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Twitter and nonprofits – Shelby says

by Shelby Sapusek on October 20, 2011

Image of Shelby's dog Zeke

Jim and I are on the road this week but have no fear because #shehechat will take place at its normal time at 8 p.m. CST tonight. We’ll just be tweeting from a pretty cool revolving bar in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Tonight’s #shehechat topics

1) Twitter and nonprofits

2) The iPhone 4S: Is it worth the upgrade or changeover?

3) Using Twitter when you travel

If you’ve been following Jim and me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a flurry of activity in our timelines promoting a few speaking engagements we’ve accepted. Two of them are on consecutive evenings later this month and both are benefiting some great Milwaukee area causes.

In his post yesterday, Jim mentioned that on Oct. 27 we’ll be at Ivy in downtown Milwaukee and proceeds will go to the local affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The next night, we’ll land at AJ Bombers for an event benefiting the Wisconsin Humane Society, which recently had an outbreak of canine distemper in its facility.

A single tweet can set things in motion

Over the last two weeks, I saw a couple of stories about how there was a canine distemper outbreak at the local Wisconsin Humane Society. If you didn’t know, I’m an avid animal lover and these types of stories just break my heart; especially sine I adopted my own puppy (pictured) from WHS.

When the story broke about 25 dogs dying of distemper and another 70 being quarantined at WHS, I tweeted it out immediately. Two of my followers, @ACommonDisaster and @LaackeMatt, quickly started exchanging tweets with me about the sad situation. Before I knew it, we had agreed to meet for lunch at AJ Bombers the very next day and pool together some toy donations for the dogs in quarantine.

Tweeting your intentions

As we planned this meetup, we tweeted several times to WHS and AJ Bombers about our intended donations. Both the humane society and the restaurant answered back and, in turn, promoted what we were doing.

By the time we arrived at AJ Bombers, one of the managers had saved spots for us at the bar despite the busy lunch hour and came over immediately to ask if we’d be interested in helping out WHS by putting on a benefit at the restaurant. How can you say no to that? I texted Jim and made sure his schedule was open and before I left the restaurant, the event was scheduled. I put up the invites for the event that very evening.

What I learned (yet again)

Twitter isn’t a toy. It can be used as a powerful tool to bring people together with similar interests to do great things. It’s no coincidence that my followers were the ones who got me motivated to help out. It was a thought-out plan to include both WHS and AJ Bombers in our tweets about our donations.

Would I have gone out of my way to donate toys to WHS without the combining of efforts of other tweeps? Maybe.

Would we be performing “She Said, He Said” at an event to benefit WHS at AJ Bombers on Oct. 28 without Twitter? Definitely not.

What I learned again is that Twitter can be used to benefit those who really need it. I’ve heard and been involved with other stories like this and I’m happy to give to nonprofits who really need the help whenever I can.

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Twitter and nonprofits – Jim Says

by JimRaffel on October 19, 2011

Image of purple ribbon for Pancreatic Cancer awareness

Shelby and I are on the road this week but have no fear because #shehechat will take place at its normal time at 8 p.m. CST Thursday. We’ll just be tweeting from a pretty cool revolving bar in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Recently I was asked to participate in a panel discussion about social media for nonprofits by the Grantwriters Roundtable of Greater Milwaukee. As a small business owner I was a little surprised at the request but agreed after speaking with the event organizers. Nonprofits, after all, have the same goals as a small business.

The goals

First, you want to spread the word about the work you do. You want to build a loyal following of fanatical fans. Then, you want those fans to help you bring more revenue into your enterprise so you can keep doing the good work that you do. It’s funny that when I stopped focusing solely on the profitability of my business, it became more profitable. The same is probably true of nonprofits. Stop focusing on the fundraising and focus instead on the mission. Notice, I didn’t say ignore the fundraising. That would just be silly. Instead, integrate fundraising in everything you do passively.

