The 140 Best Twitter Feeds

Time.com just came out with their “Best 140 twitter Feeds for 2013.” However, none are disability-related. Since they won’t do it, I think I will come up with a list of the “Best 140 Twitter Disability-Related Feeds for 2013″ but I first want your input.

If you have a favorite Twitter disability-related feed and think others should be following it, too, please share it in the comments section. Please do so by the end of the day 4/15/13. I will compile and categorize the nominations and will share the list in a future NCE Social Media blog post.

Please note, that I reserve the right to exclude some or all of the Twitter feeds nominated due to appropriateness or space limitations.

Vine Video App

Last week Twitter made public the newest must-have “Killer App” – Vine. It is a tool that allows you to record 6 second video clips on your smartphone. You can post them to Twitter in addition to Vine. Facebook blocked it right after it came out (the two won’t play nice with each other so Facebook took it’s ball and went home), therefore you have to manually post a link to your Vine video to Facebook. Think of Vine as more social version of an animated gif.

As my friend Nathan Hand already pointed out in his blog post 21 nonprofit uses of Vine, it can be a very useful tool for nonprofits. I’m already contemplating how we can thank donors, demonstrate how their gift was put to use, share our capital campaign progress, and possibly demonstrating our various programs. Also, there are companies already creating Vine-based tools, such as live-streaming Vine videos as they are uploaded. It’s a hot topic so it shouldn’t be long before others will quickly build and release Vine-based applications that will benefit us.

If you use Vine, share your username in the comments section. The Vine account I created to test can be found at http://vine.co/v/bJvDBE6V0zg Feel free to visit it. Let us know how you are or will use it for your organization.

10 Social Media Things I’m Thankful for This Year

Coming up on Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a top ten list of things I’m thankful for when it comes to social media.

10. Restricted social media like Path to share with a select group of people.
9. Getting up to the minute news via Twitter.
8. Learning what rhymes with purple from Pinterest.
7. Meeting a co-presenter online and working virtually with her for a year before meeting in real life.
6. Facebook hasn’t changed my privacy settings for a while…oh wait, nevermind. They just did again
5. Foursquare rolled out updates for local merchants (including nonprofit merchants)
4. Instagram was opened up to Droids.
3. More books specific to nonprofit use of social media have been published including these three gems: 1, 2, 3.
2. That share button on every piece of mail, email, and website is increasingly important.

and the number one social media thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving season is…

1. Using Social Media for Nonprofits Gangnam Style

Spamalot?

Let’s talk about spam and social media.  Not the canned meat delicacy but the nasty unwanted stuff.  When you think of spam you probably think of email.  But social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. are also avenues for spam.  

A story by Bloomberg Business Week states that as many as 40% of all social media accounts are spam.  Why would spammers target social media – because they can.  And because it’s easier to reach a larger audience via social media than it is to send spammy emails.  

Putting spam and social media together leads us to two things.  First, make sure you don’t click on links on social media sites you don’t know and make sure your social media passwords are very secure.  In fact why not change them regularly, including after you read this post.  Second, think about the types of information you share on social media platforms.  Is it really important content?  Is it something your readers/friends/followers would consider spam?  Would the social media platforms consider it spam?  Here’s a list of what the various platforms consdier spam.

Twitter Following

A new blog post over at the Social Media Examiner on how to grow your followers got me thinking. I have a bunch of followers on Twitter, but I’m not sure how I got them. Hopefully it’s for my witty repartee. All joking aside, it is likely because it’s something I’ve posted. Something about disabilities, something about ACHIEVA, something I’ve retweeted, or something of mine that was retweeted.

I also follow quite a few account. But I’ve followed them for just a few reasons. First, I am following all of the Arc of the US chapters I can. Next, I also follow people on Twitter who are social media gurus – and I mean they really are, not just because they state so in their online bio. (In my opinion, if you state it in your bio you really aren’t a guru.) And finally, I follow people who post interesting items.

How do you grow your list of people who like or follow you on social media? Please share your experiences in the comments section!

5 Things for Wednesday

1) Twitter has started to email account users when someone retweets your tweets. Assuming you check your email often or get prompted when you get a new email, it makes it a little easier to know when someone has retweeted your work.

2) Twitter is buying Tweetdeck. If you use Tweetdeck already, you shouldn’t notice much change.

3) Who has rights to photos you post on social media? A woman posted a photo of the latest shuttle launch on a social media site. News agencies picked it up and used it but few asked permission. This has opened up the debate of who owns the photos, videos, and anything else you post to social media. You should read the privacy and permissions policies for each social media tool/platform/product you use to know.

4) Hashtags continue to be important in social media. I’ve discussed them in the past. Here’s a list of 30 hashtags you may want to follow that are specific to nonprofits.

5) People often ask me what is the future of social media? Is it a semantic web? Is it mashing up current tools? Is it a new and easy way to measure social media? Yes, Yes and Yes. What are your thoughts on the future of social media in the near and distant future?

Create your own Daily Newspaper

Paper.li is a web-based tool, that is free, that you can use to create a daily paper of your Facebook and or Twitter feeds. The paper could also have a morning and evening edition or be weekly. You may also even set up a paper for a specific hashtag or keyword that is of interest to you such as this one. You may also have multiple papers.

I like Paper.li because it organizes the posts made by people you follow into categories. When people post links to photos or videos, it adds those too. Paper.li allows you to embed your daily paper on your website. It also pushes a daily notification letting your followers on Facebook and or Twitter know it has been updated. Here is a link to a copy of my Paper.li daily paper.

Here’s a video on how it works.

If you sign up for it, let us know. I’m happy to share your Paper.li daily news links with others.

Captive Audience

A new study by Experian found that Americans spend 2 hours and 12 minutes on Twitter each month. The average time per session was 13 minutes and 12 seconds. This is 26 times the 30 traditional second elevator pitch. How are you using this time? Are you engaging your constituency during this 13 minutes and 12 seconds? If so what are you saying via social media?

The study also projects that the amount of time people spend on Twitter per session will drop so your time to potentially engage others online will also decrease.

What are some tips you have on getting your constituency to interact with you online?

Twitter as an Advocacy Tool

The Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted an online forum led by Claire Diaz Ortiz, Twitter’s top person working with nonprofits on social innovation. The forum focused specially on how to use Twitter as an advocacy tool.

Here’s a link to the forum with the transcript of the proceedings. Please note the forum was held by having people use Twitter to post their questions and thus this is a story with a Twitter feed. It is the Twitter feed that you’ll want to pay attention to…

How do you use Twitter and other social media platforms as tools for advocacy? Have you found them effective? Please share your experiences in the comments section.

Advanced Twitter Search

So you think you’re a Twitter guru. Do you know how to use their Advanced Search Tools to find what you seek?

Here’s a nice brief video from Mashable that demonstrates how to use Twitter’s Advanced Search Tools.

Enjoy!