charity: water's Lessons for Winning at Twitter
BY Nancy Scola | Thursday, October 8 2009
The organization charity: water (the colon is silent) said at an event last week that they had managed to become the first non-profit to break one million followers on Twitter. That indeed seems to be the case, and by a good margin. Even the well-known ONE, most closely associated with Bono, was hooting just yesterday about breaking a measly 100,000 followers on Twitter. And the Red Cross, LiveStrong, and the American Cancer Society all have a fraction of what even ONE has.
How did charity: water do it? (The "winning" part in the title is, of course, a joke. But one million followers on Twitter is something nice for a three-year-old startup non-profit to have.) Having a mission and message that's so drop dead simple that it fits within 140 characters probably helps, as does being the beneficiary of the first run of the Twestival. They're aggressive about engaging with social media, too, and an authentic passion for creating a sustainable water future comes through on every medium. The charity: water rep at the event argued that one of their strongest assests is their polished and striking design work that looks more like it belongs to Apple than it does to a non-profit -- including a bunch of gorgeous Twitter backgrounds. Whatever they're doing, they're doing something that people are finding appealing. It's worth keeping an eye on them if you, too, are a non-profit looking to reach more people through Twitter.