Social media is not for closing deals

The most important lesson I’ve learned in social media over the last few years is that you don’t sell there. Self-promote? Sure, just don’t overdo it. Figure out where your donors are online and go there. Participate in the forums they do and engage with them. Answer questions, ask questions and be part of the conversation. Don’t – and I stress this – don’t ask them for money there, at least not directly.

Raising nonprofit donations with social media

You might be asking yourself, if I don’t ask them for money in social media, then why am I there? There are only so many hours in the day and I need to make sure the donation engine is always running. Well, try this: Organize an event with a local business that will benefit your charity. Write a blog post about what you will be doing. Make sure to include the basics in the post: time, date, venue and how the donations generated will be used. Then, working with your event partner, promote the blog post and the event. See how that works? The event will generate the donations but you never directly asked for a donation in the social space.

One week from today Shelby and I have an event at IVY Milwaukee that followed exactly this formula. Our nonprofit partner is the Pancreatic Cancer Network Milwaukee Affiliate. We should generate upwards of $500 for them and they never asked anyone for a single penny in the social space. On top of that, everyone gets to have a good time on a Thursday evening checking out a new local club and seeing Shelby and I perform “She Said, He Said” live.

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Twitter and trade shows – Shelby Says

October 13, 2011
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Yesterday, Jim shared the Twitter strategy he follows when he attends trade shows. The following is based on my experiences with tweeting during trade shows and other events. I have found Twitter to be my most beneficial tool when I attend events. The great thing about Twitter is that it’s immediate and it allows you [...]

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Twitter and trade shows – Jim Says

October 12, 2011
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This week for our She Said, He Said posts we tackle the topic of utilizing Twitter at a trade show. I lead off today with my take and Shelby will follow up tomorrow. Also, #shehechat is on at the normal time of 8 p.m. CST tomorrow (Thursday) following our live appearance at the Milwaukee Web414 [...]

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How I use my htc EVO for social media – Jim Says

October 6, 2011
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Be sure to join us on Twitter tonight at 8 p.m. CST for our #shehechat! Topics are listed below. Tonight’s #shehechat topics How do you use your smartphone for social media? How has the growth of social media networks changed blogging? What’s your emoticon vocabulary? How often do you use them and what do you [...]

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How I use my iPhone for social media – Shelby Says

October 5, 2011
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This is another post in our She Said, He Said blog series. Be sure to check back tomorrow to find out how Jim uses his Android HTC Evo for social media and for topics for our #shehechat, which will take place at 8 p.m. CST Thursday. To understand how I use my iPhone for social [...]

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And tonight’s #shehechat topics are…

September 29, 2011
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If you’ve been following the hashtag #9statesin5days on Twitter, you know that it’s been a long travel week for Jim and me. As I write this, we are at the airport in Phoenix getting ready to head back home. We will arrive in time to host #shehechat tonight at 8 p.m. CST, although we will [...]

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Twitter Tennis – Jim and Shelby Volley

September 28, 2011
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This is another in our series of She Said, He Said posts. The term “Twitter Tennis” is being borrowed from Michael Josefowicz during #printchat, which we participate in regularly. We love Twitter chats because they tend to focus the conversation in on a particular topic and it’s fun to watch ideas being bounced back and [...]

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Where social media has taken me – Shelby Says

September 14, 2011
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For our She Said, He Said blog posts this week, Jim and I will share our views on where social media has gotten us; both personally and professionally. Our #shehechat will return to its normal time on Thursday at 8 p.m. CST with special guest host @Einley because I will be on vacation. There are [...]

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What I’ve learned by using TwUnfollow.com – Jim Says

September 7, 2011
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This week for our She Said, He Said posts we decided to tackle use of services like Twunfollow to grow a following or curate your network. I lead off today with my take and Shelby will follow up tomorrow. Due to the kickoff of football season with a Packer’s game tomorrow, #shehechat will not take [...]

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