report for keywords that are being used in real-time on twitter and set up an e-mail to be delivered to you to keep current.

Each of these time-saving ideas above are very easy to configure and better still they are all available via one location/tool. Socialoomph.com used to be called tweet later (the scheduled tweet function) but have now integrated each of the features above plus others into one platform. Registration is easy and you can also add multiple twitter accounts via the administration side of the platform. Naturally you do have to allow the program to access your twitter account and data will be compiled and streamed after about 48 hours. It will also track your click stream, retweets and new followers in addition to a variety of other reporting options and configurations. The basic version includes all the of the twitter functionality that I’ve written about is entirely free, there are paid versions which include special plug-ins for Facebook or your blog. There is also a very handy series of FAQs and examples within the site which can continue to improve the functionality of your twitter account. If you also use Facebook or manage a blog, this might be the most comprehensive dashboard I’ve yet to see which allows you to integrate your entire social media strategy from one place while saving huge amounts of time.

Remember to register just for the base version (for it to be free) although they do allow a one-week trial for free of the professional version but I would recommend getting your feet wet with the base version. To register for an account visit their site linked here and if you have any questions or want to share your thoughts about the tool please add your comments.

As experts in professional fundraising services we are always looking to improve our twitter ease of use and I’m sure this tool can help you do the same.