NRL News
Page 18
April 2009
Volume 36
Issue 4

Twitter Packs Enormous Payoff in Only 140 Characters
By NRLC Information Technology Staff

“If you haven’t really gotten into Twitter then all this energy probably seems absurd—but there’s no way you can deny that it’s building. ... Twitter already ‘breaks news’ faster than traditional media outlets on a regular basis and monitoring the ebb and flow of conversation is helping media, marketers and academics put their finger on the pulse of a significant number of people.

“The future of the internet is very exciting—and a meaningful amount of that excitement will come from smart innovation built on top of Twitter and similar platforms.”
     From “The Twitter Platform: 3 Years Old and Ready to Change the World,” by Marshall Kirkpatrick, posted March 23 on ReadWriteWeb.com

Back in December the NRLC Information Technology staff began a series of articles explaining the importance of online communication to the pro-life community. The following article discusses the online social networking “Twitter,” which is growing by leaps and bounds.

We’ll explain what Twitter is, how it is used, and specifically how it can be used by NRLC and its local pro-life chapters and organizations to keep current members informed and, especially, mobilized when needed. Of equal importance, we hope to show you how Twitter can help you gather new supporters from the online community.

So, what exactly is Twitter? Chances are if you have a MySpace, Facebook, or some other social networking account, you have “micro-blogged.” Micro-blogging is exactly what it sounds like: shorter blogs (or “postings”) that are sent out to a group of friends or other “followers.” The common denominator is that it communicates a quick thought or a brief update to a previous posting. Its potential to educate and alert quickly is enormous.

Twitter is different and of incredible use to pro-lifers. You communicate in text-message style and 140 characters is the limit per “tweet.”

As an example, the previous two sentences combined are 140 characters—tweet length. (A “tweet” is when you send a message.)

Twitter is superior to other social networking utilities in a number of important ways. Unlike others, Twitter has real-time communication capacity as explained in the opening quote.

Your tweet can actually reach out to your network by deliveries sent directly to a recipient’s chosen medium. For example, you could send your posting to someone’s cell phone, her Twitter page, Facebook, MySpace (with special third-party programming), Google’s Friends Connect, etc.

It works in the other direction as well. Say you utilize multiple social networks. By sending one tweet from your computer or cell phone, you update all of your networks. (MySpace does not have an application interface for this yet, but some individuals have created one that works okay.) Twitter is your one-stop updater!

Of course, by the time you read this, Twitter may have taken additional steps forward. It is moving that fast.

Why is Twitter helpful to you? It enables pro-lifers to share and view information across multiple social networks without each pro-lifer having to sign up individually for each network in order to view and share the distributed information.

The 140-character limitation can be misleading. You can use the tweet to send hyperlinks back to your web site. Anything you can hyperlink could be sent—YouTube, web articles, etc. This is helpful to propagate those must-share items to your pro-life community.

Sounds good, right? But some of you may be thinking that it is already difficult enough to keep up with e-mail etc., and some of you may not have Facebook or MySpace accounts. Or you may worry about the complexity of creating or following micro-blogs.

No worries. Twitter’s FAQ and homepage provide fairly simple overviews of the process. Check out the following: http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/13920 and http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries 

On these pages, the support staff at Twitter walks you through the process of creating a Twitter account and signing up to follow other Twitter accounts and answers some of the most frequently asked questions about Twitter.

And, unlike e-mail, with Twitter you can choose whom you receive tweets from. So you are not inundated with thousands of undesired communications.

Finally, let me explain how Twitter, which costs virtually nothing, can be of great use to your group.

The simple, undeniable truth is that social networking has become a preferred communication strategy for many businesses, non-profits, and political campaigns. (See the article in the December NRL News that discussed Obama’s ingenious Internet campaign strategy.)

Nielsen Online released statistics showing that Twitter is the fastest-growing social network site. The number of visits grew five times as fast as number two Facebook.

New statistics from Pew Internet suggest that 20% of 25- to 34-year-olds have used Twitter, along with 19% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Cumulatively, 11% of the total U.S. adult population has used the micro-blogging Twitter service. And the number of Twitter users continues to increase at an incredible pace. An added benefit is that analysis suggests that the Twitter audience is comprised of educated, politically motivated individuals.

National Right to Life was quick to realize the potential advantages of Twitter. Every day, important updates from the NRLC staff are posted on the NRLC Twitter account. Hundreds of followers have signed up to receive tweets from the NRLC Twitter page at http://twitter.com/nrlc  

In addition, many other non-profits have created Twitter accounts and many have detailed their experiences online. Twitter has proven successful in helping non-profits communicate important messages and gather support in a quick and efficient manner.

In sum, Twitter is a social networking device that is growing exponentially. It has a core group of users that can be targeted by the pro-life movement to increase our numbers, as well as being used to simply keep our current members informed and mobilized.

It is fairly simple to create a Twitter account. As you use Twitter more, there are more complex tools that you can take advantage of. So, check Twitter out.

Even if you think you’re not ready to send out your own tweets, sign up to receive NRLC tweets for the latest pro-life information at http://twitter.com/nrlc