On Friday 7 November, Twitter UK hosted ‘Twitter for Good’ at their London offices.
There was an initial presentation aimed at a broad group, presumably ranging from people who don’t use twitter through to charities making heavy use of the platform. This meant that there was a good range of material explaining and selling the platform as a whole. There were also some good statistics on the behaviour (and, implicitly, value) of twitter users to charities:
Propensity of twitter users to give
96% of UK twitter users have donated to charity this year. 50% follow charities. Of these, 53% have donated after a tweet #twitterforgood
— Martin Lugton (@martinlugton) November 7, 2014
32% of UK twitter charity followers report an interest in fundraising content #twitterforgood
— Martin Lugton (@martinlugton) November 7, 2014
Taken together, these figures suggest that the interest in fundraising content is higher if the ask or content is right.
Importance of mobile
For anyone making the case for a responsive website, there was a great stat on mobile use of twitter:
80% of twitter users access twitter on mobile. Good mobile user experience essential for any charity campaign #twitterforgood
— Martin Lugton (@martinlugton) November 7, 2014
Twitter cards
Twitter cards can be used for signups too:
Twitter cards – Eg images, video, sound, lead generation. Can include sign ups for further contact #twitterforgood cc @Sedom19
— Martin Lugton (@martinlugton) November 7, 2014
We’re currently thinking about Data Protection, so I wonder how easy it would be to integrate twitter cards into our overall data capture setup.
This event signals the intent of twitter to deepen engagement with charities
Twitter’s interest is to deepen an extend use of its platform – and, implicitly, to monetise this use. To my surprise, adverts weren’t mentioned at all. I guess growing an engaged user base is the key challenge; advertising comes second.
I’m looking forward to what may happen next. Could twitter operate as a hub for charities sharing best practice, and for condensing and disseminating these practices back to the twitter-using charity community? There’s clear mutual benefit there. Hopefully we’ll see some developments in the new year.